Issue - meetings
Performance Report - Determination of Planning Applications
Meeting: 01/10/2024 - Planning Committee (Item 19)
19 The Docks and Gloucester Quays - 24/00508/FUL PDF 589 KB
Application for Determination:
Temporary use of land at Orchard Square, Llanthony Road, High Orchard Street, Merchants Road, Victoria Dock and Mariners Square for the siting of an Ice Rink, Christmas Market and associated development. Proposal includes the erection of temporary buildings and plant. Permission sought for the Christmas and New Year periods 2024/25 to 2028/29 from 28 October until 18 January annually.
Minutes:
Officer Report
The Principal Planning Officer presented the report detailing an application for the Temporary use of land at Orchard Square, Llanthony Road, High Orchard Street, Merchants Road, Victoria Dock and Mariners Square for the siting of an Ice Rink, Christmas Market and associated development. Proposal includes the erection of temporary buildings and plant. Permission sought for the Christmas and New Year periods 2024/25 to 2028/29 from 28 October until 18 January annually.
Public Speeches
An agent representing the applicant addressed the committee in the favour of the application.
He said that the application should be granted on the following grounds:
· The Christmas Market and Ice Rink had been approved in previous years and had been a success.
· Officers were supportive of the scheme.
· The 5 year period sought reflected the certainty needed for investment by the applicant.
· The Ice Rink and Market had a positive impact on the local economy of both the Quays and Gloucester as a whole.
· The applicant had worked with stakeholders to minimise disruption.
· Generators for the ice rink would be placed in 2.4m of acoustic screening.
· The proposals had been refined over the years including covering the ice rink, enclosing the generator and the times of the market.
· The had been no noise complaints in 3 years.
· The application respected the amenity of residents whilst balancing commercial interest.
· More than 350 residents have been notified and only one letter had been received opposing it.
· A local resident wanted to comment on the benefit the scheme had brought to Gloucester in years past.
· No statutory consultee raised an objection.
Members’ Questions
The Principal Planning Officer responded to members’ questions concerning whether the land would still have permission for an ice rink and market if the applicant decided not to use the land in the future, the cover over the ice rink, the noise emanating from the site, who would run the event, concerns about the use of fossil fuels instead of batteries for the generator, how much the event brought financially to the City of Gloucester, wheelchair access improvements by the Council, whether there would be smoking areas, whether the application could be changed to 3 instead of 5 years’ of permission, articulated vehicular access, why condition 14 of the previous permission relating to transport (October 2019) was not included in the recommendation with the same wording, restrictive covenants, the Party Wall Act, whether there was a requirement for a bandstand, and whether the event would go on for longer than previous years as follows:
- The planning permission applied to the land. Therefore, if a different operator took over, as long as they complied with the planning conditions, they would be able to operate an ice rink and market.
- The expectation is that the cover would remain on the ice rink at all times.
- In the previous iteration of the application, a noise assessment was conducted, which modelled the use of a greater number of generators. The solution was to enclose the generator in an ... view the full minutes text for item 19