Bid to build 277 new houses rejected by council

Richard Evans, Local democracy reporter

A bid to build hundreds of homes in a north Wales field has been thrown out by councillors.

They rejected Conwy County Council planning officials advice and refused planning permission for 277 homes in Abergele on fields off St George Road.

The scheme, submitted by Mr A Clarke, would have replaced farm buildings across 12 hectares with a mix of detached, semi-detached, and terraced houses, including 131 socially rented homes.

Children’s play areas and some road improvements were also included in the proposals, which were initially refused on November 12.

But because councillors were going against planning officers’ recommendation, the committee had to reaffirm their decision, at a meeting in Coed Pella today.

The vote to refuse the application was won after an initial proposal to grant permission was put forward by Cllr Chris Cater and seconded by Cllr Mandy Hawkins.

But that vote was lost.

Abergele councillor Andrew Wood then put forward his proposal to refuse.

Cllr Wood, as well as Cllr Alan Hunter, had argued that the plans would put a huge strain on local roads and schools.

Central to this argument was the absence of a new “spine road” or “link road” taking the strain between St George Road and the A55.

Cllr Wood said: “We have an issue where we have 277 houses which are going to cause a big problem for Abergele where the traffic is not going to be able to move and have to come out the west, and it has been designed to come out of a relief road by the A55, the roundabout there. That has not been implemented.”

Cllr Wood claimed the link road, which he said the council had proposed in earlier local development plans, was badly needed to take the strain off Abergele’s “smaller roads.”

But council’s head of planning Paula Jones told Cllr Wood he must be prepared to explain his reasons for refusal if the matter went to appeal as Conwy’s own highways team hadn’t objected.

Cllr Wood was then asked to give other reasons, and he said local primary schools would be unable to cope with an influx of more pupils.

Cllr Nigel Smith seconded Cllr Wood.

“I think the officers have let us down here in the east,” said Cllr Smith. “They’ve known about the proposed applications in that vicinity for many, many years, and that this spine road has been discussed nearly 10 years ago as a necessity for the area, and the fact that they haven’t conditioned it is woefully neglectable and unbelievable.”

He added: “The town itself, as you well know, chair, is congested. Every time I go into Abergele, I am stuck in traffic, and this is not going to help anybody. It is only going to exacerbate the situation there.”

Cllr Smith said if Conwy County Council lost on appeal, they would have to take it on the chin.

“The residents of Abergele have spoken very loudly on this,” said Cllr Smith. “They don’t want this application without that spine road. They are unhappy for further development if that spine road isn’t in place.”

“We are talking about putting an application here on St George Road that doesn’t have pavements all the way up it, is not on the bus route, and there are going to be children there. I just can’t support that.”

The vote to refuse the application was won with six votes to four and one abstention.