- Houghton Regis Town Councillor, Jimmy Carroll attended a meeting today to put on record the town Council's objections to a car park ramp development application.
Cllr Jimmy Carroll addresses CBC's Development Control Meeting, today.
Local employers, Whitbread, at Nimbus Park and Houghton Hall Business Park, in Houghton Regis sought permission for a service ramp to a multi-storey car park so that transit vans could be parked on the top tier. The site is accessed from an internal estate road which leads from Porz Avenue, lying to the south.
The supporting Planning Statement indicated that the proposed change of use is required for the storage of delivery vehicles (typically Mercedes Sprinter Vans) on behalf of Amazon Ltd or a similar type of van storage distribution operation. This is a result of a significant increase in demand for online shopping and delivery services. Further, it is indicated that Amazon’s Dunstable distribution centre is expanding and has an undersupply of parking spaces for its delivery vans, which has caused displacement parking within the local area. The planning statement argued that the application provided a solution to this problem.
Directly to the north of the site is Houghton Hall Park and Houghton Regis Conservation Area. The park comprises a group of five Grade II and Grade II* listed buildings located proximate to the northern boundary. There are significant areas of tree planting surrounding the site.
The application site comprises an existing multi-storey car park building and land immediately to the east comprising hardstanding, woodland, amenity grassland and rural vegetation and hedgerow. The trees within this area and are protected by Tree Preservation Order which includes various individual trees, areas and groups of trees and four woodlands.
At the Central Bedfordshire Council's Development Control meeting, held at Chicksands today, Councillor Carroll drew attention to the Town Council objections which were sent in earlier: “The proposed development would contravene the initial criteria which had been agreed for a car park rather than commercial vehicles. Assurances were required that any vehicles or items stored would not impact the treeline, and would be limited to van height. Additional concerns were raised over the hours of operation. The proposed development and removal of trees would have a detrimental visual impact on an area adjacent to the Conservation Area and the setting of Houghton Hall Park. ”
The applicant, Whitbread, argued that the ramp would enable better use of an underused asset and pointed out that the ramp was needed for large transit vans to reach the top floor of the car park.
The proposals would replace 316 standard car parking spaces with 104 larger spaces to accommodate delivery vehicles and the proposed ramp would result in a reduction of 11 spaces at the ground floor level. Overall there would a total loss of 223 car parking spaces across the site, according to a report to the committee.
Planning Application No: CB/22/01953/FULL (Houghton Hall)
Address: Decked Card Park to the North of Porz Avenue, Houghton Hall Park, Houghton Regis, Dunstable, LU5 5FT
Description: The creation of a vehicular access ramp to the top deck of the existing multistorey car park (northeastern elevation) and the Change of use of the top deck from Use Class E to B8 (storage and distribution).
Applicant: Whitbread Group PLC
Councillors on the CBC committee raised concerns that the car park might be converted to warehousing at a future date. There was a concern that there were insufficient trees, or trees being too low, to be able to hide the car park from Houghton Hall Park. Arguments were made for putting a height restriction on the vehicles to be permitted.
Conclusion
The application was approved — 9 for, 1 against with some restrictions to comply with concerning height of vehicles.
* point of clarification - councillors on this committee are invited to tour Central Bedfordshire to see the application sites that are being discussed.
