To
receive the Head of Planning’s Report No. PLN1549 (copy attached) on the progress of recent planning appeals.
Minutes:
The Committee considered the
Head of Planning’s Report No. PLN1547 (as amended at the meeting) which sought
approval to relax a clause in a legal agreement which restricted the age of the
occupiers of flats in Mountbatten Court, Birchett
Road, Aldershot.
The Committee was informed that
the owners of Flat No. 5 Mountbatten Court had written to the Council
requesting a relaxation of the clause because the age restriction had been
causing problems with the sale of the flat.
Planning permission had been
granted for the erection of a three-storey block of seventeen two-bedroom flats
and nine one-bedroom flats in August, 1987. At the time, parking standards had
been considerably higher and based on minimum standards. The developer had
provided less than the full requirement on the basis that the flats would be
for the elderly. A clause in the legal agreement had therefore been drawn up
under Section 52 of the Town and Country Planning Act, 1971 which required that
the sixteen flats on the ground and first floors should be occupied by at least
one person of pensionable age.
Following consultation with the
residents of Mountbatten Court, one letter had been received from the executors
of the late owner of Flat No. 13 who had indicated that they had no objections in
respect of the request from the owners of Flat No. 5 and, in addition, making
their own request for non-enforcement in respect of Flat No. 13. Another letter
had subsequently been received from the managing agents for the Mountbatten
Court Management Company, who confirmed that they were in support of the
Council not enforcing the terms of the Legal Agreement in terms of the age
restriction of occupiers.
It was also noted that none of
the age-restricted flats at Mountbatten Court had been designed to current
mobility standards and the age restriction had only been imposed because the
developer had been unable to provide enough parking on the site for the
development. Since planning permission had been granted, the Council’s parking
requirements had changed significantly in response to changes in Government
planning guidance. The parking standards applicable to residential development
did not now make any distinction in terms of parking requirements between
general purpose flats and those restricted to residents of pensionable age. The
only reductions in parking requirements available for residential development
now related to sheltered housing establishments providing care to much less
mobile residents. Furthermore, current Government guidance and the Council’s
adopted parking requirements allowed for significant reductions in parking
provision in town centre locations.
On considering the above, the
Committee agreed that retention of the age restriction would no longer serve a
planning purpose. In addition, the approach had previously been agreed for
other flats in the development, the most recent being Flat No. 10 in November,
2013. Similar age-restricted flats in Phoenix Court had also been subject to
requests for relaxations and had been allowed by the Council. In the
circumstances, it was therefore felt that the Council should not seek to
enforce the terms of the legal agreement in respect of Flat Nos. 5 and 13
Mountbatten Court.
RESOLVED: That the Solicitor to the Council be authorised to advise the persons making the above request that the Council is minded not to enforce the terms of the Section 52 Agreement in respect of Flat Nos. 5 and 13 and that they be invited to enter into a Deed of Release, upon payment of the Council’s legal costs, to release the property from the terms of the Section 52 Agreement..