Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence received.

Apologies were received from Councillors Dibbs and House.

All Members who believe they have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting must declare that interest and, having regard to the circumstances described in Part 3 Paragraph 1.5 of the County Council's Members' Code of Conduct, leave the meeting while the matter is discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with Paragraph 1.6 of the Code. Furthermore all Members with a Non-Pecuniary interest in a matter being considered at the meeting should consider whether such interest should be declared, and having regard to Part 5, Paragraph 2 of the Code, consider whether it is appropriate to leave the meeting while the matter is discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with the Code.

Members were mindful that where they believed they had a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in any matter considered at the meeting they must declare that interest at the time of the relevant debate and, having regard to the circumstances described in Part 3, Paragraph 1.5 of the County Council's Members' Code of Conduct, leave the meeting while the matter was discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with Paragraph 1.6 of the Code. Furthermore Members were mindful that where they believed they had a Non-Pecuniary interest in a matter being considered at the meeting they considered whether such interest should be declared, and having regard to Part 5, Paragraph 2 of the Code, considered whether it was appropriate to leave the meeting whilst the matter was discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with the Code.

To confirm the minutes of the previous meeting

The minutes of the last meeting were reviewed and agreed

To receive any announcements the Chairman may wish to make.

The Chairman confirmed that for clarity going forward, any significant amendments proposed to Conditions or recommendations were to be discussed and confirmed in writing by an officer before being voted on. In more complicated cases, the Chairman would use discretion as to whether a vote is done in principle first, to determine whether the synopsis of the change is one Committee wish officers to develop.

Any minor amendments could remain as being tabled verbally for voting.

To receive any deputations notified under Standing Order 12.

It was confirmed that two deputations had been received for the meeting.

To consider a report of the Director of Economy, Transport and Environment regarding planning applications for extension of the extraction area of the existing sand and gravel quarry and variations to conditions concerning completion of extraction and restoration at Downton Manor Farm Quarry, Downton, Milford on Sea. Application Nos. 17/11406 and 17/11392. Site Ref: NF177.

Committee considered a report from the Head of Strategic Planning regarding two applications at Downton Manor Farm in Milford on Sea, one of which regarding an extension and the other to vary conditions.

Updates had been circulated, which were as follows:

1.    Consultation comments on the Noise Assessment:

1.1 Paragraphs 9.51-9.53  of the Regulatory Committee Report refer to the public representation ‘Lichfields

 made by Lichfield, the agent for the neighbouring Caravan park. This included a review of the Noise Assessment.

1.2Paragraph 9.52 states that the applicant made return comments about this representation. Paragraph 9.53 states that these comments and the review of the Noise Assessment were sent to the Environmental Health Officer (EHO) for comment, which had not been received at the time of writing the report.

1.3The EHO has now submitted their comments on the review,. The applicant has also submitted comments on the subject. The transcript of the responses from the EHO and the applicant have been posted for public view for both application 17/11396 and 17/11406  in a single document called ‘ Noise Assessment Review Commentary’ and can be found at thislink. This has been shared with the agent acting for the neighbouring Caravan Park.

1.4The key issues identified by the Noise Assessment Review that the EHO highlighted for further consideration in their comments are:

i)             An anomaly associated with the background data; and

ii)            A question over the integrity of the background levels.

1.5The final response from the applicant’s agent and their noise consultant identify the anomaly (i) as a clerical error and that amending the error does not result in a change to the conclusions of the report. The response goes on to explain the use of a monitoring period of a week (5 days) to create the background levels and so, in their view, a worst case scenario (for the operation) has been considered and that the background noise level used is representative of the receptor location (ii).

1.6Therefore, it is the view of the Minerals Planning Authority  that the corrected value in the noise assessment does not alter the findings or conclusions of the Noise Assessment. It therefore is not a substantive change to the document or to the Environmental Statement and so can be considered without additional public consultation. This does not therefore alter the commentary or recommendations of the Regulatory Committee Report.

1. Further public representation

Yesterday, 17.04.18, we received a further public representation from the planning agent acting on behalf of Shorefields Holiday Park, the neighbour to the site.

This continues to raise concerns regarding the noise assessment submitted as part of the application 17/11406, vibration and the amenity impacts of these on the caravan park.

• The MPA has received consultation response from NFDC EHO. This response is for no objection with conditions to control noise and dust;
• With respect to vibration, this is not considered a significant issue for the sand and gravel extraction  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.