Agenda item

Marile van Eeden, Planning Officer, introduced the report and explained that the application before the Committee was for the construction of two buildings ranging in height from 3 – 8 storeys on a site in Ealing Town Centre, Sandringham Mews. The proposal was for a mixed-use development led by the provision of units with shared living rooms and communal amenity spaces, known as co-living units. The development was going include town centre uses and landscaping, and it was going to re-provision the existing public house on the site.

Sandringham Mews was located within the Ealing Metropolitan Town Centre within the Ealing Town Centre Conservation Area. Of the two buildings proposed, block A was going to be located along the High Street, and block B was going to be adjacent to Sandringham Mews. The ground floors of both blocks were going to include flexible use class E units, and these were going to allow for a variety of retail uses. The Draft Local Plan had designated the site for residential-led, mixed-use developments with significant retail, employment, and community space provision. Officers believed that the proposal was well designed and sympathetic to the local area, causing less than substantial harm to local heritage assets.

Ms van Eeden summed up the proposal and recommended to the Committee that it grant the application subject to conditions, a Section 106 legal agreement, and payment of a Community Infrastructure Levy to the Greater London Authority.

A briefing note in respect of the application had been produced by Planning Officers, circulated to the Committee and published on the Council’s website prior to the meeting. It had provided information on amendments to the report.

The Committee asked questions and debated the proposal. In response to some of the questions and points raised, officers confirmed that:

·       As part of the plans, the developer had agreed to re-fence the boundaries around the site, and this was going to include the boundaries with the nearby sub-station. Condition 20 of the recommendation requested of the developer that it provide details of their proposed boundary treatments in due course.

·       As well as the cycle storage which was proposed towards the rear of the sub-station, further cycle storage was going to be located in the basement of one of the blocks. No concerns had been raised during the consultation period about the flow of cyclists to and from the site.

·       10 disabled parking spaces were required on the site as part of the development. Officers were satisfied that there was sufficient on street parking spaces in the viscinity of the site and that some of these could be repurposed to become disabled car parking spaces. There were 5 existing disabled parking spaces next to block A.

·       The existing parking spaces at the back of the shops fronting onto Bond Street were going to remain. The construction management plan was expected to ensure that these spaces were available during construction.

·       Thames Water had submitted a response to the statutory consultation about the scheme and indicated that upgrades to the existing water infrastructure were going to be required before occupiers could move into the properties. It was confirmed that there was sufficient supply of water to the site, both for use by occupiers and for any potential uses by the London Fire Brigade. A condition of the recommendation was that no occupier could move into the new development until the appropriate water infrastructure works had finished.

·       There was going to be new lighting along the alleyway on the site, and this was going to be supplemented by other safety measures secured through the condition ensuring the development was “secure by design” accredited.

The Committee proceeded to vote on the application.

RESOLVED:

That for the reasons set out in the committee report, planning permission for application REF 221687FUL be GRANTED subject to:

1.     Successful resolution of Planning Conditions of Consent;

2.     Satisfactory completion of a Section 106 Legal Agreement; and

3.     A community infrastructure payment to the Greater London Authority (GLA).