Decision details

The Chair informed the meeting that this item was being video recorded by a member of the public and invited anyone in the public gallery to indicate their objection to being filmed. There were no objections.

It was noted that Members had visited the site on the previous day.

This application sought permission to extend and alter the Rutland Arms Public House to facilitate its change to an A1 shop use.

The officer gave several updates to the meeting:

• 14 more letters of objection had been received by the deadline since publication of the report, none of which raised any new points to consider.

• Cllr Mike Longden, Derbyshire County Councillor for the Derwent Valley Division, had received a letter from Post Office Counters Ltd confirming that they had no plans to close any of their post offices.

• Amended plans had been received since the report was published which omitted the extension. Consequently, a bat survey was no longer required and the words “subject to receipt of a satisfactory bat survey, it is recommended that” were removed from the officer recommendation. Conditions 4, 5 and 19 were deleted. The remaining conditions were re-numbered accordingly.

The officer stated that any signs for the proposed shop would be the subject of a separate application for advertisement consent. He added that although the conversion of a pub into a shop would normally be accepted under permitted development rights, in this case the applicant had decided to combine a change of use application with the internal alterations of the building to enable officers and the members of planning committee to consider the proposed changes in their entirety. As a result, the ways in which the applicant had sought to mitigate some of the concerns raised by objectors could be demonstrated. The conversion remained as an option for the applicant under permitted development rights, should the current proposals be refused.

The officer noted that competition between businesses was not a material planning consideration.

The following spoke under the Authority’s Public Participation Scheme:

• Cllr D Dawson, Baslow and Bubnell Parish Council, in objection
• Kate Poole, Objector
• Jonathan Fish, Objector
• John Earnshaw, Objector
• Richard Conroy, Objector
• John Cook, Objector
• Nick Beecroft, Objector
• Rodger Lownsbrough, Objector
• Fran Muscroft, Objector
• David Upton, Objector
• Ruth Child, Peter Brett Associates, Agent

Following consideration of the issues pertaining to this proposal, Members were minded to defer a decision until Derbyshire Dales District Council had responded to an application to list the Rutland Arms as an Asset of Community Value (ACV). The implications of such listing appear on page 7 of the report (page 21 of the pack). However, the Director of Planning advised that this was not a valid reason to defer the decision.

A break was taken between 11.35 and 11.40am.

Members moved and seconded deferral to obtain more information about the following:

·         potential parking and highway issues, both in the car park and along the roadside, to include the size and frequency of delivery vehicles

·         the conservation area setting especially in relation to the setting of the Grade 1 listed bridge and the listed church

·         noise emissions from refrigeration and air conditioning units (a noise survey was required under condition 8)

·         blocking up of the windows in a conservation area

·         the future of the beer garden

The Chair reminded the meeting of the potential risks of deferring the decision. The applicant could proceed under permitted development rights and could also appeal against non-determination.

On the basis of the requirement for more information as specified above, the proposal to defer this item was put to the vote and carried.

RESOLVED:

That the application be DEFERRED for the following reason:

To gather and report more information about the following issues:

·         potential parking and highway issues, both in the car park and along the roadside, to include the size and frequency of delivery vehicles

·         the conservation area setting especially in relation to the setting of the Grade 1 listed bridge and the listed church

·         noise emissions from refrigeration units (a noise survey was required under condition 8)

·         blocking up of the windows in a conservation area

·         the future of the beer garden