Developer grabs another chance

PLANS for a prestigious, four-storey office building are to go back before councillors at Warrington – despite the fact they have already voted to throw them out.
The scheme, involving land adjoining Stanford House at Garrett Field, Birchwood, is likely to be placed before the development control committee again early next month.
Developers Capital and Provincial have taken advantage of a delay in issuing the committee’s final decision to withdraw their proposals.
This means they can submit them again without going through the lengthy appeals procedure.
The refusal to grant planning consent for the development last month came as something as a shock.
Committee members had visited the site to make an inspection and although there were objections from Birchwood Town Council and one nearby resident, planning officers recommended approval.
But members voted to refuse permission because of fears the scheme would lead to unacceptable increases in traffic.
Development services manager John Groves said the issue of the final decision was deferred to enable the precise reasons for refusal to be properly considered. The decision was contrary to officer recommendation and the reasons had to framed in such a way to ensure the best possible scope to defend the decision if it went to appeal.
This gave the applicants an opportunity to withdraw the scheme before the final decision was issued – and this they did.
Mr Groves added: “This clearly affords the applicant the advantage of attempting to address members’ concerns.
“Members will be able to review these issues, any additional information and, without prejudice to the decision, possible detail of reasons for refusals.”
The scheme involves a four-storey office building with 141 car parking spaces, some in an underground facility.