The Chair welcomed the members of the public, Members and officers to the meeting.

The Planning Officer introduced the application which was for a change of use of the former bus depot (Sui Generis use) to vehicle servicing and repair business (Class B2 use) and construction of additional workshop unit at Sheerness Bus Station, Bridge Road, Sheerness.  She drew attention to the palisade fencing around the front of the boundary of the site, which, as erected, required planning permission and was unacceptable.  The Graduate Planner said that this application proposed to relocate the fencing two metres back into the site.

The Planning Officer reported that KCC Highways and Transportation and the Council’s Design & Conservation Manager had raised no objection to the application.  She referred to minor changes to conditions (1), (5) and (6) as set-out in the update to the report which had been tabled at the Planning Committee meeting.

A Ward Member raised the following concerns:

·         A lot of public money had been secured for the area via the levelling-up Fund;

·         disappointed about the loss of the bus shelter;

·         the palisade fencing was detrimental to the visual amenity of the local area and the first thing visitors would see on leaving the station;

·         closeboarded fencing would be more suitable;

·         would like the fencing to be moved back 6 metres rather than 2 metres to allow the installation of a new bus shelter.

A representative of Kent Community Rail Partnership said she understood that Sheerness Town Council were willing to fund the reinstallation of the bus shelter and that when replacement bus services were required when trains did not run, the coaches would now need to park on Bridge Road interrupting the flow of traffic.

A member of Sheerness Town Council said the access to the site was dangerous and the site negatively detracted from the local heritage assets.

At this point the applicants joined the meeting.  The applicant said that the owner of the land was unlikely to agree to setting the fence back 6 metres.  He said that they leased the land and as such had to consider public safety for which they were liable.

The Area Planning Officer advised that a fence of up to 2 metres in height could normally be erected around a site under permitted development.  However, if adjacent to the highway, the height of the fence was limited to 1 metre.  The term “adjacent” did not refer to a specific distance, but as a general rule of thumb in most instances a 2 metre set back from the highway would not be “adjacent”.  In this instance the applicant proposed to move the fence back to two metres and this would be likely to be considered as permitted development.  As such the applicant could do this without any form of planning permission.  He also explained that both KCC and Swale Borough Council’s Parking Team had been consulted on the potential for reinstallation of the bus shelter.  The land on which the former shelter stood was private land and not public.  There was not sufficient reason to require a bus shelter in this location, and no funding was available for this in any case.

The Ward Member and Town Councillor suggested that funding could be available for the Town Council to erect and maintain a bus shelter.  The applicant stated that the landlord could be willing to agree to lease land for this at a peppercorn rent.  The Area Planning Officer stated that whilst this was not necessary to make the scheme acceptable, the Town Council could pursue this with the applicant outside of the application process, and a small area to the front of the site subject to the proposed landscaping strip could be utilised for this.

The Design & Conservation Manager said that the impact of the fence was quite harmful visually to the local area, however soft landscaping would help mitigate this.