General

Councillor Upton declared that as a member and trustee of the Oxford Preservation Trust she had taken no part in that organisation’s discussions regarding any of the applications before the Committee.  Councillor Upton said that she was approaching the applications with an open mind, would listen to all the arguments and weigh up all the relevant facts before coming to a decision on them.

23/02092/FUL

Councillor Railton declared that she was a member of Littlemore Parish Council, which had commented on the application, and had attended a meeting arranged for the Parish Council in October 2022 to outline the proposal.  Councillor Railton declared that she had not participated in any discussions at the Parish Council relating to the comments submitted on the application, was approaching the application with an open mind, and would listen to all the arguments and weigh up all the relevant facts before coming to a decision on it.

23/00693/FUL and 23/00694/LBC

Councillor Hollingsworth declared that as a ward councillor for the area he had, before the applications were submitted, spoken to a number of residents at their request and advised them on the process for commenting on the planning application.  Councillor Hollingsworth declared that he had formed no judgement or expressed any opinion on the proposal and would listen to all the arguments and weigh up all the relevant facts before coming to a decision on them.

Councillor Chapman declared that he had visited an acquaintance who lived in St John’s Street and had viewed the application site but had not discussed the application with them.  Councillor Chapman declared that he had formed no judgement on the proposal and would listen to all the arguments and weigh up all the relevant facts before coming to a decision on them.

Councillor Clarkson declared that she was a graduate of St John’s College, which was the applicant, although she had not had any contact with the College regarding the proposals.  Councillor Clarkson also declared that she was a member of the congregation at Blackfriars Priory, which had objected to the application.  As this gave rise to a potential public perception of pre-determination, Councillor Clarkson declared that she would leave the meeting room whilst the applications were considered and would not participate in determining them.

Councillor Clarkson left the room and Councillor Hollingsworth took the chair.

(Note: as they related to the same site, applications 23/00693/FUL and 23/00694/LBC were considered together).

The Committee considered applications (23/00693/FUL and 23/00694/LBC) for the demolition of nos. 6-25 Pusey Lane and erection of a 2-3 storey terraced building to provide new student accommodation; demolition of rear outrigger extensions to nos. 20 and 21 St John Street; erection of single storey common room building to the rear of nos. 20 and 21 St John Street; and re-landscaping of the existing amenity areas to the rear of nos. 7-11 and 19-21 St John Street, including demolition/alteration of rear plot boundary walls.

The Planning Officers gave a presentation and highlighted the following:

·       The application site encompassed a series of 1970s mews buildings fronting Pusey Lane containing 22 garages on the ground floor and 9 self-contained flats on the upper floors for graduate students of St John’s College; a disused early C20 building on the corner of Pusey Lane and Pusey Street known as The Lighting Store; and the rear gardens of 7-11 and 19-21 St John’s Street, all of which were owned by St John’s College.

·       The proposal included demolition of The Lighting Store and the mews buildings replacing them with a linear, terraced development consisting of 5 individual houses and 8 self-contained flats which would provide purpose-built accommodation for 33 students.  The outer edges of the terrace would be two storeys with rooms in the pitched roof, and the central section was of lower height to correspond with the properties on the rear of St John Street which were privately owned and residential.  The height of the development would be the same as the highest point of the existing mews buildings in this location.

·       The proposal also included demolition of the rear outriggers at 20-21 St John Street, to be replaced with a single storey glass and brick extension.  The outrigger adjacent to 18 St John’s Street would be retained. 

·       The building had been articulated and the windows varied to correspond with the buildings opposite and optimise the use of light, in order to provide good quality accommodation for the graduate students.

·       The development included a high quality landscape scheme in the rear gardens of the St John’s Street houses involving the removal of a large number of poor quality trees and replacement with new species which would replace the canopy cover over 25 years.  There would be no harm to the public amenity as a result of the tree removals.  The houses and flats would have direct access for students into the shared courtyard gardens, offering significantly improved amenity space for residents.  The landscape design included rain gardens, sustainable drainage and enhanced greening of Pusey Lane, as well as relaying of the cobblestones to the front on Pusey Lane.

·       Officers were of the view that the development would result in a high quality, highly sustainable design which would be of an appropriate scale, height and massing to its surroundings  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

(Note: this application was considered together with application 23/00693/FUL above).

On being proposed, seconded and put to the vote, the Committee agreed with the officer’s recommendation to approve the application for listed building consent for the reasons given in the report and subject to the required listed buildings conditions set out in the report.

The Oxford City Planning Committee resolved to:

1.              approve the application for the reasons given in the report subject to the required listed building conditions set out in section 12 of the report and grant listed building consent; and

2.               delegate authority to the Head of Planning and Regulatory Services to:

·         finalise the recommended conditions as set out in the report including such refinements, amendments, additions and/or deletions as the Head of Planning and Regulatory Services considers reasonably necessary.

Councillor Clarkson re-joined the meeting and took the chair.

The Committee considered an application (23/01592/RES) for reserved maters approval of scale, layout, landscaping, and appearance for a multi-storey split decked car park including immediate landscaping at Land Bounded by A34 and A44 and A40, Parcel 1, Woodstock Road, Oxford.

The Planning Officer gave a presentation and highted the following:

·        A correction was required to section 6.1 of the report which referred to 3 parking spaces outside of the car park to the north-east.  In fact, these were not car parking spaces but was instead an area for the storage of compost materials.  This did not affect the overall number of spaces, which remained at 1120.

·        The application was for a multi-storey car park of five storeys located on the western edge of the site, adjoining the A34 and Plots B and C.  It was a split-level, steel framed structure with concrete stair cores which would be accessed by the secondary road, which had reserved matters approval.  It would be a system-built, component-based structure of relatively simple design.  In response to comments from Thames Valley Police, the plans had been amended to incorporate steel mesh on all levels from floor to ceiling.

·        There would be pedestrian footpaths on either side of the road, with entrances on both sides of the building and via two stair cores and a main entrance off the secondary street.  The was a pedestrian access route to the north of Plot C linking the car park with the central section of the Oxford North site.

·        Parking would be provided for 1120 cars, which would equate to c70,000sqm of employment space applying the ratio of one space per 62.5 sqm of employment space (which was the maximum parking standard outlined in the section 106 agreement accompanying the hybrid planning permission).  There would also be 40 motorcycle parking spaces and 7 parking spaces for estate management vehicles.  The car park would serve two of the employment buildings approved under Phase 1a of the development, the Red Hall, and the three buildings approved under Phase 2 (Plots A, B and C).

·        Presently there was 60,200sqm of employment space benefitting from planning permission, which would equate to a maximum of 963 parking spaces which may be allocated for the consented plots.  This left some remaining capacity within the car park for potential hotel use (one of the next potential proposed uses on the site) or another employment plot.

·        As delivery of the employment plots on the site would be phased, it was important that provision and availability of parking within the car park was also phased in order to avoid early over-provision of parking.  This would need to be set out in the Car Park Management Plan, which was required by Condition 3.

·        Small areas of landscaping surrounding the car park along the western boundary would provide some screening of the lower sections of the car park form the A34 whilst making a small contribution to biodiversity net gain.  Visibility of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 46.

The Committee considered an application (23/02092/FUL) for partial demolition of, and alterations to, Littlemore House; erection of 1no. research and development building (Use Class E) at Littlemore House with ancillary accommodation, clinic, educational floorspace and restaurant, new access arrangements, parking, landscaping, engineering and ground modelling works.

The Planning Officer gave a presentation and highlighted the following:

·        The scheme for Littlemore House and Plot 18 of the Oxford Science Park with an elevated walkway joining the two buildings for research and development use had been approved by the committee in April 2023 subject to conditions, completion of a S106 legal agreement and the resolution of any objections from the Environment Agency (EA) which had not commented at the date of the planning committee meeting.  Shortly after the April 2023 committee meeting the EA objected on biodiversity grounds in relation to Plot 18 of the Oxford Science Park and this had required a period of delay in order to address its concerns.    During the process of resolving the EA’s concerns the applicant had decided to submit a standalone application for Littlemore House, which was not subject to the EA’s comments, in order that meaningful work could be started in the event of a further protracted delay with the ‘main application’.  The EA removed its objections and recommended conditions on 3 November 2023, and the Section 106 legal agreement for the application was currently being negotiated.  This current application therefore now formed a ‘fallback’ position for the applicants should the ‘main application’ fall through for any reason.

·        The only difference between the application which had been considered in April and the application which was now before the Committee was the addition of roof-mounted solar panels in order to ensure that the standalone application adhered to the requirements of Policy RE1.

Guy Wakefield (agent) spoke in favour of the application.

The Committee asked questions about the report which were responded to by the officers.  As noted at the April committee meeting, a Committee Member expressed regret that the application had not been sympathetic to the avenue of lime trees which would be lost as part of the proposal.

On being proposed, seconded and put to the vote the Committee agreed with the officer’s recommendation to approve the planning application for the reasons set out in the report and subject to the conditions and the planning obligations set out in the report.

The Oxford City Planning Committee resolved to:

1.       approve the application for the reasons given in the report subject to the required planning conditions set out in section 12 of the report and grant planning permission; subject to:

·       the satisfactory completion of a legal agreement under section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and other enabling powers to secure the planning obligations set out in the recommended heads of terms which were set out in the report; and

2.      delegate authority to the Head of Planning and Regulatory Services to:

·        finalise the recommended conditions as set out in the report  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47.

The Committee considered a report (23/02006/FUL) for change of use from dwellinghouse (Use Class C3) to House in Multiple Occupation (Use Class C4) and provision of bin and bike stores at 43 Dodgson Road, Oxford.

The Planning Officer gave a presentation and highlighted the following:

·        Since publication of the report, Oxfordshire County Council as Highways Authority had provided comments on the application and had raised no objection.

·        The application sought planning permission for the change of use from a residential dwelling to a small House in Multiple Occupation and also the provision of bin and cycle storage.  The application was before the committee as the applicant was an Oxford City Councillor.

·        With regard to HMO density, the proposal would not result in an over-saturation of HMOs within the area and would therefore maintain a balanced community and comply with Local Plan policies.

·        During the course of the application amended plans were received to address officers’ concerns with regard to the size of the originally proposed kitchen, which did not comply with space standards.  The amended plans show an open plan kitchen diner and living room.  All of the rooms would now comply with the HMO space standards with the exception of the study on the first floor: however, the restriction of this room for bedroom purposes would be controlled further under the HMO licensing regime.

·        The area of garden space was more than adequate for the needs of future occupiers; the existing car parking area would be retained; and whilst the site did qualify to be car-free, given that the existing car parking arrangement was not changing and there would be no net increase in parking on the site, the proposal was considered to comply with Policy M3.

·        The proposal would be served by bike and bin stores, to be located to the front of the property.  Both the bike and bin store were considered to be acceptable and comply with the Local Plan policies.  The application was therefore recommended for approval, subject to the conditions shown in the report.

The Committee asked questions about the details of the report which were responded to by officers.  

On being proposed, seconded and put to the vote the Committee agreed with the officer’s recommendation to approve the application for the reasons set out in the report and subject to the required planning conditions set out in the report.

The Oxford City Planning Committee resolved to:

1.    approve the application for the reasons given in the report and subject to the required planning conditions set out in section 12 of the report and grant planning permission; and

2.    delegate authority to the Head of Planning and Regulatory Services to:

·       finalise the recommended conditions as set out in the report including such refinements, amendments, additions and/or deletions as the Head of Planning and Regulatory Services considers reasonably necessary.

Recommendation: to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 17 October 2023 as a true and accurate record.

The Committee resolved to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 17 October 2023 as a true and accurate record.

Items currently expected to be considered by the committee at future meetings are listed for information. This is not a definitive list and applications may be added or removed at any point. These are not for discussion at this meeting.

The Committee noted the list of forthcoming applications.

Future meetings of the Committee are scheduled at 6.00pm on:

12 December 2023

23 January 2024

20 February 2024

19 March 2024

23 April 2024

The Committee noted the dates of future meetings.