Planning:
23/01647/FULM - Student block on Enterprise site, Foss Island Road. Still ongoing. New drawings 6 November 2023 - Some revisions to vehicle access arrangements, but only minor. No reduction in scale or impact on Dunlin House, Elvington Terrace residents.
23/01012/FUL - Pennys 72 Walmgate. Approved, with condition that flue must be painted a dark colour to blend in with brickwork and be less visible.
23/01253/ADV - Tesco, 34 Piccadilly. Refused - New sign and vinyls oversized and overdominent and would harm the apperearance of the building.
23/01088/FUL - Banana warehouse site - still ongoing - some issues with the proposed ammendment details.
21/01045/FUL - Tramways Club, Mill Street/George Street - still ongoing - hopefully is being 'called in' by councillors
Council Executive Meeting 16th November:
At the Council Excutive meeting last week (16th November) several development issues were raised which have an impact on our are:
1. Willow House - Plans are being proposed for the provision of 40 social housing units built to Passivhaus standards on this site.
2. Castle Gateway - Several decisions were approved which impact on our area:
a) 17-21 Piccadilly - Proposal approved to investigate extending Spark lease for a furthe 2 years (on top od existing) until November 2026.
b) Castle Mills site, Piccadilly - "Pause" work on developing site , explore options to delivery 100% affordable house on site, BUT progress work to build the bridge over the Foss (subject to approval of funding from West Yorksire Combined Authority. In the meantime, to explore "meanwhile uses".
Both these decisions to explore "meanwhile uses" have health,noise and pollution impacts on local residents. Spark's issues are well known, whilst the existing "meanwhile" use of Castle Mills ite is causing uncontrolled noise and pollution.
It would seem imperative we lobby our councillors to ensure noise and pollution level limits suitable for a residential area are applied to all "meanwhile use" of these Castle Gateway sites.
Other Matters:
Existing use of Castle Mills site as a builders compound.
Despite complaints about noise, pollution and hours of work to York Council over several months, nothing has been achieved in reducing these.
The Council view is that Planning Permission was not required ( dubious as the exception clause of the Town and Country act quoted does not actually apply to the way the site being is used). Also, it would seem they did not apply a CEMP or any hours of use limits as would normally be the case with work in a residential area. The general responses from various divisions within the council seems to be - don't care about local residents in the city.
Public protection seem to indicate they will only investigate each time a complaint is made (ie after the event) rather than monitor a problem location for exceedances.
(20/10/22) The council has given approval for the Peel Street car-park trees to be removed.
22/01520/FUL- Il Paradiso Del Cibo, 40 Walmgate. The (retrospective)
application for awning, bi-fold doors and tables on the pavement has
been refused. Pavement too narrow, and awnings/ doors out of character.
22/01870/FUL - Walmgate Day Nursery, 34 Walmgate. The application for 4
Air conditioner units on the side (behind the gates) has been approved.
22/02478/NONMAT - 36-44 Piccadilly. 'Non material' change to add plant
on the roof visible from Piccadilly, and changed ground floor patio has
been refused. Expect it to be resubmitted as a full application.
Two HMOs:
22/02354/FUL - 7 Turpin Court - approved
23/00126/FUL - Flat 6, Medway House, Walmgate - in planning, open for
comments.22/1795/FULM A replacement (and reduced) scheme for the proposed student block on Foss Island Road - if anyone wishes to comment.
22/1857/TCA. Remove all the trees along Chapel Row, beside Peel Street car park. This is next to where the Cherry tree was removed on George Street opposite Dixons Lane. So, if approved, all the trees in this area will have been lost.
However two surprising decisions by York Council leading to loss of trees or tree canopy in our area.
22/01793/TCA - Rest Garden,Lead MIll Lane. Permission to reduce trees size on northern side despite planning for the proposed flats on Tramways Club site not yet approved - note these are council owned trees.
22/01755/TCA - Tramways Club site - remove 3 Cherry trees and reduce 3 Lime trees - again planning not yet given for the site. Two of the Cherry trees will need to be removed to allow proposed access to the site.
I do note the decision for the Rest Garden trees has been recalled - whatever that means since the decision has been given to the public!
This is all very worrying. Trees are known to help the enviroment. The area round Tower street and Piccadilly is a government registered polution hot spot. If these proposals go ahead we will have had reduced or removed trees behind Wetherspoons, trees in the rest garden, trees on George Street by the Tramways Club, trees on Chapel Row(Peel Street) and the tree on George Street. We need answers from the the council on why it is failling in its legal duty to reduce polution levels for residents and seems to be approving the opposite to what is required for the area.
Just also to mention some better news: all the proposed "BT street hubs" within Guildhall have been refused by the planners. These were to be LCD advertising screens (described as "monoliths" by the planners) situated arround the centre.
Just one new application in our area:
22/01870/FUL Walmgate Day Nursery, 34 Walmgate. This is to mount 4 air
conditioning units above 1.7 metres high on the side wall on the corner
with Walmgate behind the gate to York Brew and Recycle York (bike shop).
Is this going to cause noise issues for local residents.
Still outstanding:
21/01045/FULM Tramways Club - Mill Street - still ongoing. No sign of
having been "called in" by councillors for planning committee decision.
This development will have an impact on the George street gaveyard/
green space as the developers have included it in their plans.