COMMITTEE DATE: 10/02/2014
Application Reference: / 13/0784WARD: / Ingthorpe
DATE REGISTERED: / 03/12/13
LOCAL PLAN ALLOCATION: / Industrial / Business Development Land
Main Industrial / Business Area
APPLICATION TYPE: / Full Planning Permission
APPLICANT: / Royal Mail Group Property
PROPOSAL: / Erection of a Distribution Depot with ancillary office space (2,385sq m), formation of access road from Hawking Place to 142 space car park and new vehicle access from Faraday Way to operational yard, with associated parking, cycle parking, boundary treatment, lighting, bin store, wash bay and landscaping (including balancing pond) and associated works.
LOCATION: / LAND AT FARADAY WAY / HAWKING PLACE, BLACKPOOL
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Summary of Recommendation: / Grant PermissionCASE OFFICER
Mark Shaw
SITE DESCRIPTION
Application site is 1.7 hectare (17,000 sqm) greenfield site, consisting of rough and marshy grassland with some mounding in places and is bounded by Faraday Way, Hawking Place, Faraday Court (a recent 3 storey office development) and open land to the west and north. The application site and adjoining undeveloped land is part of the 2.8 hectares of land within the adopted Local Plan allocated for new industrial/ business development. Business development within the immediate area is accessed from both Faraday Way and Hawking Place. There are several ponds within the surrounding area, the closest being some 80 metres to the north west of the application site, which form part of the Robins Lane ponds cluster and these are protected as a Biological Heritage Site within the adopted Local Plan.
DETAILS OF PROPOSAL
Full planning application seeking detailed approval for a 2,385 sqm post office distribution depot combining the existing Blackpool and Poulton sorting offices into a single facility. A staff/ visitor vehicle access into the site would be provided from Hawking Place and an operational access for the delivery vehicles provided from Faraday Way, these two areas would be separated by a 2.4 metre high fence which would also enclose the building itself and the whole operational yard area. A 2.1 metre high fence would enclose the staff/ visitor parking area. Hawking Place would be extended slightly as part of the development to provide a turning area. Existing landscaping along the Faraday Way frontage would have to be removed to provide the access and visibility sightlines, although the proposal includes a comprehensive replacement landscaping scheme which includes a balancing pond.
The proposed building would have a slight pitch to the roof and measures 8.4 metres at eaves level and has a maximum height of 11.4 metres. The building measures 35.5 metres x 67 metres in area. The floorspace would be predominantly occupied by the mail sorting area, although there would also be ancillary office and staff areas on the ground floor and the building also includes a part first floor. Externally the building would comprise of profile cladding, the two end elevations being flat metal cladding which wraps around onto the two side elevations. The two side elevations are intended to be predominantly clad in a metal profile material. There will also be some glazing and a small amount of brickwork, the south elevation facing onto the operational yard includes a canopy over the servicing bays and over the customer entrance.
The application is accompanied by a planning statement, ecology reports, contaminated land report, flood risk assessment, design and access statement, noise report, tree report, utilities statement, lighting strategy, transport assessment and travel plan.
Committee will have visited the site prior to its meeting on 10th February 2014
MAIN PLANNING ISSUES
The main planning issues are considered to be:
· principle of development
· vehicle access(es)/ car parking/ accessibility
· potential ecological impact
· design and appearance of proposed building
· landscaping/ boundary treatment
· noise/ potential impact on amenity
· economic benefits
· other matters
CONSULTATIONS
Head of Transportation - Faraday Way carries between 8000 and 9000 vehicles a day, with peak hour traffic at almost 1000 vehicles. The speed limit is restricted, and traffic counts have shown that the 85th percentile is a little over 30mph. There have been a number of accidents along its length, a majority of which list inappropriate speed as a causal factor.
The length of Faraday Way, which runs through Lancashire, has waiting prohibited at all times on both sides of the carriageway. In Blackpool the restrictions are more limited permitting a small amount of parking. The parked vehicles often obstruct larger through traffic and more restrictions have recently been introduced to address this, particularly on the bends near the Technology Management Centre and to enable decent visibility for slow moving vehicles towing caravans leaving premises south of the Technology Management Centre. Further restrictions are proposed on the west side of Faraday Way, north of Hawking Place, which will extend to a point north of the application site. Their purpose is to enable larger vehicles to pass each other without recourse to the verge, and are independent of this application, although the net effect, should the Order proceed, will benefit the development.
Parking facilities for business premises on Faraday Way are generally under-provided, not necessarily because the businesses have provided less than the maximum standards allowed, the primary cause is a lack of a convenient, sustainable means of access. This has led to congestion on Faraday Way, and overspill parking on Dumfries Close, which is slowly encroaching onto Kincraig Road. Waiting restrictions have recently been introduced on Dumfries Close to protect access and enable turning, the impact of which is a transference of the parking elsewhere.
A shared footway/cycle way exists between Dumfries Close and Faraday Way. This has recently been upgraded and lit, to encourage workers on Faraday Way to use the good bus service on Kincraig Road and walk the short distance. It nevertheless takes time to change people’s habits and when time is of the essence, driving is an attractive alternative.
Proposed Access Points A new operational access to the site is proposed from Faraday Way. The design meets Council specifications with adequate entry width, good sightlines (to be protected via a condition) and localised widening of Faraday Way to provide a right turning ghost island. The latter is sufficient for a minimum of 2 large lorries to queue without interrupting through traffic should there be insufficient gaps in the northbound flow to permit an immediate right turn. There is also a stacking area in the junction mouth to enable the largest vehicle to wait, clear of Faraday Way, for the barrier to be lifted.
Visitor and staff parking are to be via a new access on Hawking Place. The staff car park is to have a barrier to ensure it is only used by post office workers. Hawking Place is regularly congested with parked vehicles. A new turning head will be built at the north easterly end of Hawking Place, for all to use. The turning head itself will carry a prohibition of waiting at all times (the Traffic Regulation Order supporting this to be progressed as part of the off site works). No further restrictions will be introduced on Hawking Place. The sorting office access arrangements are to be clearly signed from Faraday Way as part of the off site works (again to be conditioned).
Parking - The developer has considered the type of work carried out at the sorting office in determining the level of parking provision required. If strict guidelines are to be followed, the B8 use necessitates the provision of only 11 spaces. There will be 256 staff working at the sorting office, although only a maximum of 194 working on site at any one time, on a shift basis. Currently, 50% of existing staff in Blackpool and Poulton drive to work. It is likely, given the location of the new office that the modal split will change, unfortunately it is not easy to determine by how much. In order to cover the possibility that more staff will drive to work, a 75% allowance for staff parking, namely 142 spaces will be provided. This is massively more than would be the norm, but is considered necessary given the parking issues on and around Faraday Way.
A majority of the staff will arrive at, or before 7am and work until 2pm. These times do not coincide with peak hour commuter traffic.
Travel Plan & public transport - Comments on the submitted draft Framework Travel Plan
1) Table 2.2, page 8: a) The No.3 service first bus start time from Mereside Tesco is 07:10 and the last bus is 23:30. b) The No. 16 is shown as running every 10 minutes. In fact it runs every 30 mins. The first bus from the Teanlowe centre is 6:35(not Saturdays) and the last bus 19:05.
2) Section 2.2.2: The public transport route shown in Figure 2.3 between the Rail Mail site and Poulton needs to be changed so it tracks the route No. 16 bus service correctly.
3) Section 4.3: a) I would like to see the on site cycle parking facility increased from 16 covered spaces to 30 covered spaces given the high numbers of staff currently cycling to work. The travel survey shows that 48 staff (23%) cycle to work. Although not all cyclists will be at work at the same time, an estimate of up to two thirds is reasonable. The site layout plan shows that there is space to expand the covered cycle parking. b) Given that 15 staff currently motorcycle to park I would like the motor cycle parking expanded as much as possible in the area designated for the facility so that up to 10 spaces are available and also that they are covered.
4) To maximise the effectiveness of the Travel Plan it is recommended that the Travel Plan Co-ordinator is an officer from the Human Resources function, or a senior manager. The reasons for this is that the newsletter and the induction pack are important parts of the marketing strategy so a member of staff involved in these processes are more likely to keep the travel plan momentum going.
5) The Travel Plan should include a target figure of modal shift to work towards. In line with travel planning good practice a target of between 5%-10% reduction in single occupancy car travel over 5 years should be stated.
Summary The Highway Authority is satisfied that every effort has been made to address current problems with congestion on the local network and mitigate the effects of this development.
The developer has been asked to upgrade the current shared path cycle route on the north and west sides of Faraday Way, between Kincraig Road and Robins Lane. If possible, also to extend the path to Hawking Place and beyond, as far as the Sorting Office access to create an off road route for cyclists. The existing infrastructure needs to be upgraded with new signs and lines, the remainder would be new construction. The feasibility is being investigated. This needs to be fully investigated before the application is determined.
Suggested Conditions required
· The grant of planning permission will require the applicant to enter into an appropriate legal agreement with the Highway Authority, to provide the highway works within the highway, associated with this proposal. The works to include widening Faraday Way at the site access to provide a right turning ghost island; provision of a turning head at the northerly terminal point of Hawking Place; and an appropriate signing scheme to identify public and operational access to the sorting office.
· Notwithstanding the provisions of the Town and Country Planning (General Development) Order 1995 there shall not at any time in connection with the development hereby permitted be erected or planted or allowed to remain on any land hereinafter defined any building, wall, fence, hedge, tree, shrub or other device within the visibility sightlines at the new vehicular access onto Faraday Way as shown on the submitted plans.
· A travel plan must be provided
United Utilities plc (Water)- With reference to the above planning application, I will have no objection to the proposal provided that the following conditions are met: -
Notwithstanding any indication on the approved plans, no development approved by this permission shall commence until a scheme for the disposal of foul and surface waters for the entire site has been submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority. For the avoidance of doubt, surface water must drain separate from the foul and no surface water will be permitted to discharge directly or indirectly into existing foul or combined sewerage systems. Any surface water draining to the public surface water sewer must be restricted to a maximum pass forward flow of 5 l/s. The development shall be completed, maintained and managed in accordance with the approved details.
Reason: To ensure a satisfactory form of development and to prevent an undue increase in surface water run off and to reduce the risk of flooding Water.
Environment Agency- We have no objection in principle to the proposed development subject to the inclusion of conditions which meet the following requirements:- The application site is located in Flood Zone 1 but as the site area exceeds 1 hectare, the application is accompanied by a Flood Risk Assessment in accordance with the requirements of the National Planning Policy Framework. We have reviewed the Flood Risk Assessment and provided that the development proceeds in accordance with the recommendations set out in section 7, we are satisfied that the proposed development will not increase the risk of flooding elsewhere. We would recommend that any subsequent approval is conditioned as follows:-