Both these conditions are still applicable to the application property.

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1 08/00717/FUL CHANGE OF USE FROM LIGHT INDUSTRIAL (MIXED USE B1 & B8) TO MOT TESTING CENTRE (SUI GENERIS) AT 14 Horwood Court, Bletchley, Milton Keynes FOR Mr Narinder Kangura INTRODUCTION The application property is a small light industrial unit located in Horwood Court in Bletchley. Horwood Court is accessed from Bilton Road and located between large industrial units on Bilton Road and residential properties in Staplehall Road and The Laurels. Horwood Court was constructed in the mid 1980's on a former County Council depot. The original consent has conditions on it restricting the use of the units to Use Classes B1 (light industrial) and B8 (storage and distribution). A condition restricting working hours also exists on the units. This states: 'No work shall be carried out on any Sunday or Bank Holiday nor between the hours of 5.30pm and 7.30.am on any other day, nor on any Saturday after p.m.' Both these conditions are still applicable to the application property. CURRENT APPLICATION The current application seeks consent to change the use of Unit 14 Horwood Court from the mixed use B1 and B8 to an MOT Testing Centre (Sui Generis). The application was submitted originally with an element of general industrial/car repairs (Use class B2) however this has been removed during the course of the application in a letter by the applicant. The MOT testing centre would have one MOT bay, a small office, a staff room and a toilet. The unit has space for one parking bay to the front of the unit and there is an allocated parking bay in an area of parking opposite the unit. The applicant has shown an addition parking space to the front of the unit and a parking bay inside the unit however for reasons expanded upon in the `Considerations section these are not considered to be usable. MAIN ISSUES The main issues in this application are: - Impact on the residential amenity of the neighbouring residential properties. - Parking RELEVANT PLANNING HISTORY The following cases are of relevance to the current application: (137)

2 (138)

3 (139)

4 MK/01164/84 - Erection of 16 light industrial storage units - Permission granted with conditions including restricted use and working hours MK/00176/86 - Change of use from light industrial to general industrial (Car repairs) at Units 11 and 12 Horwood Court - Refused due to the detrimental impact on the amenity of the neighbouring properties by virtue of noise, fumes, dust and general disturbance. This case was also refused as it would set a precedent for similar proposals which would change the character of the estate. Enforcement action was subsequently taken and an appeal was lodged. The inspector noted that taking into account the proximity of the nearest dwelling, he considered that any industry other than a light industrial use would not be appropriate for the setting. The Inspector concluded the impact on the neighbouring properties was unacceptable. MK/00514/86 - Relaxation of planning condition to allow hours of work from 7.30 am to 7.30 pm (Monday to Saturdays) - Refused and dismissed at appeal due to close proximity of the residential properties and the nuisance likely to result from noise and general disturbance. The Inspector noted that the noise and disturbance caused by vehicles using the access road and units outside normal working hours would adversely affect the amenity of residents. MK/01079/89 - Change of use to MOT testing (Unit 12) - Recommended by officers for approval, however the application was refused by committee due to impact on residential properties amenity by virtue of noise and general disturbance and that if approved it would encourage other car related uses which would change the light industrial nature of the estate. No appeal was lodged. Planning applications MK/01369/89, MK/01370/89, MK/01371/89 and MK/01372/FUL all sort to remove or relax the condition relating to hours of work. These applications were refused by the Council and were all subsequently dismissed at appeal. At the appeals the inspector noted the noise and disturbance outside normal working hours would have an unacceptable impact on the residential amenity of the neighbouring properties. Appeals were made against Enforcement Notices on Units 1 and Units 11 and 212 in This was regarding a breach in the working hours. The inspector concluded that a breach of the working hours condition had taken place and upheld the Notices and refused permission to vary the condition. RELEVANT PLANNING POLICY The most relevant policies in the Milton Keynes Local Plan are: D1 Impact of Development Proposals on Locality E1 Protection of Existing Employment Land E11 Protection of Small Business Units T15 Parking Provision (140)

5 CONSULTATIONS AND REPRESENTATIONS The Highway Engineer has stated that the existing use of the Unit as B1 requires 4 car parking spaces whereas the proposed use would only require 3 spaces. The parking space within the unit is not accessible and the rear parking space at the front of the unit is not to the required dimensions. Therefore it is considered that the unit only has 2 parking spaces however in practice the occupier of the unit may park in front of the roller shutter door of the unit. This would require management of the car parking spaces. Horwood Court is a private road and there are parking controls on Bilton Road and Watling Street. Access into and out of Horwood Court is acceptable and appears to operate well. Functioning as a MOT station it is likely that customers will wait whilst the MOT is being carried out. As there is no general maintenance on site customers are unlikely to leave their car at the site all day. Given that the parking requirement for the MOT station is less than the existing B1 use the Highway Engineer has no objections to planning permission being granted on the basis that the unit can only be used as an MOT station and not for general vehicle maintenance or any other vehicle uses. The Chief Environmental Health Officer has stated there is no objection subject to the hours of operation being limited to 0730 to 1730 Monday to Friday and Saturdays, and not at all on Sundays or Bank Holidays and no power tools and air compressors being used outside the building. 10 letters of objection have been received by neighbours. These have raised the following issues: - Numerous other applications have been made and refused. - An illegal garage was set up in 1988 and the community objected and the proposals were rejected at an appeal. - A previous vehicle MOT and repair use were evicted. - The application is exactly the same as the one that was forced to cease trading in The use would violate site conditions. - The conditions on the original permission were supposed to give some protection to residents amenity. - There has been and continues to be nuisance to the neighbouring residential properties through the operation of the units. - Additional noise and traffic to and from the unit will disturb neighbours. - The unit is very close to residential properties. - No waste disposal bins are allowed to be left outside. - Parking for the units is restricted and unauthorised use of units for car repairs has demonstrated that the parking is insufficient for such a use. - Garages and MOT testing stations are notorious for parking and storing vehicles. If permitted, the use will cause chaos and disruption to existing tenants. - Restrictions of hours make the use of the unit unsuitable for this work. (141)

6 - Customers will fill up the workers parking from early morning disturbing the peace at an unreasonable hour and will collect cars late in the evening. - Each unit only has 2 car parking spaces with just 2 visitor car parking spaces. - Access for deliveries may be restricted due to the increase in parking - There is no provision for oil, petrol or grease storage and the site is too cramped to provide any. Danger of fire to the surrounding area would result. - The access to Bilton Road was not designed to cope with this level of traffic. It is already extremely difficult. Bilton Road is already heavily congested. - The application would set a precedent if permitted changing the character of the estate. - The units are not designed for the motor trade. When a previous occupier of unit 8 ran a motor trade the occupiers of the neighbouring units had problems with fumes. The units are connected via the roof space. - No motor trades are allowed to trade from the estate. - The site is not intended for daily public use. - The access road to the units runs along side the edge of a number of residential properties. If the timings of businesses were changed to suit the proposed use then residents would be woken by the noise of people coming and going early in the mornings and late at night. - The conditions on the original permission means the residents do not have much trouble from the area. - Previous uses on the site for car repairs and MOT's have caused a lot of trouble and cost the council a considerable amount of money. - There are plenty of other units in Milton Keynes without the restrictions of Horwood Court which have been purpose built for B2 and Sui Generis uses. - Already too many service and MOT centres in the immediate vicinity. CONSIDERATIONS Principle of Use Policy E1 of the Local Plan seeks to protect existing employment land and states that planning permission will be refused for change of use for any land identified for employment use on the Proposals Map unless there would be no conflict with existing and potential neighbouring uses and the proposed use would not significantly reduce the provision of local employment opportunities. Due to the size of the unit and the nature of the intended business the proposal is not considered to significantly reduce the provision of local employment opportunities. The compatibility of the proposal with the neighbouring properties is discussed later in the report. Policy E11 of the Local Plan states that planning permission will be refused for proposals that include the loss of small business units by means of change of use from classes B of the Use Classes Order. Although the proposal will result in the loss of one small business unit due to the nature of the proposed use this is still considered to support a small business and maintain many of the characteristics of a use falling within B classes of the Use Class Order. The loss of this one small business unit to a use closely related to a B class use is not considered to be significant enough to justify a refusal. (142)

7 Impact on Neighbouring Properties The site has a complex planning history which is outlined in the 'Relevant Planning History' section of this report. The site was previously a County Council Depot and in the mid 1980 the units at Horwood Court were granted consent. The approval included conditions restricting the use of the units and the working hours of the units. Both these conditions were placed on the approval to protect the amenity of the neighbouring residential properties that are located immediately to the south of Horwood Court. Planning Inspectors decisions from the late 1980s note that the site lies between a large industrial development area and a large area of residential development and acts as a buffer between these different and conflicting land uses. A number of appeals relating to a relaxation of the working hours have been dismissed on the units due to the impact and disturbance this would have on the neighbouring properties and an appeal was also dismissed for a general car repairs with MOT (Use Class B2). In this application inspector concluded that the use would have an unacceptable impact on the amenity of the neighbouring properties and concerns that that permitting the scheme could lead to a proliferation of general industrial uses. The current application has to be assessed on its own merits and judged against the relevant planning policy. The originally proposed B2 element of the current application (which would have allowed vehicle repairs and maintenance) has been withdrawn from the application and the application is now solely for a single bay MOT testing centre (Sui Generis) with no car repairs or maintenance. MOT centres are considered to be sui generis use class on the basis that the use only involves inspection and testing, not activities covered by the planning definition of an industrial process. By virtue of this the nature of the proposed use is considered to significantly differ from a B2 use. Policy D1 of the Local Plan states that planning permission will be refused for development that would be harmful due to unacceptable pollution by noise, smell or other emission to air, water or land. It also states that planning permission will be refused for development which would lead to additional traffic generation which would overload the existing road network or cause undue disturbance, noise or fumes. The proposed use as a MOT centre is not considered to cause anymore significant harm to the neighbouring residential properties in terms of noise and disturbance than the existing permitted light industrial use. The nature of works at an MOT centre are generally relatively quiet with only the occasional revving of engines and testing of horns taking place. The majority of the work carried out involves inspecting and testing the car. It is considered that if the same restrictive hours of work are placed upon the current application as the originally consented scheme, the impact of the noise and disturbance on neighbours can be successfully mitigated and controlled. Environmental Health have been consulted regarding noise and disturbance to the adjacent residential properties and have stated they have no objection to planning consent being granted subject to conditions on working hours and no use of power tools outside of the unit. (143)

8 Residents have raised concerns that customers of the MOT centre will drop cars at the site early in the morning and not pick them up until late at night leading to disturbance to residents by use of the access road and units outside of normal working hours. However as the proposal is solely for an MOT station with no car repairs taking place at the site, it is likely that people will bring in vehicles and wait whilst the MOT is being undertaken. Customers would then take the car away after completion of the MOT. Therefore it is considered that people will generally not leave their vehicles at the site. This element of the business is outside the control of the applicant and it is not considered that it is an element that could be controlled by condition. In a previous appeal decision on the site an Planning Inspector noted that the delivery and collection of cars by customers themselves outside the restrictive hours did not fall within the scope of the condition restricting working hours as it was not considered to be an employment activity as such and did not involves the company s staff. Furthermore, these activities were not considered to be under the applicant s control. Occupiers of neighbouring units have also raised concerns over the issue of fumes and stated that the buildings are not suitable for such a use. The future occupier of the unit would have a duty of care to any workers or customers which would include ensuring that the unit was suitably ventilated and fumes extracted so as to not cause a nuisance. Also the units already have large roller shutter doors which would allow vehicles in and out of the units for the existing light industrial use. Furthermore if the fumes were to become a nuisance to neighbouring occupiers other environmental legislation exists to abate such a nuisance. To ensure the close-by residential occupiers amenity is retained and to control the nature of the business it is recommended that a planning condition be imposed on any permission stating no general car repairs or maintenance will take place on the site. Parking The unit is approximately 119m2 in size, and under the councils Adopted Parking Standards a B1 unit of this size requires 4 car parking spaces (1 space per 30m2). The current application with one MOT testing bay and no car repairs use has a parking requirement of 3 spaces when applying the Adopted parking standards. Therefore, comparing the two, the parking requirement for the proposed MOT use is 1 space less than the existing B1 use. The parking arrangement for the unit shows 4 car parking spaces however there are only considered to be 2 spaces serving the unit, one space in the row of allocated spaces opposite the unit and one space outside the unit. The second space shown in front of the unit (marked P2 on the submitted plan) does not meet the required dimensions and would also be 4.4 metres long. The space within the unit (marked P4 on the submitted plans) is not accessible. In reality, operation of the unit may allow for more than two vehicles to park. There could be options to park in front of (or in) the unit (144)

9 although the operator of the unit would need to manage this through parking and re-parking of vehicles to get vehicles in and out. Horwood Court is a private road and so is not adopted public highway. During the site visits it was noted that there were very few vehicles in the site. Although a number of units were using spaces in front of the doors, the parking area opposite was mostly unused however this is mainly allocated to other Units and would not be available to users of the proposal. Even if parking on the site were to be problematic, it is unlikely to cause problems on the public highway due to the presence of on street parking controls in Bilton Road and Watling Street. The access into and out of Horwood Court is acceptable and seems to operate well. Functioning solely as an MOT station, it is likely that people will bring in vehicles and wait with them while the MOT is being carried out. As there will be no on maintenance of vehicles within the unit, it is therefore likely few people will leave their cars there all day. The parking standards reflect this. Given that the parking requirement for the MOT station is less than the existing B1 use the Highway Engineer has no objections to planning permission being granted on the basis that the unit can only be used as an MOT station and not for general vehicle maintenance or any other vehicle uses. RECOMMENDATION It is recommended that planning permission be granted subject to conditions regarding standard time condition, restriction of hours in line with the original consent, use solely as a MOT station with no repairs, limit of 1 MOT bay, parking being retained and used for no other purpose, no use of compressors or air tools outside of the unit. Report author / case officer James Kirkham Contact details james.kirkham@milton-keynes.gov.uk (145)

Change of use from storage and workshop (Use Class B2) to vehicle examination site (MOT) (Use Class Sui Generis)

OTH02 Application Number: 12/00040/FUL Change of use from storage and workshop (Use Class B2) to vehicle examination site (MOT) (Use Class Sui Generis) AT Unit 23, Twizel Close, Stonebridge FOR Mr M Gol-Shecan