Agenda item
Raine House, 16 Raine Street, London, E1W 3RL (PA/19/00297)
Minutes:
An update report was tabled.
The Development Manager then introduce the report which concerned listed building consent for proposed internal works at a Raine House, 16 Raine Street, E1W 3RL. He advised Members that, under the council's Constitution, consent for works to listed buildings was a matter reserved to Committee.
Members noted that there had been no registrations to speak against the application and therefore, under Development procedures, the application was considered on the basis of the report and the Planning Case Officer’s presentation.
The Committee received a presentation from the Planning Case Officer. She advised Members that:
· The purpose of the application was to redesign the interior of the premises and bring it into compliance with current health and safety standards in order to permit its use as a Community Hub.
· A previous application in June 2018 had been refused. Later an application for external works in December 2018 had been approved.
· Planning consultation had been undertaken; 299 letters were sent and site notices posted. No representations were received.
· No concerns had been raised by Historic England around the design.
Responding to Members’ questions the Planning Case Officer provided the following information:
- Concerning consultation with community groups that had previously used the premises, the Committee heard that the Pollyanna Theatre and other community groups that use the premises had been consulted on the design.
- Concerning how the location of the elements in the main hall would enable better usage of the premises and whether other community groups would be able to hire the bar, Members were informed that there was no application around usage of the bar.Therefore Members were permitted only to determine the application on the basis of the alterations to the listed building as specified in the report At present, the premises could not be used for licensable activities except the social club which had use of the premises on a part-time basis and which held its own premises licence. However community groups could use the bar area as a cafe counter.
- Members were dissatisfied that there were, was lack of visual information in presentation and that an artist's impression of the general hall area had not been provided. The Committee asked what reassurances there would be that the design proposed was sympathetic to the historicity of the premises.
- Members were informed that the application had been consulted upon with the council's Conservation and Design Officer who deemed that a thorough analysis of each element to be removed or altered had been given and that changes within the building had been designed with a light touch which allowed the surviving elements of significance to be better revealed.
The Committee received advice from the Legal Officer who referenced paragraphs 8.2 and 8.9 of the report. These highlighted that "Where a development proposal leads to less than substantial harm to the significance of a designated heritage asset, this harm should be weighed against the public benefits of the proposal including, where appropriate, securing its optimum viable use". And additionally that officers considered "that this proposal is not considered to cause harm to the historic fabric of the Grade II* listed building, but that the public benefits of the scheme were numerous and outweighed any perceived harm".
Following discussion Members proceeded to consider the officer recommendation. The Chair proposed and, on an unanimous vote in favour, the Committee
RESOLVED
That listed building consent be GRANTED for proposed internal works, including the removal of partitions within the central spaces, returning them to their original scale and proportion. Updating the services and circulation to meet modern standards of use and accessibility at Raine House, 16 Raine Street, E1W 3RL, subject to the conditions and the informatives set out in the Committee report.
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