Planning committee refusal but there’s a catch

The planning committee gathered together to debate the application for the Beehive site in Cambridge by Railpen. The committee, with ward councillors and members of the public, were ready to begin when the case officers surprised us all by informing us that Railpen had prompted the Secretary of State to ‘call it in,’ which means the plan bypassed the planning committee. Here’s more from Planning Aid on what that means.

We were truly disappointed that Railpen approached the Secretary of State to call this application in, thus bypassing democracy.

That’s the bad news.

Here’s some good news.

The proceedings of the planning committee meeting, their decisions and all the comments and reports will be sent to the Planning Inspectorate for review. Because the committee can’t actually refuse due to the ‘calling in’, as recommended by the case officers, they were ‘minded to refuse’, so had this been a standard planning meeting, we’d have been very pleased with the results, which was a unanimous refusal on the grounds of residential amenities.

We’re reassured that councillors saw that there are fundamental issues with the site over residential amenities. We think Railpen’s actions are an appalling breach of trust and truly tactical and cruel move that smacks of money and power, over local collaboration and local interest.

We noted that:

• Councillors felt disappointed that this plan had been in progress for two years and there was still an issue with massing, height, loss of daylight affecting 150 homes, a sense that it should have been sorted out before planning

• There was a notable concern about trust, that if Railpen can do this, then why should anyone trust them to provide the facilites they’ve been saying they’d provide?

• There’s no requirement for Railpen to create a skate park, makers lab, etc, at this point or indeed at all. Should groups trust them?

• For Railpen to bypass democracy, it indicated a breakdown in the communication between those who were talking to them (Abbey People, ward councillors) though the Chair reminded the committee that it was up to the applicant as to when they wanted to seek planning permission

• That 150 homes impacted and affects on residential amenities was too many, and that counterbalanced any planning need.

• The absence of proper visuals as opposed to those provided in the glossy brochures was noted and comments were made about the accuracy of those illustrations.

• Our illustrations were noted and thought better.

• That the changes to aid residential amenities were not a significant demand and could have been done at an earlier stage.

• One councillor expressed his sadness and that he regretted the plans felt very short of the standards they had expected from Railpen, and they were not able to celebrate something innovative.

Where next?

We need to locate some seriously good planning support and we’ll be talking to our councillors and case officers to work out what next. We’re going to carry on and we’d love your continued help.

We may need donations so we’ll be looking at this too. Meantime, we’re on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire on 13th February at 8.35am and we’ll post the link to that when we have it.

Watch this space.