I have received much correspondence this week from concerned residents of The Chilterns, the apartments that are along two sides of Gloucester Green. The applications are 11/01135, 11/01140 and 11/01142. The first appears to be on the West side and the second two on the North side. All applications are for a change of use from use class A1 (retail) to A3 (hot food restaurant and/or takeaway).
Concerns are around the much larger amount of rubbish A3 units tend to produce and its storage as these are quite constrained sites. There is also concern that food waste not stored properly will cause bad smells and attract vermin. I certainly share those concerns and also those about late night running of noisy ventilation fans and of course all the people-noise that more food outlets will inevitably bring. Some objections are based on the impact more A3 will have on the viability of existing A3 premises but unfortunately this is not a planning reason that can be taken into account when determining a planning application.
What can be taken into account is the actual noise, smell, refuse problems that more A3 units will inevitably cause. I think this would be a step too far in reducing amenity and increasing nuisance for residents of The Chilterns so I hope these applications are turned down. There is already another hour added to the opening time (making it 4am) of a food outlet that backs onto the cinema (subject of an earlier blog post) and I really do think that enough is enough this time.
The applicants seem to make the argument that the retail units are not financially viable and that the only way to make these units viable is to let them be food outlets. I think the applicants (who are the landlords) are rather forgetting that the financial equation also includes the rent payable to the landlord. These applications therefore do rather strike me as yet another landlord being greedy and trying to maximise profit without showing any regard for the amenity of the area, balance of uses of premises or the rights of quiet enjoyment of their properties that those living in the area have.
I am pleased that these applications have been called into the West Area Planning Committee by my Lib Dem colleagues Stephen Brown, Alan Armitage, David Rundle and Jim Campbell and I do hope that when it comes to determine the applications the new West Area Planning Committee will turn them down.
In the event that the planning use changes are granted then I hope the provisions of the Licensing Act 2003 can be used to prevent any new A3 units from operating late at night and into the small hours that further disturbing the residents of The Chilterns.
There were no planning applications although we did talk about the plans to make Jericho a conservation area and put an article 4 direction area in place (which basically removes permitted development rights from building owners). Although some buildings in Jericho, notably St. Barnabas Church, are worth preserving I must say that a lot of the housing is very substandard with no cavity walls, poorly insulated windows and incredibly insubstantial foundations. I’m not quite sure why we are preserving rows and rows of cheap houses that were originally built as mass housing for the poor. I think the planning restrictions will severely limit people’s ability or inclination to make their properties more energy efficient and I think that’s a real shame.
We’ve just had a “Green News” through our door. It has a story about how Oxford Greens are entirely behind the Save Temple Cowley Pools campaign and how they have tried to save the pool three times in full council. All true. Then it says that Liberal Democrat councillors have voted against them. You get what they are trying to imply…
We looked again at the Westgate redevelopment planning permission renewal and I was concerned to hear from some residents who were seriously worried about noise and fume pollution to their properties. I hope this can be sorted out before any development proceeds. We also determined some other fairly minor planning applications.
Finally, I couldn’t resist linking to this image from a 
This was a brief meeting set up by the architects 
I met with PC Paul Phillips today and we had a walk around Carfax Ward. Paul’s been policing this area for 8 years now and clearly knows lots of people and is generally accepted and liked in the neighbourhood.
There are two main committees: The Licensing and Gambling Acts Committee deals with alcohol, entertainment and late food licensing as well as gambling establishments.
The General Purposes Licensing Committee deals with street trading; hackney carriage and private hire and sex establishment licensing (table dancing, pole dancing, lap dancing etc.). There are also several subcommittees.