Item 17  Page 122                                                                  Cobnut Farm, Stockbury

Reference number: 16/506717/FULL

Natural England: following the submission of addition information on the probable impact of the development on nearby sites designated for their nature conservation value, Natural England states that no further information is necessary and there is no objection.

The applicant has submitted further information to demonstrate that the access road could be formed in such a manner as to comply with the Highways Officer’s requirements as to gradients. He has also submitted details of the proposed means of foul water drainage for the mobile home being a septic tank.

Councillor Harwood has expressed concern that the proposed new landscaping to ‘soften’ the impact of the access track would be too linear and that a better solution would be to have landscaped enclosures. Following consultation with the Landscape Officer I agree that the linear approach could be made more informal with a looser grain of landscaping in the form of a much looser pattern of planting around the access track that is less linear and more a grouping of trees to break up the lines of the access. I propose to amend condition 5 to reflect that.

RECOMMENDATION: Condition 5 be amended to read:

            Prior to any of the buildings hereby approved proceeding past ground works a scheme of landscaping, using indigenous species which shall include indications of all existing trees and hedgerows on the land, and details of any to be retained, together with measures for their protection in the course of development and a programme for the approved scheme's implementation and long term management shall be submitted to and approved by the Local Planning Authority. The scheme shall be designed using the principles established in the Council's adopted Landscape Character Assessment and Landscape Guidelines and shall include full details of proposed boundary treatments so as to prevent animals damaging the northern hedgerow and the woodland beyond. Notwithstanding the indication on the submitted drawings, landscaping around the access track shall, where possible, avoid linear forms and shall instead focus on a looser pattern of planting in a grouped arrangement. Appropriate species would include Field Maple, Large-leaved Lime, Beech, Box, Juniper, Common Hawthorn and Purging Buckthorn;

Reason: In the interests of visual amenity and ecology.