MANSTON BUSINESS PARK PLANS AGREED WITH CONDITIONS

Plans to build industrial and warehouse units on the Manston Business Park have been agreed by the council’s Planning Committee, subject to conditions.

The Committee decided last night (Wednesday 17 November) to defer the application to officers to approve, once the legal agreement is completed and signed. However, this will be subject to planning conditions on noise and light pollution, foul and surface water drainage, use of the buildings and landscaping on site, which means that the applicant has to submit more information on all these issues to the council.

This information will then be reported back to the Planning Committee, along with comments from statutory consultees, such as Southern Water, before the committee makes a final decision on whether to approve the conditions. No building work can take place on the site until these conditions have been agreed.

Chairman of Planning Committee, Cllr. Jack Cohen, said: “The committee had a very lengthy and detailed discussion about this application. After hearing from the public speakers, members were left in no doubt about the public feeling on this and residents’ concerns about the impact it could have on them. I think it’s clear that members listened carefully to those concerns and acted on them. That’s the reason why the Planning Committee will having the final say about a range of conditions imposed on the applicant, before any building work can start. Usually that’s something done by officers and I think that shows how serious we are about minimising the impact of this development on local people.”

The application is to build a total of 15 buildings, one of which would be a “Gateway building” in the southeast corner of the development, which would house an exhibition hall with offices and restaurant. The other buildings would all be for industrial or warehouse use. The development is only on the existing Manston Business Park, which has been designated for economic development in the Thanet Local Plan.

At last night’s Planning Committee, members heard from a representative of the applicant, who told them that, due to the economic position, their aspirations for any future expansion had been “scaled back” to only the land provided for economic development. He also made it clear that any further phases of development, which they had talked about previously, had now been dropped.

The applicants have agreed that they will enter into a section 106 Agreement with Thanet District and Kent County Council to provide the following things:

• Junction improvements to the Spitfire Junction and at the Mount Pleasant roundabout,
• The introduction of measures to keep lorries away from local roads, particularly Acol village,
• Upgrades to the local cycle network,
• Providing a free shuttle bus for workers and visitors to the site, and
• The introduction of a local employment scheme, with the aim of achieving 50% local recruitment.