A MARKET town with an “urgent need” for affordable homes will have dozens more of them after plans for a new estate were given the go-ahead.
Social housing provider Pobl Group has secured planning permission for an 84-home estate in Llandeilo. There’ll be 43 one-bedroom flats, two-bedroom houses, bungalows and a four-bedroom house available for social rent, with the remaining 41 two, three and four-bedroom homes split between shared ownership and open market sale.
The development will be built on steeply-sloping land in the north of the town, just to the east of Parc Pencrug and north of Maes Elfryn, with the only vehicle access via Parc Pencrug.
The land is part of a larger site which for years has been allocated for 215 homes – with a new link road from Parc Pencrug through to Rhosmaen Street – but nothing has been built to date.
Objectors weren’t happy that this link road wasn’t part of Pobl Group’s plans and were also critical of what they felt to be a lack of consultation and an overall design that didn’t do Llandeilo justice.
Addressing Carmarthenshire Council’s planning committee, Charlotte Morgan, a Llandeilo Fawr town councillor, said she did not oppose new housing but wanted a better-designed development. She said Pobl Group’s amended scheme had disregarded feedback from the community, had not considered alternative access routes and and did nothing to promote sustainable transport.
“Good design should not be a luxury, it should be the standard,” she said. “Why should Llandeilo have to settle for less?”
Carmarthenshire councillor Edward Thomas, who represents Llandeilo, echoed some of these observations. “The local community have not been involved in the process,” he said. He was also concerned about a lack of usable footpaths to the town centre and schools, and cited criticisms of the project by the Design Commission for Wales, which reviewed the initial and amended schemes. The commission said: “The site could offer much more of quality and connection for residents and it is disappointing that a more fundamental review of the scheme has not been undertaken to develop a more site-responsive vision and design.”
Planning agent Jason Evans, speaking on behalf of Pobl Group, said the social housing provider had consulted and collaborated with planning officers, consultees and the community for almost three years about the planned estate, which originally was for 88 homes rather than 84. This included a public engagement event.
Mr Evans said aspirations for the site set out in supplementary planning guidance had been “impossible to achieve” once the site’s gradient and its drainage and ecology requirements had been fully explored.
Carmarthenshire Council’s planning department recommended the application for approval, subject to conditions. A planning officer told the committee that the large chunk of land alongside the proposed development, which would have resulted in a new link road if new houses had been built there as well, wasn’t under Pobl Group’s ownership.
She said Llandeilo had an “urgent need” for affordable homes and this weighed quite heavily in the application’s favour. Open spaces would be included, she said, and most trees retained.
She added, however, that it was a complex and challenging site which would require a lot of cutting and filling, retaining walls and steps. She said it would result in additional traffic on Parc Pencrug, Llys Pencrug and Lon Rhys but that highways officers concluded they were capable of accommodating it.
Committee members agreed to the officers’ approval recommendation, with six votes in favour and five abstentions. As part of the planning consent Pobl Group will have to contribute £50,000 towards education in the catchment area and fund wastewater treatment improvements. The council, meanwhile, will need to prove to environment body Natural Resources Wales via a habitats regulations assessment that the scheme won’t have a significant effect on the River Towy special area of conservation.
In terms of future house-building at the site, the adjacent land which had been earmarked for new homes has been removed from the latest development plan for the county, but this plan is in draft form and is currently being examined by Welsh Government-appointed planning inspectors.
Speaking afterwards, Pobl Group said the 84 energy-efficient homes were much-needed and that the scheme incorporated greenery and wildlife where possible. “We look forward to delivering this development which will provide high-quality homes for local people in a truly beautiful setting,” it said.
