Hermitage Cllr Graham Rogers made the statement as Wrexham County Borough Council’s Planning Committee was considering a renewed application to turn a three-bedroom family home on The Beeches in Acton into a five-bedroom house of multiple occupancy.
Previously the plans had been rejected twice due to lack of parking provision – firstly by Wrexham’s Planning Committee in March and on appeal by Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW).
This time the plans included a hard resurfacing of the front garden to create three parking spaces.
Rather than allaying councillors’ parking concerns the new plans raised the spectre of increased flood risk in the area as data from Natural Resources Wales showed the property at the centre of a commonly flood area.
Despite this planning officers recommended approval of the scheme – a recommendation most members of the committee rejected.
“I don’t know how many HMOs we want or require in Wrexham,” he said. “But I’m of the conclusion, I think we’ve had enough within the borough – not so much centrally, but in the rural areas.
“I didn’t support the application on March 2 and I can assure you I will not be supporting this application on this occasion. As a committee we have to consider the residents.”
One of those residents, Mark Jones-Moore, expressed the community’s concerns to the committee.
“The only amendment between this and the first application is a definitive widening of the drive for three vehicles to the detriment of well established lawns, hedgerow and biodiversity,” he said.
“Up to five car spaces may be needed by the occupants should they all have vehicles, which could be doubled by visitors to the property. This would necessitate vehicles parking on the grass verge near protected trees.
“Parking demand has increased due to football supporters leaving their vehicles on the street and adjacent roads. The road is narrow and additional cars parked on the street would leave us unable to manoeuvre safely on or off our driveway.
“Installing hard standing will not alleviate surface run off. The water would remain on our properties as the road is uphill. We feel the flooding issues have been wholly ignored.
“The planning report stated our claim was unsubstantiated, yet we we were not allowed to provide any proof to the committee. Meanwhile the council spent thousands of pounds on groundworks in the front of our property installing a soakaway last year for a problem that apparently doesn’t exist.”
Architect Robert Jones, speaking on behalf of the applicant Barbara Griffiths, said the proposal addressed the single reason for refusal previously with the addition of extra on-site parking provision and asked the committee to approve the plans.
But councillors remained concerned about the impact of the plans.
Local member Cllr Corin Jarvis said: “The core issue here is that the house in this area is not suitable for this type of accommodation.
“It’s a three bed terrace house with thin walls, shared access, on a road with no footpath with parking issues overflowing from neighbouring streets. Neighbours and previous residents have had persistent flooding issues there that the proposal would likely exacerbate.”
She was backed by Cllr Trevor Bates.
“There’s nothing like local members’ knowledge,” he said. “We’ve seen flooding in recent times where no flooding has ever occurred before. So I tend to listen to the local residents.”
Chief Officer for Economy and Planning Matthew Phillips said that the proposed hard standing car parking area councillors were concerned would worsen the flood risk could actually be done by the applicant without planning permission.
But members maintained they were not prepared to worsen the flood situation for existing residents and voted to refuse the application.
