DPC meeting cut short

A number of the applications on the agenda for yesterday’s meeting of the Development and Planning Commission were deferred until next month after a member of the Commission became ill.

However, all of the major developments were discussed at the meeting, which lasted nearly five hours.

The date for the meeting when these items will be discussed will be announced once the Town Planner can secure the room where the meeting is held in the John Mackintosh Hall.

New Town Planning Act
The outcome of a round robin on the proposed protocols for the implementation of the new Town Planning Act was discussed at yesterday’s meeting.

Some of protocols included, that all applications filed with the Town Planner will have a minimum five working days for people to comment.

The Sub Committee can decide when details of an application should not be published. This is to ensure applications such as that for a bank will not raise any security issues.

The new Act has the power to allow minor amendments to an approved application via a specific procedure.

“The Act makes it clear that the decision on whether an amendment can be considered a minor amendment application, lies with the DPC and its final,” the Deputy Town Planner Paul Naughton Rumbo explained.

A minor amendment, “is one whose scale and nature does not have a material effect on the overall scheme of the development and results in a development which is not, in the opinion of the Commission, substantially different from the one which has been approved,” he added.

It was noted that it was not possible to provide a definitive definition of a minor amendment as it depends on the scheme and the context.

Some minor amendments may include, when the site boundary is not changed, the siting, landscape, scale and height is not significantly changed, its use has not altered, the appearance is not adversely affected.

The change is compliant with planning policy and with the conditions given with the original application.

Changes to windows or other openings that do not impact on neighbouring properties and that any interests of the parties involved in the original consultation are not being disadvantaged.