Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and / or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests.

There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED that

The Minutes of the Planning Committee meeting held on 15^th September 2021 be approved as a true record and signed by the Chair.

To note Update Reports (if any) for the Planning Applications to be considered at the meeting (circulated prior to the commencement of the meeting)

There was no update report.

Change of use of land from open grassland to cemetery including burial of non-cremated and cremated remains.  New vehicular access to Ipsley Church Lane

Members considered the application for change of use.

In presenting the report officers pointed out a typographical error on page 32 of the agenda.  Officers also updated Members that 3 additional objections had been recorded since the report had been written, bringing the total to 837.

No additional points not already covered in the summary of objections on page 24 of the agenda had been made.

Officers took the Members through the plans and photographs in the Site Plans and Presentations Pack and outlined the layout and setting of the site and it’s designation as primarily open space under the Local Plan and the location and detail of the proposed access. 

Members were referred to the indicative landscape plan showing how the site might be developed.  It was noted that the only decision was the principle of change of use and the plans for the creation of the access; the full details to develop the site as a cemetery had not been submitted at this stage and would have to be covered in a separate detailed planning application in the future.

Members were referred to the applicant’s statement of intent as summarised on pages 10 to 12 of the agenda.

In terms of the principle of development, officers had assessed the application against policy 45 of the Borough of Redditch Local Plan no.4 dealing with future provision of cemetery land.  The application had been found to meet criteria (i) to (vii) of policy 45 as summarised in the officer comments on pages 26 to 27 of the agenda.

Officers commented that the application had also been found to be compliant with Policy 12 regarding Open Space Provision.  With regard to Policy 13, (Primarily Open Space) Members were referred to the 10 different typologies set out on page 28 of the agenda.  It was noted that were the proposed change of use to be granted, the land would continue to fall under one of the prescribed 10 classes, changing from “Parks” to “Churchyard /Cemeteries /Crematoria”.  As such it would continue to be function as an area of publicly accessible open space of public value, and the change of use was therefore assessed as acceptable under Policy 13.

County Highways had assessed the creation of the proposed access and found this to be acceptable subject only to the collection of a financial contribution towards the extension of the existing double yellow lines on Ipsley Church Lane.

In relation to ecological issues, Members were advised that the Local Planning Authority’s own independent Ecological Adviser (Red Kite) had reviewed the ecological appraisal submitted on behalf of the applicant by Wharton (Wharton Natural Infrastructure Consultants Ltd). It was noted that the applicant had put forward detailed plans to mitigate any impact on existing habitats and following full consideration of these measures no objections were being raised on environmental grounds.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.