Erection of a Class A1 retail food store with associated car parking, access, landscaping and associated engineering works. Additional ecological information (reptile survey report) received 28 September 2018. Additional information and amended plans received 5 November 2018, 7 March 2019 and 31 July 2019.
Minutes:
The committee considered application P18/V2300/FUL for the erection of a Class A1 retail food store with associated car parking, access, landscaping and associated engineering works. Additional ecological information (reptile survey report) received 28 September 2018. Additional information and amended plans received 5 November 2018, 7 March 2019 and 31 July 2019, on land at Grove Road, Grove.
Consultations, representations, policy and guidance, and the site’s planning history were detailed in the officer’s report, which formed part of the agenda pack for the meeting.
The planning officer reported that since the publication of the agenda, 3 further letters of support had been received. The issues raised were the need for another supermarket in Wantage and Grove to support the increasing population, the visual and physical separation of Wantage and Grove had already been lost elsewhere and a new store would prevent people travelling further afield, and therefore reducing their carbon footprint. The planning officer advised that these issues have already been covered in the officer’s report.
June Stock, a representative of Grove Parish Council, spoke in support of the application.
John Tranter of Cycling UK, Wantage, spoke objecting to the application.
Nick Hardy, the agent, spoke in support of the application.
Jenny Hannaby, a local ward councillor, spoke objecting to the application.
The committee noted in the report that there were 38 letters of objection, 19 letters of support, with a petition of 101 signatures in support. The majority of objections related to highways matters. The committee noted that the Oxfordshire County Council, as highways authority, had no objection to the present proposals. The development manager advised in respect of a supporting petition; the committee could decide what weight they would attach to its importance and that the committee was not bound by its result, as a petition was not a material consideration.
The committee considered that the development would harm the vitality and viability of the Grovelands centre, an identified local shopping centre in the local plan. They were also concerned that the proposal did not protect the existing landscape and did not respect the physical separation between the settlements of Wantage and Grove. It was also contrary to Local Plan and National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) polices.
A motion moved and seconded, to refuse planning permission for the application was declared carried on being put to the vote.
RESOLVED: that planning permission for application P18/V2300/FUL is refused for the following reasons;
1. Based on the information submitted with the application the Local Planning Authority consider that the proposal would harm the vitality and viability of the Grovelands centre, Grove, an identified local shopping centre in the local plan. The application also fails to guard against the potential and unnecessary loss of the Post Office, a community facility, as a result of the proposed development. As such the application is contrary to Core Policy 32 of the adopted Local Plan 2031 Part 1 and to paragraphs 89, 90 and 92 of the National Planning Policy Framework.
3. In the absence of a completed S106 legal agreement, the proposal fails to secure infrastructure necessary to meet the needs of the district (namely the provision of public art, biodiversity offsetting and associated monitoring fee) and the county (namely enhancements to bus services, public transport infrastructure and travel plan monitoring). As such the development is contrary to Core Policy 7 of the Local Plan 2031 Part 1 and to the National Planning Policy Framework.
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