The Saga Continues

The next meeting of the Planning Control Committee is due to meet on Thursday 20th Sept to review the reasons for refusal of the applicationto redevelop the station pub (ref. 17/01622/1). The general idea is to simplify the reasons for refusal to avoid the appeal being decided by a public enquiry, a very expensive process for NHDC and for everyone else.
This is the link to the meeting agenda item. The key document is the officers’s report, which recommends that: * Reason 1 (loss of pub) is retained, but related to the new version of the NPPF that is now in force, but a dependence on policy ETC7 (change of use of shops etc.) is dropped, * Reason 2 (cramped layout) is retained, * Reason 3 (inadequate parking) is dropped, on the grounds that Herts Highways had no objection the original application, * Reason 4 (noise and odour impacts) is dropped on the grounds that this can be mitigated in practice, * Reason 5 (lack of completed S106 Obligation) is dropped on the grounds that it is likely one will be in place by the time the appeal takes place, where Reason 1 etc. are the reasons originally given by the Planning Control Committee in its decision on 19th April 2018. There is a discussion about this on the SOS Pub Facebook Group.