Agenda item

[Report of the Director for Planning, Regeneration and Development. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Housing and Regeneration.]The report seeks Cabinet’s approval for the adoption of the Noel Park Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan, following a six week public consultation.

The Cabinet Member for Planning introduced the report which sought Member approval for the adoption of the finalised draft of the Noel Park Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan, following the consultation process that had been undertaken on the draft report and the representations received.

The Cabinet Member for Planning thanked the local community, Historic England and Planning Officers for their contributions. The Cabinet Member advised that the Noel Park Conservation Area was one of the many valuable heritage sites in the borough  and by working with key stakeholders, the Planning Service had been able to develop an updated character appraisal and management plan to drive future work across the Council and to ensure that the area’s special character was preserved. The Cabinet Member recommended the report to Cabinet and advised that the report sought approval for extending the conservation area and Article 4 designations, as per the recommendations contained in the appraisal.

RESOLVED

1.    To note the comments received from the consultation on the draft document and how these have been taken into account in the finalising the draft Noel Park Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan, highlighted at paragraph 6.17 of the report and set out in the Consultation Statement at Appendix 2 of the report;

2.    To approve the adoption and publication of the finalised draft Noel Park Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan as attached at Appendix 2 of the report;

3.    To authorise the extension of the existing Article 4 Direction to cover the entire designated conservation area in accordance with the appraisal recommendations and instruct officers to undertake such steps as are necessary under Schedule 3 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 to do so.

Reasons for decision

The Council has a statutory duty to ensure that conservation areas are preserved or enhanced and publish policies for the implementation of the same. The various insensitive alterations within the area have resulted in the conservation area being included in Historic England’s ‘At Risk’ register. It is therefore important that the Council adopts this appraisal along with the management plan to ensure that the significance of the area is preserved or enhanced.

The management plan includes recommendations that both the conservation area and Article 4 area are extended. It is important that these changes are made in order to give the Council consistent control over minor changes to buildings across the whole estate so that the significance of the whole area can be effectively protected.

Alternative options considered

The appraisal explores the possibility of leaving the boundaries of the conservation area and the area covered by the Article 4 Direction as they currently are. However, the proposed addition to the conservation area is contemporary with the Noel Park Estate and has the same architectural and historic significance therefore it was considered preferable that it be included in the conservation area and given the same protection as the rest of the estate.

Furthermore, given the cumulative impact of the loss of architectural detailing, it is considered preferable that a consistent control over such alterations is implemented across the whole of the conservation area by extending the Article 4 Direction (which removes permitted development rights to alterations to the front of the property only).