Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed Anna Hawker, Trainee Solicitor, to the meeting.

The Chair also welcomed County Councillor Sara Burch to her first meeting of the Planning Committee as she has replaced County Councillor Ben Callard.

The Chair informed the Committee that County Councillor Callard had recently joined the Cabinet and on behalf of the Committee he thanked Councillor Callard for the work that he had undertaken on the Planning Committee.

County Councillor P. Murphy declared a personal and prejudicial interest pursuant to the Members’ Code of Conduct in respect of application DM/2023/01042.

He informed the Committee that posters had been circulated which had been purported to have come from him in relation to a planning enforcement matter on the same land that is now the subject of application DM/2023/01042. Although this current application is separate and distinct from the enforcement case and the posters were not prepared by him, he left the meeting taking no part in the discussion or voting thereon in respect of this application.

The minutes of the Planning Committee meeting dated 12^th September 2023 were confirmed and signed by the Chair.

We considered the report of the application which was recommended for approval subject to the conditions outlined in the report.

The application had been presented to Planning Committee on 1^st August 2023 with a recommendation for refusal. However, the Committee had been minded to approve the application with appropriate conditions.

In noting the detail of the application it was proposed by County Councillor A. Easson and seconded by County Councillor M. Powell that application DM/2022/00331 be approved subject to the conditions outlined in the report.

Upon being put to the vote, the following votes were recorded:

For approval             -           13

Against approval      -           0

Abstentions               -           1

The proposition was carried.

We resolved that application DM/2022/00331 be approved subject to the conditions outlined in the report.

We considered the report of the application and late correspondence which was recommended for approval subject to the conditions outlined in the report.

Councillor Mike John, representing Caerwent Community Council, attended the meeting by invitation of the Chair and outlined the following points:

·         Caerwent Community Council considers that this application should not be approved. Objections to the application have been submitted for consideration by the Planning Committee.

·         Further notes were provided at the recent Planning Committee site visit.

·         There are still a number of unresolved issues and unanswered questions regarding this application. It was considered that these matters should have been addressed by now.

·         The local community has been asking for the Community Council’s opinion on this matter since 2021. Many questions have been raised regarding the activities occurring on this site during this period. It was considered the County Council should have been dealing with these issues in a timely manner.

·         Caerwent Community Council had replied to the local community that it had referred the matters raised to Monmouthshire County Council for investigation.

·         An application for this site had been previously presented to Planning Committee for approval but had been refused. On appeal, the Inspector had agreed with the Planning Committee’s decision.

·         A new planning application has now been presented to Planning Committee. However, this comprises of a small herd of horses, a large stable to be built in block work for five horses and an associated storeroom in a field not considered to be large enough for five horses.  The application comprises of an exercise yard the size of a school playground for the horses. There is also a cesspit on site which was considered unnecessary for a stable.

·         The Planning Committee has the report of the application, the Community Council objections, the concerns raised by the public, plans of the site as it is now and how it will be. The Community Council asked if the Planning Committee could be sure that approval of this application would be the correct decision with the number of conditions attached to it.

·         It was considered that the number of conditions attached to the application suggests it could be problematic. The Community Council asked whether the County Council would be able to monitor and enforce these conditions.

·         The unauthorised buildings are developed, as outlined in the report of the application. The argument suggests that they cannot be considered as they are not relevant.  However, the Community Council considers that they are relevant.

·         Caerwent Community Council considers that the application should not be approved until the enforcement issues on the site are resolved.

Roger Nasey, objecting to the application, attended the meeting by invitation of the Chair and outlined the following points:

·         The application should not be considered as a retrospective application as none of the proposed structures exist on site.

·         The recommendation for approval of the application was compared with the application that Planning Committee had refused in July 2022. There are inconsistencies with the two applications. The July 2022 application  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

We received the Planning Inspectorate report which related to an appeal decision following a site visit that had been held at 1 Smithy Cottage, Crossways, Newcastle, Monmouthshire on 22 August 2023.

We noted that the appeal had been allowed and the planning permission Ref. DM/2021/00908 for Retrospective application for change of use from agricultural land to garden and levelled area at 1 Smithy Cottage, Crossways, Newcastle, Monmouthshire NP25 5NW, granted on 29th July 2022 by Monmouthshire County Council, is varied by amending condition nos. 1, 4 and 5, and deleting condition no 6, as set out in the schedule to the decision letter.