Controversial plans for children’s home in rural village

Elgan Hearn Local Democracy Reporter

Controversial plans to change the use of a house into a children’s care home will be back in front of Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority’s (BBNPA) Planning Committee for a final decision.

At the BBNPA Planning Committee meeting on Tuesday, September 8, planning officers will stress that the authority will open itself up to the risk of an appeal and the resultant costs if members do not approve the application at Gilwern, a village near Abergavenny in Monmouthshire.

At the last committee meeting in July, members voted to reject the proposal by Cwtch Children’s Care Limited.

The application was for a certificate of lawfulness to change the use of 15 The Shires, Gilwern, from a Class C3 dwelling house to a Class C2 residential institution.

Under the committee rules, the application returns before members for confirmation of the decision – although they could change their minds and vote to approve it.

The crux of the debate in July was whether the proposal needs a full planning application to change its use to allow two youngsters to be cared for at the house.

At the meeting, committee members said they did not believe the change-of-use application in front of them contained enough information to explain that the differences between the building being used as a family home and a care home were not relevant.

They felt that a full planning application was needed in order to answer several questions on “material changes” to the property’s use, such as traffic movements, waste collection and locks being put on the bedrooms within the house.

Local opponents to the scheme who spoke at the meeting had also pointed out: “You cannot treat an institution with rotating staff as indistinguishable from a single household.”

They believed that the applicants were trying to “bypass” the proper planning process with their change-of-use application.

Planning officers and their legal advisers had argued that the use of the building was “sufficiently comparable” to that of an ordinary family home and advised members to agree to the proposal.

In the updated report, planning officer Max Webb said: “The Planning Committee has not yet made a formal decision on the proposal, and all options are available to the committee, subject to the normal voting procedures.

“Officers remain of the view that it is not considered that the proposed level or nature of occupancy would be materially different from that which could arise through the existing use.

“It should be noted that the agent, on behalf of the applicant, does make the point that a refusal may expose the authority to an award of costs if the [planning] inspector concludes that the decision is unsupported by evidence or relevant case law.”

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