Councillors Hollingsworth and Upton left the meeting and did not participate in determining the application.

The Committee considered a hybrid application (23/00405/OUTFUL) for the redevelopment of Blackbird Leys District Centre and Land off Knights Road, Oxford.  Full planning permission was sought for the erection of up to 210 apartments and up to 1300sqm of retail and commercial space (Use Classes E and Sui Generis) across four buildings on Blackbird Leys Road and the erection of up to 84 dwellinghouses at Knights Road, all with associated demolition of existing buildings and the provision of vehicular accesses, highway improvements, public open space and associated necessary infrastructure.  Outline planning permission was sought for the provision of a community centre and public open space surrounding the community centre (Use Classes F2 and E) and block A (community square and green) in the District Centre with all matters reserved except for the principal means of access.

The Planning Officer presented the report and provided the following updates:

·        Since the publication of the report an additional public comment had been received which had raised concerns about the impacts of the proposal on biodiversity and ecology, specifically: badgers; a lack of representation within the statement of community involvement; and the impact of imposing a Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) within the area;

·        An additional consultee response had been received from the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board which requested a financial contribution of £85,000 to facilitate the conversion of a non-clinical room to a clinical room at Donnington Surgery.  This would mitigate the impacts of the increased population and demand for health services arising from the proposed development.  This contribution would be sought as part of the s106 legal agreement;

·        A contribution of £116,663 towards Special School education capacity serving the development and a contribution of £27,624 towards the expansion and efficiency of Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRC) would also be secured through the s106 agreement;

·        A further representation had been received from the Oxfordshire Badger Group which had reiterated their strong objection.  Their concerns were principally that: they did not consider that the impact on biodiversity and habitats had been thoroughly assessed; the scheme had not been modified at an early stage to save  badger setts (circular 06/2005); the 26% loss of biodiversity was not acceptable; the mitigation measures were not robust enough or based on suitable methodology; there should be a 50m buffer to Northfield Brook; and development on the Knights Road site was opposed generally as it is a greenfield space.  These issues had been covered in more detail in section E (para 10.243) of the committee report.

·        Officers also wished to clarify that: the ward on page 1 should be shown as Northfield Brook Ward and Blackbird Leys Ward; the application was liable for the listed CIL contribution outlined at paragraph 4.1, however it should be noted that there was provision within the legislation for exemptions to be sought on qualifying developments; paragraph 10.116 stated that Block C would be ‘up to 5 floors’ which should read as ‘4 storeys’; at paragraph 10.279 ‘Thames Valley Policy’ should read ‘Thames Valley Police’; for clarity it was proposed that the existing match day CPZ would be extended to include the Knights Road site (Paragraph 10.287).  This would be secured by condition 56.

Officers considered that the proposed development would respond appropriately to the site context, local plan policies and the site allocation policies SP4 and SP15.  It would provide significant highway and public realm improvements; community and commercial uses as well as a significant number of affordable homes.  The departures from the Development Plan were considered to be justified in this instance.  There would be enhanced pedestrian connectivity, improvements to highway transport through financial contributions and no harm to the highway network as a result of the traffic generation.  The development, taken across the combined sites, would result in a net gain in tree canopy cover through new and retained soft landscaping.  There would be no harm to any identified protected species, and subject to 3.515 habitat units being delivered off-site the proposal would achieve a biodiversity net gain of 5%.  The development would be of sustainable design and construction, achieving a 64% reduction in carbon emissions when set against 2021 Part L Regulations and was on track to achieve a BREEAM excellent rating.  For these reasons, and the reasons set out in the report the application was therefore recommended for approval, subject to conditions and the relevant legal agreements.

Neil Homer, on behalf of Blackbird Leys Parish Council, spoke against the application.

David Foster (applicant), Sophie Thomas-Lacroix (architect) and Carolyn Ploszynski (Oxford City Council) spoke in favour of the application.

The Committee asked questions about the details of the report, which were responded to by officers and the public speakers.  The Committee’s discussions included, but were not limited to:

·        The proposal involved a reduction in community centre space compared to the existing provision, despite an increase in residents.  However, officers responded that the existing community centre building was very inefficient in terms of the amount of circulation space it provided.  There was potential with the new centre to work more smartly with the building and create a more efficient floor plan which would give an improved quality of space despite a reduction in footprint.  The community centre would be coming forward as part of reserved matters, and so consideration would be given to making sure that it met the needs of the community as part of that process.  There was also a minimum amount of floor space of 1200sqm which was conditioned;

·        The number of car club spaces was considered by officers to be acceptable for the scheme;

·        The reason for the financial contribution requested by the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board being made to Donnington Surgery (rather than the closer Leys Surgery) was that the NHS had advised that improvements to The Leys Surgery would be extremely costly.  The provision of an additional room at Donnington Surgery, which would the enable patient need to be distributed accordingly across the site, had therefore been suggested by the NHS as an acceptable solution;

·        A condition was to be included which would require that a Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) was established for the Knights Road site.  This would involve extending the existing match day CPZ restrictions to Knights Road.  The Highways Authority had not raised any objection, and the transport assessment indicated that there was adequate capacity on street to accommodate for additional parking;

·        It was noted that the bin store at Block D was external, and it was suggested that, if not already included, a condition should be included to ensure that access to it was secure and it was not open to misuse;

·        The biodiversity net gain assessment showed that there would be a reduction in habitat units but a gain in hedgerow units.  A financial contribution would be used to offset the loss of habitat units via the purchase of units from the Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment.

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, subject to the conditions set out in the report; an additional condition relating to the security of the bin store at Block D, and a legal agreement to secure 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 and subject to the required planning conditions set out in section 12 of the report and an additional condition relating to the security of the bin store at Block D 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 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 Services considers reasonably necessary; and

·      finalise the recommended legal agreement under section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and other enabling powers as set out in this report, including refining, adding to, amending and/or deleting the obligations detailed in the heads of terms set out in this report (including to dovetail with and where appropriate, reinforce the final conditions and informatives to be attached to the planning permission) as the Head of Planning Services considers reasonably necessary; and

·      complete the section 106 legal agreement referred to above and issue the planning permission.