REPORT OF THE PLANNING & BUILDING COMMITTEE
HELD 9th JANUARY 2003
(By Graham France)
The first meeting of the Committee in the year 2003 was again held in the Liberation Room at the Secretariat and chaired by the Hon Richard Cockwell. Members in attendance were the Hon Norma Edwards, Jim Moffatt, Brian Summers, Les Harris and Paul Phillips with apologies received from Rikki Evans. Apologies were also received from the Building Adviser, Jim Robison, who was on leave, and from the Chief Fire Officer, Gardner Fiddes.
A total of thirteen applications for the necessary consents were to be reviewed and this began following the customary declarations of interest and confirmation of the minutes of last December’s meeting, with just one item of matters arising: the Building Adviser’s information paper on "prefabricated houses" which, it was agreed, should be left for the time being to be monitored by that officer.
The first three applications were for the renewal of temporary planning permission and included Mr Osmund Smith’s mobile home and Portakabin at 3 Brisbane Road, the Public Works Department’s temporary office buildings at their Design Office on Ross Road, and Radio Nova’s 15metre-high supporting mast for a satellite dish and other broadcasting link antenna at the rear of Reflections in Dean Street. The first two of these were granted further conditional consent but in the case of the third members wished to see more details of the mast, dish etc before making their decision and resolved to defer the application.
Moving on to the remaining submissions, the first of these was for the erection of a dwelling having access from Pioneer Row at the rear of 3 Drury Street and submitted by Mr Neil Clifton and Ms Carmen Miranda. The Committee had before them a letter from the Historic Buildings Committee which expressed concern and pointed out that the proposed building would be placed on a conspicuous elevation between the Victorian cottages of Pioneer Row and Drury Street where thirty Pensioner’s cottages were erected in 1849, representing the greatest concentration of historic houses in Stanley. The letter concluded with the view that the proposed building would have a detrimental effect on the character of this important area which, it was hoped, could be protected for the future. Members concurred with this and resolved to refuse the grant of planning permission.
The next four applications all received planning permission, subject to the standard five-year condition, in which time-frame the development must be commenced, and these were for the amended plans of the approved extension to the food hall at West Store for the Falkland Islands Company Limited and three installations of 1.8 metre-diameter satellite TV antenna dish for KTV Limited at Deano’s Bar on John Street, the Narrows Bar on Ross Road East, and at the Victory Bar on Philomel Street.
The proposed alterations of height of the existing fence to 2 metre-high along the north and east boundary of Holdfast House on Holdfast Road submitted by Mr and Mrs Zuvic-Bulic attracted a lot of discussion with some members feeling the work was both unnecessary and not in keeping with other boundary demarcation. It was, however, resolved to grant planning permission but this was to be subject to a reduction in the fence height at the existing vehicular access and minor alterations at the corner with Ross Road West.
Mr Marvin Clarke sought outline planning permission for the erection of a garage for 2 to 3 vehicles with access from Davis Street at his property on 7 Fitzroy Road. He wanted such access directly off Davis Street, but members felt it would not be consistent to allow this and advised that Mr Clarke should make other arrangements for access. They therefore resolved to refuse the grant of planning permission for this development, also not to grant consent under the Highways (Building Lines) Ordinance.
The following application raised similar concerns over the proposed siting of a garage close to a roadside boundary, which was part of a submission by Mr Michael Wallace to relocate an existing garage and erect a new one at 23 Callaghan Road. The Committee decided to defer consideration and asked the Environmental Planning Officer, Mr Antony Lancaster, to hold discussions with the applicant to achieve an improvement in the siting.
Details shown on an application for works at 41 Fitzroy Road submitted by Mr and Mrs Stewart-Reid needed clarification and possible correction, it was decided, before any decision could be taken and members resolved to defer the submission until the next meeting.
The final application to be looked at was a submission by Mr Stephen Luxton to erect a 4ft-high fence on the east, south and west boundaries of his property at 7 Narrows View. Subject to a small modification at one corner of the development, members decided to grant planning permission, again subject to the standard five-year condition.
There were no grant applications for off-street parking to be considered and the Committee then moved on to Part II of the agenda where members of the press and public are excluded. The next meeting is scheduled to be held in the Liberation Room on Thursday the 6th of February 2003, to commence at 9am.
