Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence and notification of substitutions.

Apologies had been received from Councillors Edric Hobbs, Philip Ham and Rob Reed. Councillor Ros Wyke was substitute for Councillor Edric Hobbs and Councillor Simon Carswell was substitute for Councillor Rob Reed.

To approve the minutes from the meeting held on 3 December 2024 at 2pm.

The Committee were asked to consider the minutes of the meeting held 3 December 2024 at 10am.

It was proposed by Councillor Helen Kay and seconded by Councillor Martin Dimery to approve the minutes, with an amendment to the resolution of agenda item 4 – Planning Application 2021/167/EOUT. She proposed the removal of the words “whether the overall harms outweigh the benefits” in the first sentence and to include the words “overall, the harms outweigh the benefits” at the end of the sentence. This made the sentence read correctly when compared to what was said at the meeting.

On being put to the vote the proposal was carried with 10 votes in favour and 2 abstentions.

To receive and note any declarations of interests in respect of any matters included on the agenda for consideration at this meeting.

(The other registrable interests of Councillors of Somerset Council, arising from membership of City, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes: City, Town & Parish Twin Hatters - Somerset Councillors 2023 )

There were none.

The Chair to advise the Committee of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.

For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three-minute time limit applies to each speaker.

We are now live webcasting most of our committee meetings and you are welcome to view and listen to the discussion. The link to each webcast will be available on the meeting webpage, please see details under ‘click here to join online meeting’.

Requests to speak at the meeting under Public Question Time must be made to democraticserviceseast@somerset.gov.uk  by 5pm on the Wednesday prior to the meeting.  For those wishing to speak on an application, requests must be made by 5pm on the Thursday prior to the meeting.

There were none.

To consider the application in connection with the Public Inquiry and agree the position of the Council.

RESOLVED

That the Committee agrees that the Council adopt a strictly neutral position in respect of the proposed development at the Public Inquiry, wherein the Council will offer no evidence against the principle of development and only contest what conditions and/or financial contributions are appropriate (if not agreed).

Votes – 8 for, 3 against, 1 abstention

The Officer’s Report gave background to the application saying that it had been considered by the Planning Committee East on 3 December 2024 when the Committee had resolved to be minded to refuse the application for reasons of lack of sustainability and to defer the application for up to 2 months to allow Officers to draft detailed reasons for refusal.

The application was due to be reconsidered at the meeting held on 4 February 2025, however on 3 February the Council received a letter from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government advising that under the powers in Section 77 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 the Secretary of State had decided to call-in the application. Accordingly, the jurisdiction for determining the planning application no longer rested with Somerset Council and the application would be decided by the Secretary of State, who would appoint a Planning Inspector to hold a Local Inquiry. At that meeting the Committee resolved to determine the local planning authority’s position at a future meeting of the committee once the inquiry timetable had been published.

The Report continued that the applicant had provided confirmation and further clarification on various planning obligations and other commitments including the following:

• Highway works (The Butts) – s.106 to be drafted so that financial contribution is available to be spent on other appropriate highways works in Frome if it is not needed for works to The Butts.
• Medical provision on site – s.106 clause to monitor the need for additional medical facilities in Frome at the 500, 1000 and 1500 occupation trigger points. Space for a pharmacy (with consulting space) within the Community Hub be marketed to pharmacy occupiers/developers for 6 months after the completion of the Hub.
• Intermediate affordable housing – s.106 to be drafted that Intermediate affordable housing be advertised for people living in Frome, or Selwood Parish for a period of 6 months prior to them being made available to people living in a wider radius if they are not taken up by local residents.
• Safeguarded Sum – yearly monitoring of the development and £718,0440 in safeguarded sums that can be drawn down to fund further measures (i.e. additional cycleway improvements delivered, more bus vouchers, additional car club vehicles provided etc.) if transport modal shift targets are not being met.
• Employment land delivery – Condition requiring provision of the main access, spine roads and drainage to allow serviced plots to be made available to the market within 3 years of commencement.
• Off-site sport contributions – s.106 to provide flexibility so that if Frome Town United Football Academy and Frome Town RFC do not obtain planning permission for identified works the contributions can be used on other projects to improve sports pitch capacity in Frome.

The report contained two recommendations as follows:

That the Committee:

1. agrees the assessment of the extent to which the proposed development is consistent with Government policies and the development plan as set out in Section 5 of this report; and
2. agrees  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.