Agenda and minutes

(1)       In respect of Minute 71, Mr R F Manning (as the Local Member) thanked the Members of the Committee and the Planning Officers for the quality of the report and debate on the Benenden CEP School planning application.

(2)       RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting held on 11 December 2012 are correctly recorded and that they be signed by the Chairman.

(1)       Two provisional additional Committee meeting dates were announced to determine an anticipated high number of school building applications. These were: Tuesday, 16 April 2013 and Thursday, 18 April 2013.  The Committee also agreed to set aside a date in early April to tour some of these sites, should it prove necessary.

(2)       The Committee agreed to hold a site meeting on Tuesday, 12 February 2013 in respect of an application to include domestic “black bag” and source-separated food waste at the waste transfer facility at Lakesview Business Park, Hersden.  It also agreed to hold a site meeting on Wednesday, 13 March 2013 in respect of an application for an end of life vehicle processing and storage facility at Glebe Farm in Shadoxhurst.

(1)       Mrs T Dean was present for this item pursuant to Committee Procedure Rule 2.24 and spoke.

(2)       The views of Mrs S V Hohler had been circulated to all Members of the Committee prior to the meeting. A hard copy of these views was also tabled at the meeting and was referred to by the Head of Planning Applications Group during the presentation of her report.

(3)       Mr Matthew Balfour, Mrs Claire Innis (local residents) and Mr David Stretton (Chairman of Offham PC) addressed the meeting in opposition to the application.  Mr Brett Spiller (New Earth Solutions) spoke in reply.

(4)       Following a suggestion by Mrs Dean, the Chairman agreed to write on behalf of the Committee to the Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Environment, Highways and Waste asking him to consider setting up a “Task and Finish” Group to look into local concerns over the monitoring of odour control at Blaise Farm Quarry.

(5)       During discussion of the application, the Committee agreed to the amendment to the condition specifying that all loaded, open backed vehicles entering or leaving the site would be properly and completely sheeted. It also agreed to the inclusion of an additional condition requiring the doors to only be open when vehicles enterer or left the facility and for maintenance purposes. 

(6)       RESOLVED that the application be referred to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government as required under the 2009 Direction and that subject to no intervention by him permission be granted to the application subject to the prior satisfactory conclusion of a Section 106 Legal Agreement to secure Heads of Terms requiring the continuation of the Blaise Farm Site Liaison Committee, HGV routing, and site restoration (including the availability of restoration materials); the applicant meeting all reasonable administrative Planning and Legal costs associated with the prior completion of the Section 106 Legal Agreement; and to conditions, including conditions covering a 5 year implementation period; the operation being time limited to 20 years from first commercial use of the Anaerobic Digestion (AD) Facility with all plant, buildings and equipment being removed upon expiration of this period; the development being carried out in accordance with the permitted details; site noise control (to ensure that noise associated with site operations does not exceed background noise levels at the nearest residential receptors); waste catchment areas being restricted to the following geographical areas for the life of the development: Kent, Medway, Thurrock, Havering, South East London Waste Partnership Authorities (London Borough’s of Greenwich, Southwark, Lewisham, Bromley and Bexley), Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex, Brighton and Hove, Essex and Southend-on-Sea; the total site processing capacity (including In-vessel Composting (IVC)), AD and Advanced Thermal Conversion (ATC) plants) not exceeding 100,000 tpa; the ATC plant operating with only the waste imported to the site pursuant to the existing Composting Facility (as covered by planning permission TM/09/3231), packaging and any associated residual waste arising from the AD plant; restoration of the AD and ATC plant area (at the end of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

RESOLVED to note matters dealt with under delegated powers since the last meeting relating to:-

(a)               County matter applications;

(b)               consultations on applications submitted by District Councils or Government Departments (None);

(c)               County Council developments;

(d)               Screening opinions under the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2011; and

(e)               Scoping opinions under the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2011 (None).