Controversial housing scheme on flood prone land given go-ahead

Elgan Hearn Local Democracy Reporter

Councillors have backed a controversial housing development of 29 houses on land at risk of flooding.

The application to build the homes at Pen-y-Borfa on the village outskirt is by Towyn Marine Properties Ltd on behalf of the landowners Alwyn and Geraint Jarman.

It was brought in front of Powys County Council’s Planning committee on Wednesday, February 19.

The site has been allocated for housing in the Local Development Plan and an outline planning application for 43 houses and sheltered accommodation at the site had been approved in 2020.

Refusal

In 2023 an application to amend the approval by deleting the sheltered housing part of the proposal was refused.

At the time Powys planners advised that a new planning application would be needed to change the size of the development, and this was the application in front of councillors.

Principal planning officer Lorraine Jenkin advised councillors to approve the application with conditions.

The committee heard arguments for and against the development which centred on the site being at risk of flooding and what was being done to lessen this risk.

Cllr Jonathan Wilkinson said: “It just seems that the boundary of the flood risk area and the development is incredibly close.

“I need to feel comfortable there is sufficient protection for householders from this risk to be able to approve this.”

He pointed out that in his own community of Meifod there is 500 metres of protection against residential flooding but here it was a “tiny margin for error.”

Issues

As the debate wore on, three proposals were brought forward by councillors to take the application to a vote.

Powys Independents Cllr Geoff Morgan put forward a motion to refuse the application, but this was not seconded.

Plaid Cymru’s Cllr Elwyn Vaughan wanted to defer the application so that a sustainable drainage application could be made which would look at all the measures to lessen the risk of flooding at the site.

Cllr Vaughan pointed out that consultees had raised issues about a “holding pond” which is supposed to protect the development from flooding.

Cllr Vaughan: “To me it would be wise if those issues were resolved, agreed and approved by the SABS process (sustainable drainage) first, as it is such a fundamental point in this application before final approval of the housing.”

He did not believe it was possible of “divorcing” the planning and sustainable drainage applications in this case and proposed this as a reason to defer the application.

Cllr Vaughan’s proposal and was backed by Conservative Cllr Karl Lewis.

But Conservative Cllr Gareth Pugh wanted to back the scheme.

Cllr Pugh said: “We run the risk of an appeal if we object to this.

“Based on all the evidence by the professionals on this I propose we go with officers recommendations of conditional consent.”

He added that it would be “very unfair” to expect the applicant to go to “thousands and thousands of pounds of expense” by submitting a sustainable drainage application before knowing the outcome of the planning application.

Cllr Pugh said: “It would still be subject to SAB and they would make sure that the attenuation pond is correct.”

Vote

His proposal to approve the plans was seconded by Cllr Huw Williams and went to a vote.

Cllr Vaughan’s proposal to defer was discussed first.

Professional planning leader officer Peter Morris said: “The SAB (sustainable drainage) application is a separate regime, so I don’t think that’s a legitimate reason for deferral.”

“We need to determine the application on its merits and not blur the two.”

Due to this Cllr Vaughan’s proposal was knocked out and not allowed to go to a vote.

Councillors then moved to a vote on Cllr Pugh’s proposal of approving the plans.

This saw 13  councillor vote in favour, two against, and one councillor abstained.

As the Welsh Government have issued a holding direcion on the application and could “call in” the plans.

The committee decision now means that the planning officer’s report, and councillor deliberation will now be passed on to Welsh Government planning inspectors to mull over.

Planning inspectors can then decide to take over the process themselves or pass it back to the council to authorise the planning permission.