(a)

on 15 January 2015 the Planning Committee was minded to grant the Drake’s Island planning application and deferred the item until March 2015 to allow negotiations to continue to resolve outstanding issues in respect of the following:

·         flood risk

·         impacts on the Special Protection Area (SPA) and impact on the Special Area of Conservation (SAC)

·         for officers to prepare and consult upon a Habitat Regulations Assessment;

(b)

Planning Committee Members were provided with an update at 12 March 2015 Committee meeting and were reminded that the application had been deferred pending further negotiations with the applicant regarding the previous areas of concerns including the submission of a mitigation plan in relation to the island’s little egret colony; a further update was scheduled for 23 April 2015 Planning Committee, however this was not possible; negotiations continued;

(c)

the Environment Agency (EA) was initially concerned that wave actions on the proposed ‘torpedo room’ on the Drake’s Island Development could result in a flood risk; the applicant had since amended the plans, changing the use of the torpedo room from a bedroom to a living room and therefore alleviating concerns. The EA submitted a new formal consultation response confirming they no longer had objections to the development and recommended a set of conditions mitigating other areas of risk;

(d)

Natural England maintained its objection to the application as it considered it was not possible to ascertain that the proposal would not result in adverse effects on the integrity of the Tamar Estuaries Complex Special Protection Area (SPA). With regards to the Special Area of Conservation (SAC), Officers had worked with the applicant and Natural England, to overcome Natural England’s outstanding concern with regards to potential damage to the eelgrass beds from boats approaching the island. It had been agreed that the applicant would enter into a legal agreement to fund the creation of a by-law that would control the moorings should the twelve month voluntary period of management and monitoring fail in respect of the moorings, boat movements and eelgrass;

(e)

the issue surrounding the impact of the proposed development upon the little egret colony was still ongoing; further field work assessing the situation was required during the summer months.

(f)

the applicant had agreed in principle to the onsite work sought by Natural England to assess noise impacts on the little egret colony on the island however dates had not yet been decided;

(g)

Natural England are statutory consultees; if they, as a statutory body, continued to have objections to the Drake’s Island planning application then it was possible for the final decision on the application to be made by the Secretary of State other than Members of Plymouth City Council;

(h)

it was not known if Drake’s Island was inhabited by the little egret colony before the island was vacated several years ago; there were other sites in and around Plymouth where the little egrets populate.