A round-up of the other decisions taken at Havering’s regulatory services committee on Thursday:

Councillors unanimously approved an extension to the club house at Cranham Golf Course, St Mary’s Lane.

Responding to Cllr Linda Hawthorn (Residents Group) who had raised the question of why a the club house had a closing time of 10.30pm, Cllr Barry Tebbut (Conservative) generated much laughter among the other councillors.

He said: “Just to help out non-golfers, in summer it doesn’t get dark until half past nine and you can play golf until then. They do have luminous balls too and I’ve actually played in the dark.”

All eleven members of the committee voted to grant a temporary extension of planning permission to a gypsy family to use a mobile home in Willoughby Drive, Rainham.

Cllr Jeff Brace (Conservative) questioned what constitutes a traveller or a gypsy. “Is it anyone who puts a caravan up on green belt land and says that they are a traveller?”

He was assured by a council officer that there is a legal definition of what constitutes a gypsy or traveller that includes longstanding cultural aspects.

The planning permission was granted for three years to enable the council to carry out a full report on sites which are suitable for use by gypsy and traveller communities.

Construction of a spine road leading to the formerly bitterly opposed new residential development at the old Harold Wood Hospital site in Gubbins Lane was approved.

Permission for the residential development was granted in October and had been bitterly opposed by many residents.

Town Hall staff are set to work in different looking offices, after the committee uninamously approved to remove modern interior partitions within the Grade 2 listed building.

Approval is subject to a consultation not bringing up any new issues before February 14.

A previous application to knock down interior walls was withdrawn over concerns of the loss of historic fabric.

Six council owned garages next to Turpin Lane will be turned into two new houses after the committee gave the go-ahead for them to be built subject to conditions. It was agreed that a degree of sensitivity would be shown to the current elderly users of the garage after a request by Labour Cllr Denis O’Flynn.

A disused council-owned garage site next to Edenhall Road, Harold Hill, will be turned into two new four bedroom semi-detached houses.

Members rejected (by 10 to one) an application for planning permission to build a one bedroom house at a site which was the former garden of another house in Southern Way, Romford.

Approval, with conditions, was granted to turn land at the end of Kings Grove and the rear of Carlisle Road, Romford, into four, two-bedroom houses. The conditions include a financial contribution of �5,000 for an investigation into amending nearby parking restrictions.

New weather shelters will be constructed at Brady Primary School, Wennington Road, Rainham, and The Bridge Nursery, South End Road, Hornchurch after both were granted approval.

The committee accepted recommendations to grant planning permission to one property each in Lower Bedfords Road, Chase Cross and Broxhill Road, Havering-atte-Bower.

Rollcall: Conservative Group - Barry Oddy (Chairman), Barry Tebbutt, Sandra Binion, Jeff Brace, Garry Pain, Robby Misir, Fred Osborne.

Residents’ Group - Clarence Barrett, Linda Hawthorn. Labour Group - Denis O’Flynn. Independent Residents’ Group - Mark Logan.