Agenda item

Outline planning application for the demolition of the existing dwelling and erection of 8 dwellings with matters of access, layout and scale for consideration.

The committee considered outline application P16/S2861/O for the demolition of the existing dwelling and erection of eight dwellings at Mount Ida, Reading Road, Lower Shiplake; with matters of access, layout and scale for consideration.

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 this meeting.

Tudor Taylor, a representative of Shiplake Parish Council, spoke objecting to the application. 

Duncan Crook, the applicant, spoke in support of the application.

Will Hall, one of the local ward councillors, spoke objecting to the application. 

In response to questions raised by the committee, the officers reported that this application site would remain within the boundary of the Henley and Harpsden neighbourhood plan, not the Shiplake neighbourhood plan.

Although the applicant had referred to offering two two-bedroom properties at 20% below market rate as a form of affordable housing, members were not satisfied that this would be affordable taking into account the character and size of properties in the area.

Some committee members were satisfied that the application met planning policy guidelines and that the principle of developing the site was sound.

However, the majority were not satisfied with the housing mix recognising that it did not accord with the SHMA figures set out in the report and that it did not help to address a need for smaller properties for young people and downsizers in an area of large properties.

Most members were of the opinion that the development of the site would conflict with Policy H1 of the JHHNP which does not include this an allocated site based on sustainability criteria. They also indicated the application was contrary to H4 of JHHNP on the basis it was not sufficiently sustainable to be an acceptable infill site, having poor links to both Henley and Shiplake.

Officers advised that they considered the proposal to be acceptable as a redevelopment and in that way they did not consider it to conflict with either the JHHNP or the Core Strategy.

Members were also concerned about highway and pedestrian safety arrangements, however officers reminded committee that no objections had been received from Oxfordshire County Council as highway authority, which would make any such refusal reason difficult to support should the application be subject to an appeal.

A motion, moved and seconded, to refuse the application was declared carried on being put to the vote.

RESOLVED: to refuse outline planning permission for application P16/S2861/O for the following reasons:

1.    The application site has not been allocated for development under Policy H1 of the Joint Henley and Harpsden Neighbourhood Plan. The proposed development would be in conflict with the Council's Housing Strategy, as it would not constitute a sustainable form of windfall development within Henley and Harpsden. This would be as a result of the number of dwellings proposed, the site area and the site's location on the edge of Shiplake with poor connections to the village centre and public transport. As such, the proposal would be contrary to Policies CS1, CSS1, CSR1 of the South Oxfordshire Core Strategy, Policies G2 and T1 of the South Oxfordshire Local Plan 2011 and Policies H1 and H4 of the Joint Henley and Harpsden Neighbourhood Plan.

2.    The proposed development would fail to achieve an appropriate mix of housing to meet the identified market housing need set out in the most recent Strategic Housing Market Assessment and, having regard to the size and type of units proposed, the scheme would further exacerbate the current imbalance in the local housing market contrary to Policy CSH4 of the South Oxfordshire Core Strategy and the NPPF.