PLANS for 38 council houses in a village on the Powys/Shropshire border are set to be decided by Powys councillors.
The proposal by Powys County Council itself for 38 dwellings for “social rent” at land next to Fir House in Churchstoke, will be decided by members of the Planning committee when they meet next Thursday, June 11.
The site is situated on the south-eastern edge of Churchstoke and is currently a green field that is bounded to the north-east by the A489 trunk road.
It emerged in October last year that a new detailed but smaller proposal had been lodged with county planners.
It has taken the council 10 years to get to this position.
Previous versions of the proposal, which were first proposed in 2016, had been for 45 homes to be built at the site.
In January 2017, an outline planning application was approved by councillors on the Planning committee.
The means that the principle for building on the site has been agreed – but the details of the scheme still need to be submitted and agreed in a further planning application.
Since then, there have been problems developing the site, which has seen the need to extend the time limit allowed for the development.
The new reserved matters proposal explains that 10 of the houses will have one-bedroom, 10 two-bedrooms, eight would be for three-bedrooms and two would have four-bedrooms.
The remaining eight dwellings are set to be bungalows, four with one-bedroom and four with two-bedrooms.
Principal planning officer Lorraine Jenkin said: “This reserved matters application has demonstrated that the proposed layout, scale, appearance, and landscaping are appropriate to the site and its context.
“The scheme has been amended during the course of the application to improve its integration with the surrounding area.”
On affordable housing Ms Jenkin said that this had been dealt with at the outline planning stage.
As the “whole site” is for social housing she said that it “is the case” that development conforms with the council’s policy on affordable housing.
Ms Jenkin said: “Technical matters, including flood risk, drainage, highways, ecology, and play provision, have been appropriately addressed, either through the current submission or via conditions attached to the outline consent and this approval.
“The impact on residential amenity has been carefully considered and is acceptable, subject to mitigation secured by condition.
“The highway layout and parking provision are also considered satisfactory.
Ms Jenkin continued: “Overall, it is considered that the proposal represents a well-designed and coherent development that responds positively to its context within Churchstoke.”
She recommends that councillors approve the scheme.
