Economy Overview and Scrutiny Committee

AGENDA ITEM 5

BOROUGH OF POOLE

ECONOMY OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

6 NOVEMBER 2014

REPORT OF THE HEAD OF PLANNING AND REGENERATION INC. BUILDING CONSULTANCY SERVICES ON THE ADOPTION OF THE REVISED ASHINGTON ARTICLE 4 DIRECTION AND BRUNSTEAD ROAD, CANFORD CLIFFS & PENN HILL CONSERVATION AREAS BOUNDARY REVIEW

1. PURPOSE

1.1 To report to Members the representations received to the consultation that took place throughout the summer, officer response and recommendation with regards to the Ashington Article 4 Direction and Brunstead Road,Canford Cliffs & Penn Hill Conservation Areas Boundary Review.

1. RECOMMENDATION

2.1That Members recommend to Council:-

1. The rationalisation of the Article 4 Direction for the Ashington Conservation Area and delegate final production of the Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan to the Head of Planning and Regeneration Services;
2. Revision to the boundary of the Brunstead Road Conservation Area and delegate final production of the Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan to the Head of Planning and Regeneration Services;
3. Revisions to the boundaries of the Canford Cliffs & Penn Hill Conservation Areas and extension of Article 4 Directions to all properties within and final production of the Boundary Review document delegated to the Head of Planning and Regeneration Services;
4. The creation of a new Canford Cliffs Village Conservation Area and the amalgamation of Branksome Park and that part of Beach Road Conservation Area to be retained into a single conservation area; and
5. Prior to any de-designation of a Conservation Area, or part of, that an assessment is made of the trees in any proposed area and that necessary Tree Preservation Orders are made.

1. BACKGROUND

3.1A review of Conservation Areas in Poole has been taking place over the last few years. The latest in this programme looks at Ashington, Brunstead Road and the ten Canford Cliffs and Penn Hill Conservation Areas. The Ashington Conservation Area was designated in January 2002. The area does not benefit from an appraisal and currently the only assessment of special interest is confined to the committee report.

3.2The Brunstead Road Conservation Areawas designated in July 1989. Currently the area does not benefit from an up-to-date character appraisal and management plan. The brief appraisal that was compiled at the time of adoption remains the primary conservation policy for the area.

3.3The ten Canford Cliffs & Penn Hill Conservation Areas comprise:

• Beach Road – Designated in October 1990. Currently the area does not benefit from an up-to-date character appraisal and management plan. The brief appraisal that was compiled at the time of adoption remains the primary conservation policy for the area.
• Branksome Park – Designated in March 1981. A Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Plan was adopted in 2006, but is now overdue for a review.
• Canford Cliffs – Designated in July 1989. Currently the area does not benefit from an up-to-date character appraisal and management plan. The brief appraisal that was compiled at the time of adoption remains the primary conservation policy for the area.
• Canford Cliffs North – Designated in February 2002. The area does not benefit from an appraisal and currently the only assessment of special interest is confined to the committee report.
• Chester Road – Designated in June 2010. This is the only conservation area in the review to benefit from an up-to-date Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Plan.
• Compton Acres – Designated in October 2003. The area does not benefit from an appraisal and currently the only assessment of special interest is confined to the committee report.
• Evening Hill – Designated in February 1992. Currently the area does not benefit from an up-to-date character appraisal and management plan. The brief appraisal that was compiled at the time of adoption remains the primary conservation policy for the area.
• Harbour Heights – Designated in March 2004. The area does not benefit from an appraisal and currently the only assessment of special interest is confined to the committee report.
• Haven Road – Designated in October 2003. Currently the area does not benefit from an up-to-date character appraisal and management plan. The brief appraisal that was compiled at the time of adoption remains the primary conservation policy for the area.
• The Avenue – Designated in July 1989. Currently the area does not benefit from an up-to-date character appraisal and management plan. The brief appraisal that was compiled at the time of adoption remains the primary conservation policy for the area.

3.4Initial surveys of all twelve Conservation Areas were carried out in 2013. Reports were presented to the Economy Overview and Scrutiny Committee in June 2014 with a recommendation to undertake public consultation. The recommendation was approved and ratified by Cabinet on 10 June 2014.

3.5This was followed by aten-week period of public consultation that ran from 25 June to 3 September, with letters sent out to all the affected residents and information posted on the Borough of Poole Website. In addition:

• Two informal ‘drop-in’ events were held at All Saints’ Church Hall, Branksome Park, and St John’s Community Hall, Surrey Road, on 24 July and 7 August respectively.
• Officers also gave presentations to the Branksome Park & Canford Cliffs District, and Lilliput and Neighbourhood Residents’ Associations, on 29 July and 19 August respectively, at the request of those Residents’ Associations.

3.6In total 50formal representations have been received from residents and 8from interest groups, plus further comments were recorded at the public engagement events. A consultation report including officer response is available as a separate document.Copies have been placed in Group Rooms.

1. CONSIDERATION OF REPRESENTATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Ashington Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Plan and Article 4 Direction

4.1The primary purpose of the Ashington Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Plan is to update the conservation policy for the area and rationalise the Article 4 Directions. This involvesremoval of some properties from the constraints of the Article 4 Direction while for other properties the list of items included within the Article 4 will be reduced. No alterations to the boundary were proposed through the consultation (Appendix A).

4.2Common themes highlighted by the public include:

a)The area should remain as a conservation area.

b)The Article 4 Directions should remain and be enforced.

Officer Response

4.3There was and is no proposal to remove Conservation Area status. As far as the Article 4 Direction is concerned it is proposed to remove some properties from the restrictions placed by the Direction due to these properties no longer having the features for which the Direction was put in place. For a few other properties it is proposed to amend the features that apply within the Article 4 Direction. Asa result of the outcomes of the public consultation, only one amendment to the suggested Article 4 revisions has been made, namely, 48 Willet Road was re-assessed and it was concluded that the Direction relating to the site enclosure should remain. It is still proposed to remove the Direction relating to hardstanding.

Recommendation

4.4To amend the Article 4 Direction for Ashington Conservation Area and that production of the final Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan is delegated to officers.

Brunstead Road Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Plan

4.5The primary purpose of the Brunstead Road Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Plan is to update the conservation policy for the area andthrough the consultation it was proposed to make slight alterations to the boundaries.

4.6Common themes highlighted by the public include:

a)Trees are damaging the road surface in Nelson Road.

b)The verge on the southern boundary of the Conservation Area should be widened to accommodate new trees and the planting along the verge needs to be enforced and properly managed.

c)Workers at LV at County Gates are parking in the area and blocking driveways.

d)11 Brunstead Road should be added to the local list.

Officer Response

4.7The concernsrelating to damage by trees and management of the verge are matters that need to be considered by the Council’s Streetscene team who have been made aware of the issues. The issue of workers blocking driveways is not for the conservation area boundary review to address. The addition of properties to the local list is done through a separate process. As a result of the outcomes of the public consultation, no alterations to the consultation proposal have been made.The revised boundaries reflect good practice in that they now either include or exclude roads, previously the boundary ran down the centre of the road with the result that these features were ‘half in, half out’ of the conservation area. The revised boundary also excludes the curtilage of a property in Bournemouth Borough and a ‘tradeable’ extension that has the Borough boundary running through it.

Recommendation

4.8That a minor change,as per the consultation, to the boundary of the Conservation Area is made (Appendix B).

Canford Cliffs & Penn Hill Conservation Areas Boundary Review

4.9The primary purpose of the Canford Cliffs Penn Hill Boundary Review is to consider whether the existing boundaries and Article 4 Directions are sustainable. The consultation suggested the deletion of some and rationalisation of others, plus the inclusion of a new area for the first time.

4.10Common themes highlighted through the consultation, followed by officer response, include:

Beach Road Comments

a)Beach Road should retain its CA status. What is the Council trying to hide?

b)The Beach Road car park needs better signage.

c)What will happen to the trees if conservation area designation is removed?

d)The car park should not be redeveloped.

e) Historically the Cliffs and Chines would have been open heathland vegetation until the planting of non-native species such as Rhododendron, Holm Oak and Pine trees in the 19th Century and this is the true historic character landscape of the area. At Beach Road this area is SNCI and conservation area status is at odds with the effective management of this protected landscape.

Officer Response

4.11It is accepted that there are parts of the Beach Road Conservation Area that are historically linked to the original Branksome Park and that within the Chine and the Cliffs and seafront are historic works that have local significance. However, there are some areas of the current conservation area that do not contain sufficient architectural or historic significance to warrant retention within the Conservation Area, notably Beach Road car park, nearby blocks of flats and the cliff face.

4.12The Conservation Area Review is purely based on reviewing the Conservation Area status. It is not an exercise influenced by other factors. Beach Road car park is currently an operational car park managed by Transportation Services. Its improvement and role has been identified in the work supporting the development of the Sustaining Poole’s Seafront Strategy. There has also been a strategic review of all the Council run car parks which has identified that at Beach Road there is “high potential for reducing the size of car park and that Cabinet approved in January 2014 to further investigate the potential to redevelop part of this site.

4.13Any future proposals to develop all or part of the car park will need to be assessed on their own merits and will be subject to public consultation. Any proposed development on this site, whether in a conservation area or not will be subject to existing planning policies in the same way as any other development.

4.14Conservation Area designation does not provide 100% protection toalltrees, and responsibility continues to lie with property owners to ensure they manage and replace trees on private land appropriately. However, it would be expedient for the Council to undertake an assessment of the trees before any de-designation was concluded and to consider the appropriateness of, in any area or part of, a TPO, should ownership of the land transfer to the private sector.

Recommendation

4.15That the boundaries of the Beach Road Conservation Area are amended to exclude Beach Road Car park and blocks of flats as per revised drawing in Appendix C and that prior to de-designation an assessment is made of the trees and relevant TPOs made. Also that Beach Road Conservation Area is amalgamated with Branksome Park Conservation Area to create a single conservation area.

Branksome Park Comments

a)The north side of Lindsay Road and 2-4 Leicester Road should be de-designated as the character of the area is eroded by heavy traffic and the houses are of no architectural or historic interest.

b)The properties on the eastern side of Canford Cliffs Road should remain in the conservation area. Removing conservation area designation will open up the potential for redevelopment with flats or plot subdivision/severance and the erosion of the rest of Branksome Park. The current boundary is more logical and in keeping with the Characterisation Study. The plots contribute to the special interest of the conservation area in terms of plot size, single dwellings and vegetation, as identified by Planning Inspectors.

c)There is a covenant in Branksome Park that all plots should be at least ¾acre.

d)What will happen to the trees if conservation area designation is removed? Some trees now reaching maturity are not covered by TPOs and could therefore be removed.

e)The EcOS Committee should be made aware of dismissed appeals in the area.

Officer Response

4.16The North side of Lindsay Road and 2-4 Leicester Road displays the characteristics of plot size and layout found within the Branksome Park Conservation Area. The fact that Lindsay Road may be heavily trafficked is not justification for its removal from the Conservation Area.

4.17Canford Cliffs Roaddisplays a different character to the rest of Branksome Park being a wide road, with none of the quiet, rural character of the other streets within the conservation area. Canford Cliffs Road has a number of developmentsthat has not fully respected the character of the area, particularly on soft landscaping, which is the primary feature of significance in the BPCA. For the most part, development continues to be a single dwelling on a plot of 0.3ha or more in keeping with the rest of Branksome Park.

4.18Core Strategy policy PCS5 seeks to preventflat development in inappropriate locations whether within or without a conservation area. All boundaries need to be assessed when reviewing conservation areas to ensure the rationale for their designation can be defended. The Council needs to be clear that boundaries accurately reflect the character of an area keeping in mind the impact of development over time. It is accepted that there is a finely balanced argument for either keeping Canford Cliffs Road within, or excluding it from, the conservation area.

4.19Reflecting on the responses to the consultation,Canford Cliffs Road has further been looked at in the context of the original Plan of Indenture of 1883 and role of this road as the western boundary to this plan. It is considered that on balance having regard to the historic significance of the boundary that it should remain in place with this part of the conservation area being recognised as aspecial character area in its own right that will need to be addressed through revisions to the Conservation Area Management Plan.

Recommendation

4.20That Canford Cliffs Road is not removed from the Branksome Park Conservation Area and that revisions to the Management Plan address the issues of special character that arise. As referred to in paragraph 3.18 that Branksome Park and the amended Beach Road Conservations Areas are amalgamated into a single conservation area (Appendix C).

Canford Cliffs Comments

a)Canford Cliffs should retain its conservation area status.

b)The cliffs and chine are owned by Borough of Poole, are of heathland character and on the east side of Chine is designated as SSSI and both sides are within HLS agreement to manage for their heathland biodiversity. Conservation Area status means unnecessary paperwork is required to allow the council to manage the woodland area to ensure there is future woodland for the public to enjoy. This is because the majority of the trees are old and to allow space for new trees to be planted to ensure continuity of woodland cover, applications will have to be put to Planning to allow for this necessary work. If this Conservation Area is to remain suggest that at least the Cliffs either side of the Chine be removed from the area.

Officer Response

4.21The chines, clifftops and cliff faces are not considered to have the special architectural or historic interest that conservation area designation seeks to protect, except in the case of Beach Road. The Chines are all designated as public open space (Policy DM9) and also covered in part by SSSI and SNCI designation, which provides greater restrictions than conservation areadesignation. These areas are managed for their nature conservation value by the Council’s Environmental Consumer Protection Service and it is considered that conservation area designation does not give any material additional protection.