Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Tony Rana, Samir Jassal and Ejaz Aslam. Councillors Alison Williams, Jordan Meade and David Beattie attended as their substitutes.

The minutes of the Planning Committee meeting held on Wednesday 8 January 2025 were signed by the Chair.

To declare any interest members may have in the items contained on this agenda.   When declaring an interest a member must state what their interest is.  Any declared interest will fall into one of the following categories:

A Disclosable Pecuniary Interest which has been or should have been declared to the Monitoring Officer, and in respect of which the member must leave the chamber for the whole of the item in question;

An Other Significant Interest under the Code of Conduct and in respect of which the member must leave the chamber for the whole of the item in question unless exercising the right of public speaking extended to the general public;

A voluntary announcement of another interest not falling into the above categories, made for reasons of transparency.

Councillor Jordan Meade declared that he was the County Councillor for Gravesend East but was sitting on the Committee in his capacity as Gravesham Councillor.

RESOLVED that the application to be DELEGATED to the Head of Planning to grant PERMISSION subject to the finalisation of planning conditions and completion of

S106 legal agreement.  With the s.106 including the applicant contributing the sum of £600,437.30 in lieu of delivering on site affordable housing, and the financial contributions for GBC Leisure and the SAMMS payment (totalling £149,562.70)

The Committee were presented with application 20240013 - Former St Joseph’s Convent Preparatory School, 46 Old Road East, Gravesend, Kent, DA12 1NR.   The application proposed the conversion of existing Victorian building into 6 flats, The demolition of existing outbuildings, the erection of a 3-storey medical centre, the erection of a building containing 7no flats, the erection of 41no houses, and associated works which include access, public open space and landscaping.

The Senior Planning officer outlined key areas of the report and highlighted that:

·         The proposed new apartment building would be of a similar height to the existing Victorian building and would include features in keeping with the surrounding buildings of Old Road East, such as bay and sash windows.

·         The buildings within the development were designed with similar features to create continuity, with 3 materialities to provide different character and variation within the site.  Conditions were recommended to ensure details such as window, and doors etc were submitted and approved.

·         The proposed medical centre would be 3 stories high and a greater scale to surrounding buildings. However, as it serves a different function, the scale and bulk were acceptable. Conditions were recommended for the detailing of obscured glazing, materials and plant equipment.

·         The overall proposal would bring 54 new dwellings to the borough, providing units of differing occupancy numbers, thereby contributing to the Borough’s housing land supply.

·         All new build units exceeded the national space standards for gross internal floor space.  The converted flats within the existing building provided acceptable internal floor space.

·         The redesign and repositioning of dwellings had been carried out through negotiations to safeguard neighbouring amenity, light, outlook and sense of enclosure.

·         A new vehicular access point from Old Road East to enter the development was proposed, with a pedestrian access point from Coombe Road and an internal road network. The parking provision and new access from Old Road East received no objections from Kent Highways, subject to conditions set out within the report.

·         Open space included within the development consisted of a large green open space and play park.

·         A SAMMS payment would be secured by a Section 106 agreement.

·         The planning obligations requested had totalled £660,572.38 along with the addition of 11 affordable units. The affordable housing requirement and planning obligations meant the development was unviable.  Therefore, the applicant has proposed two options to mitigate this:

-       7 affordable units at discount market rate (option A) or

-       A payment of £600,437.30 in lieu of affordable housing (option B).  The Gravesham housing team had been consulted and expressed their preference would be the payment (option B).

In light of the payment being the preferred choice, the planning obligation request had been adjusted to a total of £750K, which included the SAMMS payment, a contribution to Leisure services and the Option B payment.

The Chair invited questions for clarification:

·         Reference was made to new pedestrian access point at Coombe Road and whether any new bus stops are proposed to serve the new development.  Members were advised  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41.

A copy of the schedule has been placed in the democracy web library. A hard copy is also available upon request: -

Document library - Gravesham Borough Council

A schedule showing applications determined by the Director (Environment) under delegated powers had been published on the Council’s website.