Agenda item

(1)       Mr P J Homewood made a declaration of prejudicial interest in that he had a close personal association with the applicant.  He left the Chamber and took no part in the discussion of this item.

(2)       Mrs V J Dagger and Mr J D Kirby informed the Committee that they were members of the Kent Wildlife Trust.  They had, however, had no previous involvement with the application and were both able to approach it with a fresh mind. 

(3)       Mr R E King and Mr M B Robertson both informed the Committee that their wives were members of the Kent Wildlife Trust.   Neither of them had had any previous involvement with the application and they were both able to approach it with a fresh mind. 

(4)       Each Member of the Committee had received hundreds of e.mails and several letters from objectors to the application as well as a letter from the applicants since publication of the Committee report.

(5)       Correspondence from Mrs T Dean objecting to the application was tabled.  In addition, the Head of Planning Applications Group informed the Committee of 19 letters of representation received by Officers since publication of the report.  She also reported the formal views of Kent Highways Services raising no objection to the application.

(6)       The Head of Planning Applications Group tabled an amended paragraph 139 to the report which now read that the proposal met the requirements of “MPS2” rather than “Policy ENV21 of the Kent Structure Plan.”  She also asked the Committee to note that reference to Policy ENV21 of the Kent Structure Plan should be deleted from paragraph 128 of the report. 

(7)       Mrs P A V Stockell was present for this item pursuant to Committee Procedure Rule 2.24 and spoke.

(8)       Mrs Sarah Cooper (Save Oaken Wood Action Group), Mr Chris Hall (Barming Parish Council), Mrs Fay Gooch (local Borough Councillor), Ms Christina Byrne (Kent Woodland Trust) and Mr Peter Budgen (local resident) addressed the Committee in opposition to the application.  Mr Harry Rayner (Tonbridge and Malling CPRE) spoke in support. Nick Yandle (Chief Executive - Gallaghers) spoke in reply.

(9)       On being out to the vote, the recommendations of the Head of Planning Applications Group were agreed by 10 votes to 6 with 1 Abstention.

(10)     RESOLVED that the application be referred to the Secretary of State for Local Government and Communities and that, subject to him giving no direction to the contrary, permission be granted to the application subject to the prior satisfactory completion of a legal agreement to secure the Draft Heads of Terms set out in Appendix 4 to the report and to conditions, including conditions covering amongst other matters the standard time condition; noise and dust controls; hours of working; a scheme of working and restoration; the blasting regime; lorry sheeting; the imposition of a maximum number of HGV movements during any one calendar month to 30 during peak hours; a restriction on the highest monthly average of vehicle movements to 300 with no single day exceeding 600 movements (300 in/300 out); depth of working and ground water monitoring; and archaeological evaluation.