Land swap proposals for housing on common land rejected

Richard Youle, Local Democracy Reporter

A development of 56 affordable homes has taken a knock after a Welsh Government minister decided the common land they’re planned at can’t be exchanged with land just over a mile away.

Many people are celebrating the setback after having fought to protect a landscape in West Cross, Swansea they hold dear.

The development site comprises land that’s part of Fairwood and Clyne Common – although it’s known locally as West Cross Common – and the 56 homes have been given planning permission by Swansea Council.

But because it’s common land so-called exchange land has to be identified and registered under the 2006 Commons Act. Applicant the Somerset Trust identified replacement land near Northway, Bishopston, for this purpose and applied to the Welsh Government to effectively swap it with the housing land.

Conservation 

The trust argued there would be nature conservation benefits at both sites and a 100% affordable housing scheme in a location which “desperately needs” it should be given considerable weight.

The Gower Society and Open Spaces Society, which opposed the application, contended the development land in West Cross had substantial value for many people who lived close by. They also argued nature conservation would be harmed if the application was approved and that the replacement land was a “poor substitute”.

Nineteen West Cross residents also set out their opposition to the exchange application at a planning inquiry, describing the development land as a “green lung” and wild area that hadn’t been farmed or grazed for 50 years. A petition opposing the land exchange had 594 signatories.

Former West Cross councillor Mark Child took a different view. He felt the exchange should be approved and that the lack of affordable housing was damaging people’s future. “It is hard to argue to those in housing need that an area of bracken and scrub is more important,” he said.

There was also a letter of support for the land exchange from the Gower Commoners Association saying it backed the landscape and ecological measures proposed as part of the housing development north of Chestnut Avenue. One of the objectors’ witnesses – a member of the association – queried how the letter had come about as he claimed it had not been discussed at any meeting.

Recommendation 

Welsh Government-appointed planning inspector Vicki Hurst has now recommended that the development land should not be de-registered and exchanged with the land identified near Bishopston and her recommendation has been approved by cabinet secretary for climate change and rural affairs Huw Irranca-Davies.

Ms Hurst described the development land as an “aesthetically-pleasing sheltered part of the common” with diverse habitats, species, and wildlife.

Losing it for the 56 homes, she said, would result “in the loss of the vast majority of the existing nature conservation interests” there, notwithstanding the landscape and ecological measures proposed. She added there would minor harm in terms of loss of public access.

The proposed replacement land, she said, was “a very poor substitute in terms of nature conservation, landscape, and neighbourhood interests”.

Ms Hurst acknowledged a public interest need for affordable housing and afforded this moderate weight but added: “The Welsh Government is committed to putting the right development in the right place and it is questionable that developing this important parcel of common land for affordable housing constitutes the right place.

“Common land only makes up 8% of the land area in Wales and is protected for its own particular benefits and values.”

Plans for the 56 homes were submitted in 2020 by a builder and housing association and were approved by the council’s planning committee two years later.

Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the Open Spaces Society, welcomed Mr Irranca-Davies’ decision. “The residents of West Cross and the Gower Society, with our support, put up a brilliant fight at the public inquiry, speaking eloquently of their love for this special place where they have roamed and played all their lives,” she said.