A PROPOSAL to build houses on the edge of Cardiff has been scrapped amidst scepticism from the community.
Plans to build three houses on land north of Bridge Road, Old St Mellons have been withdrawn.
The application, filed by a Mrs Cooper, was met with a level of community backlash.
Old St Mellons Community Council “unanimously decided” to oppose the application on the basis of the site’s countryside character, traffic, the site’s location outside of the settlement boundary and its opinion that “there is no need for further planning permission for housing at the present time.”
Other objections collected by Cardiff Council during the consultation process include many of the same reasons.
One response reads: “This development could cause irreparable harm to the natural beauty and landscape character of Cardiff, potentially setting an undesirable precedent for future development in this cherished area.”
The applicant resubmitted a planning statement to address the impact on local wildlife.
It reads: “[The application] recognises the opportunity to enhance the local biodiversity network through creative and active solutions on adjoining land in the ownership of the applicant.”
A biodiversity and mitigation and enhancement plan was also submitted with the application.
However, one comment reads that, despite this being submitted, they remain “high concerned” about any negative impacts to wildlife and biodiversity.
Additionally, the additional statement calls the current settlement boundary, approved in 2016, an “illogical configuration” based on the existing pattern of residential development and does not “follow the natural landscape features or perception of entering the village along Bridge Road.”
Instead, the applicant maintained, the site is “logically” part of the village of Old St Mellons.
The original planning application reads: “This application seeks to logically round off land which is opposite existing residential development without compromising or eroding policies within the Local Development Plan.”
It continues: “There is residential development to its south and west which has been granted planning permission over recent years”.
It also outlines that due traffic along Bridge Road having “diminished since its stopping because of a large-scale residential development to the west”, any additional traffic generated by the new houses will not “any significance” and use existing access.
