Agenda item
Vic Johnson House Centre, 74 Armagh Road, London, E3 2HT (PA/15/01601)
- Meeting of Development Committee, Wednesday, 16th December, 2015 7.00 p.m. (Item 5.1)
- View the background to item 5.1
Proposal
Part demolition, part refurbishment, part new build (extension) to total 60 age restricted apartments (over 55s) sheltered housing scheme, including new communal areas (lounge, function room, hair salon and managers office), and associated landscape gardens. The proposed use remains as existing. The scheme is on part 2, part 3 and part 4 storeys.
Recommendation:
That the Committee resolve to GRANT planning permission subject to the prior completion of a legal agreement, conditions and informatives.
Minutes:
Update report tabled
Councillor Shiria Khatun (Chair) for this item.
Jerry Bell (Applications Manager, Development and Renewal) introduced the application for the part demolition, part refurbishment, part new build (extension) to total 60 age restricted apartments (over 55s) sheltered housing scheme.
At last meeting of the Committee, Members were minded to refuse this application for a number of reasons. These were:
· Loss of amenity space in view of proposed increase in units and the loss of the communal lounge that would not be replaced like for like
· Overdevelopment of the site.
· Bulk and size of the proposal that would be out of character with the surrounding area.
· Impact on the amenity of the existing residents of the development in terms of noise and disruption during the construction phase.
In accordance with the Development Procedure Rules, the item was deferred to enable the Officers to prepare the supplemental report now before Members providing commentary on the proposed reasons and to set out detailed reasons for refusal.
Jane Jin (Team Leader, Planning Services, Development and Renewal) presented the detailed report reminding Members of the site location and the main issues for consideration. In terms of the first suggested reason, it was reported that whilst there would be a reduction in quantum of external communal space, it would be of a much better quality and be a vast improvement of what was currently there. It was also noted that the quality and quantity of internal space would increase.
In view of this, it was considered that the level of community space would be adequate for the development and that a reason on this ground would be difficult to defend at appeal.
In terms of the seconded reason – overdevelopment, whilst the London Plan density range did not apply to specific needs housing, the plans complied with the suggested density range in the plan. Furthermore, in qualitive terms, the scheme bore no symptoms of overdevelopment.
Regarding scale and bulk, it was considered that given the mixed character of the area and comparative heights, the scheme would fit in with the area.
In relation to the impact on residents, the applicant had given a firm commitment to provide mitigation and so had Gateway. This goes beyond what was normally required for construction management plans. Officers were satisfied that the measures could be secured by conditions.
Accordingly, Officers remained of the view that the scheme should be granted permission. However, if Members were minded to refuse the application, Officers were recommending the reasons in the report based on the issues raised at the last meeting by Members.
In response to a question about overdevelopment (given the impact on amenity space and increase in units), Officers reminded Members that, whilst there were no minimum standards in policy for amenity space in sheltered housing, if this were general housing, it would meet the policy standards
On a vote of 0 in favour of the Officer recommendation to grant planning permission, 5 against and 1 abstention, the Committee did not agree the recommendation.
Accordingly, Councillor Rajib Ahmed proposed and Councillor Peter Golds seconded a motion that the planning permission be REFUSED (for the reasons set out in the Committee report dated 16th December 2015) and on a unanimous vote, it was RESOLVED:
That planning permission at Vic Johnson House Centre, 74 Armagh Road, London, E3 2HT (PA/15/01601) be REFUSED for the part demolition, part refurbishment, part new build (extension) to total 60 age restricted apartments (over 55s) sheltered housing scheme, including new communal areas (lounge, function room, hair salon and managers office), and associated landscape gardens. The proposed use remains as existing. The scheme is on part 2, part 3 and part 4 storeys for the following reasons set out in paragraph 5.2 the Committee report dated 16th December 2015.
The proposed development, by way of the design, scale and bulk would appear as a visually incongruous and bulky building within the surrounding streetscene and would harm the visual amenity of the local area. The development would be contrary to policy DM24 of the Managing Development Document (2013), SP10 of the Core Strategy (2010) and policies 7.1, 7.4 and 7.6 of the London Plan (2015).
The proposed development by reason of its excessive scale and bulk results in the overdevelopment of the site and this leads to an inappropriate loss of a proportion of the communal amenity space and a pro-rata loss of indoor communal lounge space. This would leads to an unsatisfactory form of development which is contrary to policies DM4 and DM5 of the Managing Development (2013), SP02 of the Core Strategy (2015) and policies 3.1, 3.4 and 3.5 of the London Plan (2015)
The proposed development has not adequately addressed how the construction phase would not lead to substantial impact on the health and welfare of the existing residents. The development would therefore be contrary to SP10 of the Core Strategy (2010) and DM25 of the Managing Development Document (2013) which seek to protect amenity for future and existing residents.
Supporting documents:
- DC PA1501601 Vic Johnson House deferred item, item 5.1 PDF 3 MB
- vicjohnsonhousecommitteereport061115, 25/11/2015 Development Committee, item 5.1 PDF 648 KB
- Vic Johnson Update, item 5.1 PDF 76 KB