Agenda item

Marile Van Eeden, Planning Officer, introduced the report and explained that the application before the Committee was for construction of a three storey building for education use on the Villiers High School site, The 2 hectare site was located within Southall in a largely residential area, with its main entrance to Boyd Avenue. The site was not in a conservation area, although it was in the Southall Opportunity Area.

Ms Van Eeden explained that the proposed development was planned for the southeast of the site and the building was going to have with an L-shape footprint. The development was going to allow an increase of 122 in pupil capacity at the school, providing a mix of general and specialist teaching classrooms and staff offices. Although no comments were received from members of the public during the statutory consultation, Sport England & Sports Leisure commented that the proposals were going to result in a loss of playing field land. Officers considered that the loss was going to be mitigated through the planned upgrading of 2 courts to the east of the school.

Ms Van Eeden continued to provide further detail on sport fields, trees, the impact of the proposals on neighbouring amenity, highways and transport, energy and sustainability, air quality, and flood risk and drainage.

Overall, Ms Van Eeden informed the committee that it was the opinion of officers that the proposal was acceptable and would be consistent with relevant planning policy and strategies. Ms Van Eeden recommended the application for approval, subject to conditions and planning obligations. 

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 and an amendment to the recommended condition 17, relating to a Community Use Agreement.

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

·       There were going to be two dedicated tennis courts which were going to be unaffected by the development.

·       There was ongoing discussion between the school and the Council’s parks team to determine which uses were going to be available on the MUGA and when. This was going to be managed by the parks team in the long term.

·       The Council’s energy officer was supportive of the application. The precise details of how the energy from the solar panels was going to be distributed was not yet confirmed.

·       The trees which were planned to be removed were not subject to a Tree Protection Order. The tree protection plan referenced in the report related to the protection of the remaining trees during the construction period.

The Committee proceeded to vote on the application.

RESOLVED:

That for the reasons set out in the committee report, planning permission for application REF 225225FUL be GRANTED subject to:

1.     Successful resolution of Planning Conditions of Consent;

2.     Satisfactory completion of Planning Obligations, including the internal transfer of finances for financial contributions.