Warneford Hospital - Highfield Unit - 12/02082/VAR
Request for removal of Condition 16 and Condition 7 from planning consent 09/02309/FUL (permission for 09/02309/FUL granted on 13 September 2010).
Objection submitted
The Jack Straw’s Lane Association objects to the removal of both these conditions. If the requirement for ‘decant’ wards is so pressing, the applicants must surely have been aware of it when the original application was submitted just 2 years ago. This application for variation has all the markings of a somewhat devious method of achieving permission for further development. The credibility of the planning process will be damaged, if such a strategy is tolerated.
Removal of Condition 16 would be contrary to the Oxford Local Plan: "Within 6 months of the first occupation of the new building, the existing Highfield Unit shall be demolished and the resultant materials shall be permanently removed from the site. In addition the existing car park serving the Highfield Unit shall be decommissioned and the site of the existing building and the car park shall be levelled, landscaped and thereafter so retained and maintained. Reason: In the interests of visual amenity in accordance with policy CP1 of the adopted Oxford Local Plan 2001-2016".
There is nothing in this Application for Variation to indicate that the retention of the original Highfield Unit and its car park would be a temporary measure. We therefore ask that no consent be given for the removal of Condition 16 but that it should be waived solely in relation to the building itself for a specific period of time (10 years maximum) to allow major refurbishing of other Warneford Hospital wards to be carried out and that any extension of that specific period be dependent on the outcome a further planning application when the waiver expires.
The case for retaining the parking places associated with the original Highfield Unit is not convincing. If, as is claimed in the covering letter to the application, dated 13 August 2012, signed by Paul Semple: 'Use of the existing Highfield Unit would not result in additional staff, patients or visitors travelling to and from the Warneford Hospital, as it is simply moving patients and staff to another part of the hospital whilst the upgrading and modernisation of existing wards take place', there is no need for any additional parking spaces.
Oxfordshire County Council in its capacity as Local Highway Authority has set out its objections in a letter dated 17 September 2012, signed by Andrew Cooper, Transport Planner, and the Jack Straw’s Lane Association endorses these objections with regard to road safety.
There is little point in attaching conditions to planning consents, if within a relatively short space of time (2 years in this case) they can be easily removed.
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The above planning application was considered at the East Area Planning Committee meeting on Tues, 6 November 2012
At that meeting Marilyn Cox, on behalf of JSLA, voiced objections to the permanent removal of Condition 16. She explained that JSLA was not opposed to the old unit being used as a 'decant' ward for up to 10 years during a major renovation of other hospital wards but there was no point in attaching conditions to planning permissions, if they could easily be completely removed within a relatively short space of time (2 years in this case). No mention had been made in the current application of the proposed continued use being temporary. This, she said, could be viewed as a somewhat devious method of achieving permission for further development.
Cllrs David Rundle and Mohammed Altaf-Khan spoke in support of the JSLA objections, referring to the original granting of planning consent, when concerns about loss of green space had been addressed by the attachment of the condition that the old unit should be demolished and its site landscaped. Among the points put forward by Altaf was that it would not be good if the public got the impression that the institutions could easily get conditions attached to planning consents removed and David argued strongly for the 10-year restriction on the temporary removal of the condition to be made very clearly in the consent to this application.
The Planning Committee agreed that consent to removal of the condition should stipulate clearly that it was temporary and that after 10 years a new planning application would need to be submitted, if a further suspension of the condition were required.
Following concerns expressed by the Local Highways Authority regarding the detrimental effect on road safety that would arise from an increase in vehicle trips, if all 31 parking spaces were retained, the number was reduced to 11, which the Planning Committee deemed acceptable.
The application had been called in for consideration by the East Area Planning Committee on the initiative of Cllr Ruth Wilkinson, with the backing of Cllrs Stuart McCready, Jim Campbell, Jean Fooks, Michael Gotch and Mohammed Altaf-Khan.
Request for removal of Condition 16 and Condition 7 from planning consent 09/02309/FUL (permission for 09/02309/FUL granted on 13 September 2010).
Objection submitted
The Jack Straw’s Lane Association objects to the removal of both these conditions. If the requirement for ‘decant’ wards is so pressing, the applicants must surely have been aware of it when the original application was submitted just 2 years ago. This application for variation has all the markings of a somewhat devious method of achieving permission for further development. The credibility of the planning process will be damaged, if such a strategy is tolerated.
Removal of Condition 16 would be contrary to the Oxford Local Plan: "Within 6 months of the first occupation of the new building, the existing Highfield Unit shall be demolished and the resultant materials shall be permanently removed from the site. In addition the existing car park serving the Highfield Unit shall be decommissioned and the site of the existing building and the car park shall be levelled, landscaped and thereafter so retained and maintained. Reason: In the interests of visual amenity in accordance with policy CP1 of the adopted Oxford Local Plan 2001-2016".
There is nothing in this Application for Variation to indicate that the retention of the original Highfield Unit and its car park would be a temporary measure. We therefore ask that no consent be given for the removal of Condition 16 but that it should be waived solely in relation to the building itself for a specific period of time (10 years maximum) to allow major refurbishing of other Warneford Hospital wards to be carried out and that any extension of that specific period be dependent on the outcome a further planning application when the waiver expires.
The case for retaining the parking places associated with the original Highfield Unit is not convincing. If, as is claimed in the covering letter to the application, dated 13 August 2012, signed by Paul Semple: 'Use of the existing Highfield Unit would not result in additional staff, patients or visitors travelling to and from the Warneford Hospital, as it is simply moving patients and staff to another part of the hospital whilst the upgrading and modernisation of existing wards take place', there is no need for any additional parking spaces.
Oxfordshire County Council in its capacity as Local Highway Authority has set out its objections in a letter dated 17 September 2012, signed by Andrew Cooper, Transport Planner, and the Jack Straw’s Lane Association endorses these objections with regard to road safety.
There is little point in attaching conditions to planning consents, if within a relatively short space of time (2 years in this case) they can be easily removed.
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The above planning application was considered at the East Area Planning Committee meeting on Tues, 6 November 2012
At that meeting Marilyn Cox, on behalf of JSLA, voiced objections to the permanent removal of Condition 16. She explained that JSLA was not opposed to the old unit being used as a 'decant' ward for up to 10 years during a major renovation of other hospital wards but there was no point in attaching conditions to planning permissions, if they could easily be completely removed within a relatively short space of time (2 years in this case). No mention had been made in the current application of the proposed continued use being temporary. This, she said, could be viewed as a somewhat devious method of achieving permission for further development.
Cllrs David Rundle and Mohammed Altaf-Khan spoke in support of the JSLA objections, referring to the original granting of planning consent, when concerns about loss of green space had been addressed by the attachment of the condition that the old unit should be demolished and its site landscaped. Among the points put forward by Altaf was that it would not be good if the public got the impression that the institutions could easily get conditions attached to planning consents removed and David argued strongly for the 10-year restriction on the temporary removal of the condition to be made very clearly in the consent to this application.
The Planning Committee agreed that consent to removal of the condition should stipulate clearly that it was temporary and that after 10 years a new planning application would need to be submitted, if a further suspension of the condition were required.
Following concerns expressed by the Local Highways Authority regarding the detrimental effect on road safety that would arise from an increase in vehicle trips, if all 31 parking spaces were retained, the number was reduced to 11, which the Planning Committee deemed acceptable.
The application had been called in for consideration by the East Area Planning Committee on the initiative of Cllr Ruth Wilkinson, with the backing of Cllrs Stuart McCready, Jim Campbell, Jean Fooks, Michael Gotch and Mohammed Altaf-Khan.