Agenda item

8 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, EC4M 7DX

Report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director.

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director relative to an application for a change of use at ground and basement levels from retail (Class A1) to a restaurant and hot food takeaway (Sui Generis) (147 sq.m GIA) and external alterations comprising the installation of air-intake and extract louvres to the existing shopfront fascia at 8 Paternoster Row, London, EC4M 7DX.

 

The Chief Planning Officer and Development Director highlighted that the report had been brought to Committee partly due to the concerns expressed by Mr Lodge.

 

The Committee were shown proposed plans for both the basement and ground floor levels with the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director highlighting that the basement level would be used primarily for the preparation of food and would require plant in order to be serviced, with the ground floor level used for food preparation but also incorporating a servery and coffee station and seating area.

 

The Chief Planning Officer and Development Director underlined that the applicant had looked very closely at existing ventilation ducts at the premises and had demonstrated that it would not be possible to extract upwards to roof level. The proposed extraction system was state of the art and had been designed to minimise odours. Officers were therefore of the view that the insertion of louvres in the shopfront to extract at street level would be appropriate and recommended the application for approval.

 

A Member commented that he had attended the site visit yesterday and noted that the premises adjacent tot his already had similar arrangements in place. He commented that, when standing underneath the louvre in the adjacent premises, it was possible to feel air blowing downwards and also to smell food odours. With this in mind, he questioned whether it might be possible to adjust the louvre fins to expel air horizontally. The Chief Planning Officer and Development Director agreed to evaluate this. It was noted that the option of the fins directing the extracted air upwards is probably impractical as this could mean rainwater being able to enter.

 

The Chair thanked the Member for his contribution and went on to thank all Members who had been able to attend the site visit. He also took the opportunity to remind Members that they should always RSVP in advance for such visits so that adequate preparations could be made.

 

Another Member, who had also attended the recent site visit, stated that, visually, she did not feel that the installation of the louvre at street level posed a particular problem. She went on to question, however, what would happen should the extraction here prove to be an issue in terms of odours and how this could be adequately conditioned or remedied should the application be approved. She went on to refer to a fish and chip shop in Islington who had operated under similar arrangements but had been forced to close over a year ago following odour complaints from local residents. In this case, a suitable solution had never been found and so the establishment remained closed.

 

A Member stated that smells were subjective whereas noise/vibration nuisances could be measured. He questioned whether any thought had been given to how odour levels might be quantified. He stated that he had attended the recent site visit and was supportive of this application.

 

The Deputy Chairman stated that he hoped the Committee would not reject the application on the grounds of potential odour issues. He underlined that the client had explored all options in terms of ventilation and that this application as it stood was policy compliant. He added that it was important to provide a diversity of offerings in the City in order to meet the ambition of it becoming a real 24/7 destination.

 

In response to the points made, the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director reported that the proposed conditions covered the cleaning, servicing and maintenance of all parts of the ventilation and extraction equipment including the odour control systems. Any monitoring of odours emitted from the premises would be undertaken by Environmental Health. In terms of orienting louvres upwards, the Chief Planning Officer reported that this may lead to issues around rainwater ingress but added that it was certainly something that could be explored further with the applicant.

 

Members were also informed that DEFRA had produced a paper on ‘Odour Guidance for Local Authorities’ in March 2010 but Officers underlined that it was not possible to attach any sort of measure on odour emissions in the same way that it was for noise.

 

A Member spoke to state that he believed that there were very similar conditions in place for a restaurant in the Barbican but that the enforcement of the conditions had proved to be an ongoing difficulty despite the involvement of Environmental Health. He added that he would therefore like to have further clarity around how the maintenance of the proposed ventilation system would be managed. The Chief Planning Officer and Development Director reiterated that the maintenance of the system was also conditioned with the applicant required to keep a record of all maintenance, cleaning and servicing on site and provide this to the Local Planning Authority upon request to demonstrate compliance with this.

 

The Chair recognised that whilst the proposals in terms of ventilation here may not be ideal, use of EMAQ+ was the best option available at present in terms of the cleaning, servicing and maintenance of the system and the proposals were entirely compliant with present policy. He asked that Members move to a vote on the application.

 

Votes were cast as follows:    IN FAVOUR – 15 Members

                                                OPPOSED – 0 Members

There was one abstention – Oliver Lodge.

 

RESOLVED – That Planning permission be granted for the above proposal in accordance with the details set out in the attached schedule.

Supporting documents: