Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence received.

Apologies were received from Councillors Lulu Bowerman, Mike Ford, Gary Hughes, Mark Cooper and Adam Jackman. Councillors Hugh Lumby and Wayne Irish attended as deputies.

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 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 Personal Interest in a matter being considered at the meeting should consider, having regard to Part 5, Paragraph 4 of the Code, whether such interest should be declared, and having regard to Part 5, Paragraph 5 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 deputations notified under Standing Order 12.

The Committee had received two deputations for the meeting on item 6 and it was confirmed that they would have up to 10minutes each to speak.

To receive any announcements the Chairman may wish to make.

There were no formal Chairman’s announcements.

To consider a report from the Assistant Director of Waste, Planning and Environment regarding construction of a new replacement bus station on land adjacent to Falklands Gardens at Mumby Road, Gosport together with a replacement taxi rank and ancillary facilities including short stay car parking and pick-up and set down facilities on land at the existing Gosport bus station and adjacent to The Esplanade.

Construction of a new replacement bus station on land adjacent to Falklands Gardens at Mumby Road, Gosport together with a replacement taxi rank and ancillary facilities including short stay car parking and pick-up and set down facilities on land at the existing Gosport bus station and adjacent to The Esplanade

Councillor Stephen Philpott declared a personal interest in this item as a local Gosport Councillor and confirmed that he would not be voting on the application.

The Committee considered a report from the Assistant Director of Waste, Planning and Environment (item 6 in the minute book) regarding an application for a replacement bus station in Gosport.

The officer introduced the item, confirming that there had been no objections from statutory consultees. The Committee was shown a location plan of the area and road network, as well as elevations of the proposed bus shelter.

The Committee received two deputations on this item. Kathy Azopardi and Paul Martin spoke against the application on behalf of Cycle Gosport. They shared concerns about the safety of cyclists with the new layout and the lack of landing/launching points and proposed how this could be improved. Graham Wright spoke on behalf of the applicant and reassured that the proposals would be monitored if approved. The layout had been considered and developed alongside Gosport Borough Council and First Bus and there were some aspects of proposed improvement that fell outside of the application area that could be considered separately if necessary.

During questions of the deputations, the following points were clarified:

·         The concerns raised regarding Mumby Road were not part of the application, but the access points were

·         There was no recent information on usage by cyclists

·         Cycle Gosport did respond as part of the public consultation process

·         The size of the bus station was felt suitable and had been agreed with First Bus

Members debated the application and agreed that the improvements were necessary whilst accepting that there could perhaps be more joined-up working to accommodate the needs of cyclists. It was also acknowledged that some improvements fell outside of the scope of the proposals and would be investigated in future feasibility studies.

It was agreed that a condition around monitoring the safety of cyclists and enforcing the importance of the living roof would be beneficial and could be delegated to the officers to negotiate.

RESOLVED

Planning permission was GRANTED subject to:

a)    The recommended conditions set out in Appendix A

b)    An amendment to Condition 4 to make the living roof compulsory

c)    An additional Condition to monitor the safety of cyclists once the scheme had been completed

Voting
Favour: 12

Abstentions: 1