Agenda item

The Principal Planning officer provided the Members with an overview of the major application which comprised two sites either side of Montgomery Road and adjacent to the Castlereagh Road. 

He advised the Members of the key issues in the assessment of the proposal, which included the principle of a major foodstore at that location; the loss of existing industrial land; design and layout considerations; impact on amenity / character of the area; impact on transport and other infrastructure and impact on the natural environment.

The Members were advised that the proposal constituted an increase of 397sqm of convenience and 198sqm of comparison floorspace on the existing store, which was to be relocated from its current location to the factory site to the north.  The Principal planning officer explained that the site was outside any designated retail centres identified within both the BUAP and dBMAP.

He reported that, following assessment of the economic information, on balance, it was considered that the majority of trade would be drawn from unprotected locations and, as such, the scale of impact on protected centres was not likely to be significant.

At the time of writing the report, there were no sites available that could facilitate the proposal, largely due to the size of store proposed, and it therefore met the sequential test.

It was felt that the proposal would provide regeneration benefits in terms of restoring a vacant site to active economic use. He advised that it might provide substantial community benefits, including in terms of job creation and improved built form and associated public realm, if all the business units were to become operational on an ongoing basis.

The agent had indicated that the proposal would result in the following economic impacts:

·        the construction costs of the entire project will be around £8million, which would be a significant benefit to the local construction industry;

·        the proposed store would support 13 new jobs;

·        the proposed Class B2 & B4 units had the potential to create 87 full time equivalent positions;

·        there would be an increase in rates revenue for the Council of around £300,000+ per annum.

In order to secure the retention of business/industrial use at the site and to offset the loss of such uses in substitution for the proposed retail use, it was fundamental that the conversion works of the existing Lidl building were provided prior to the new supermarket use commencing. As highlighted in the BCC LDP response, it was necessary to secure that by planning agreement under Section 76 of the Planning Act. He added that it was also considered necessary to restrict permitted development use rights for the business/industrial units, in order that the Council could retain control of operations at the site and to maintain appropriate amenity via planning condition.

The Members were advised that all consultees had responded with no objections, apart from Invest NI who had not yet responded, despite numerous reminders having been issued.

The Members’ attention was drawn to the Late Items pack, whereby the Council’s Economic Development Unit had no objection.  A response had also been received from the DFI Economics Branch, who had considered the “Development Appraisal and Viability Report” and the “Retail impact, Need and Assessment”.  The Principal Planning officer summarised their response and added that the Council’s Estates Valuer had considered the issues and that an independent review of the retail figures had been undertaken by the Council’s LDP team.

He reported that Environmental Health had made comments in relation to the Construction Management Plan, in terms of hours of construction, and that DFI Roads had responded to advise that Condition 19 was no longer necessary and, after discussion with the agent in regards to Conditions 20-23, officers were awaiting final conditions from Roads and could be amended following receipt of response. Delegated authority was therefore requested to finalise all conditions.

One objection had been received in relation to traffic and associated issues.  He advised that DFI Roads had no objections in relation to those issues and, accordingly, any impacts were considered acceptable.

The Members of the Committee recommended that, in accordance with the Council decision of 4th May 2021, the Chief Executive would exercise her delegated authority to approve the application, to finalise the wording of conditionsand to enter into a planning agreement under S76 of the Planning Act, subject to no new substantiveplanning issues being raised by consultees and third parties.