Site Address: 244 Barns Road, Oxford

Proposal: Change of use of 244 Barns Road from office use (retention of some B1 floor space at ground floor level) to 27 x 1-bed flats, including creation of a fourth storey at roof level. Associated external alterations. Provision of bin and bicycle storage. (Amended Plans).

Recommendations: The East Area Planning Committee is recommended to:

Refuse the application for the reasons given in the report and as follows

1.     The proposal represents an unsustainable form of development that would result in the loss of a key protected employment site.   Inadequate evidence has been put forward to justify a departure being made from the development plan policies that seek to protect and safeguard these sites in order to maintain a sustainable distribution of business premises and employment land within Oxford.  As a result the proposal would be considered contrary to policy CS28 of the Oxford Core Strategy 2026.

2.     The proposed development fails to provide adequate functional and good quality indoor and outdoor amenity space for the occupants of the student accommodation contrary to the provisions of HP12 and HP13 of the Sites and Housing Plan 2011-2026.

3.     The proposed development would result in the loss of significant trees that contribute to the visual amenity of the application site and insufficient details have been submitted regarding their replacement to to mitigate their loss and impact on visual amenity in the area.  The proposal would be contrary to adopted policies CP1 and NE15 of the Oxford Local Plan 2001-2016

4.     The applicant has failed to demonstrate through the submission of a viability assessment that it is not viable to provide a minimum of 50% affordable housing as required by policy HP3 of the Sites and Housing Plan.  Further, had the above overriding reasons not applied, the Local Planning Authority would have required the applicant to enter into a Planning Obligation Agreement to secure affordable housing provision in accordance with policy HP3 of the Sites and Housing Plan 2011-2026.

The Committee considered an application to change of use of 244 Barns Road from office use (retention of some B1 floor space at ground floor level) to 27 x 1-bed flats, including creation of a fourth storey at roof level. Associated external alterations. Provision of bin and bicycle storage. (Amended Plans).

The Planning officer reported some minor changes to the report:

·                reason for refusal 2 – 3 line – the first word of that line ‘student’ should read ‘residential’,

·                at para 9.15 in the fifth line down the word ‘except’ should be inserted between ‘sites’ and ‘where’ so that it reads ‘permission will not be granted for the loss of employment on category 2 sites except where…’ and

·                at 11.1 the square brackets should be removed and the word ‘approve’ deleted.

The Planning officer presented the report.

Christopher Gasson a local resident spoke against the application.

Simon Sharp, Planning agent and Tony Nolan there to answer questions spoke for the application.

In response to questions it was confirmed that the applicant had not sought to address the needs of key workers and that the scheme had not been considered by the Oxford Design Review Panel.  Concern was expressed at the schemes failure to address the need for affordable housing.

On being proposed, seconded and put to the vote, the Committee voted to agree with the officer recommendations to refuse the application.

East Area Planning Committee resolves to:

Refuse the application for the reasons given in the report and as follows

1.     The proposal represents an unsustainable form of development that would result in the loss of a key protected employment site.   Inadequate evidence has been put forward to justify a departure being made from the development plan policies that seek to protect and safeguard these sites in order to maintain a sustainable distribution of business premises and employment land within Oxford.  As a result the proposal would be considered contrary to policy CS28 of the Oxford Core Strategy 2026.

2.     The proposed development fails to provide adequate functional and good quality indoor and outdoor amenity space for the occupants of the student accommodation contrary to the provisions of HP12 and HP13 of the Sites and Housing Plan 2011-2026.

3.     The proposed development would result in the loss of significant trees that contribute to the visual amenity of the application site and insufficient details have been submitted regarding their replacement to to mitigate their loss and impact on visual amenity in the area.  The proposal would be contrary to adopted policies CP1 and NE15 of the Oxford Local Plan 2001-2016

4.     The applicant has failed to demonstrate through the submission of a viability assessment that it is not viable to provide a minimum of 50% affordable housing as required by policy HP3 of the Sites and Housing Plan.  Further, had the above overriding reasons not applied, the Local Planning Authority would have required the applicant to enter into a Planning Obligation Agreement to secure affordable housing provision in accordance with policy HP3 of the Sites and Housing Plan 2011-2026.