Planning director wants half of all developments within the Eryri National Park to be affordable homes for locals

Siân Williams

The Director of Planning and Land Management for the Eryri National Park wants half of all developments within its 823 square miles to be affordable homes for locals.

Jonathan Cawley would also like to see the planning process include research- based evidence on who will be the potential occupants of new housing estates.

He told Nation.Cymru: “When a housing estate is developed, I don’t know who shall be living there and that’s the type of evidence we need. Are they local people? Are they people from outside? What is the percentage of Welsh speakers? Possibly, that’s where we need investment, but everyone’s short of money.”

Cawley says planners like himself don’t have much to go on, “There’s no research and I think we need that. It’s difficult to make robust decisions – perhaps refuse something on the grounds of impacting the language without the evidence. This is something we as a nation need, but I’m unsure if the resources are there. We have a Welsh language commissioner who could help, but I think we need permanent research on a local level on the effect of developments on the community.”

Costs

If planners, and indeed councillors, make decisions of the heart when it comes to granting, or refusing, planning applications, that would only lead to appeals and further costs.

Cawley explains further: “It’s very rare in Wales, I should think, where large developments are refused because of the language. It doesn’t happen to be honest. There are possibly two reasons for that. The positive one being, I hope, is when the Local Development Plans are strategically put together.

“That process does take language matters into consideration, which is a good thing. But the other, more negative side, is whether we have language-based evidence in order to make decisions?”

Eryri National Park Authority have just won a longstanding battle with Hampshire-based Hillside Parks Ltd. The developer wanted to build 401 luxury homes on a hill overlooking Aberdyfi.

Hillside, having lost their case both in the High Court and Court of Appeal had taken it all the way to The Supreme Court in London.

“That’s it now for Hillside I’m happy to say,” says Cawley. “They can’t build any more than the 41 houses they’ve already built without submitting a new planning application. And the development boundary in Aberdyfi now is quite strict.”

However, Eryri won the battle on a technicality because Hillside had deviated so far from the original planning permission.

It was nothing to do with the fact that locals didn’t want and couldn’t afford any of the 401 luxury homes.

Cawley won’t be drawn on the exact cost of fighting Hillside Parks through three layers of the justice system.

“It was very costly – much more than we had hoped. We hadn’t expected to go through three layers of courts. Firstly, we went to the High Court in Cardiff, then to the Court of Appeal in London when (Hillside) appealed the original decision. It was a bit of a shock when they appealed for the third time and we went to the Supreme Court in London.”

Substantial

According to Cawley, the legal costs are “substantial”, but “because we have now won the case, we are allowed to claim back our costs. Obviously, there were risks, had we lost they could have claimed their costs as well, and as an authority we don’t have much money.”

What are the major challenges that lie ahead now for Eryri National Park Authority over the coming years?

Cawley doesn’t hesitate: “Housing – that’s right up there. We have seen the major challenges communities face withing the park. That’s been the case for decades, but especially over the last couple of years. Covid has resulted in extra pressure and without a doubt there has been an increase in short term holiday lets. There are many more Airbnb’s around now.”

He says their “task” now is, “to ensure that local people can access affordable housing. It’s a difficult one, because developers don’t want to build affordable homes because they sell for much less.”

But as we now know, Cawley is up for the challenge and the goal withing the national park he says, is that half of all developments will be affordable homes for locals.

Changes

And there are significant changes afoot. Since October, Welsh Government have brought in a new subordinate legislation. Local Authorities can now classify homes as primary residence, second homes, or holiday lets. This means owners would need to get planning permission to change a property from a primary residence to a second home.

Cawley says he “welcomes” the new Welsh Government legislation, “It’s very important and it’s there to try and get control of the rural housing market, in a way.”

Eryri National Park Director of Planning and Land Management then goes on to explains how they will attempt to control the number of holiday homes within its 823 square miles.

“We are moving forward with what we call Article 4 Directive. This will obstruct people from having the right to move from one category to another without submitting a planning application. This is fairly significant if we are successful in moving ahead Article 4 withing the park.”

As regards the challenges ahead, Cawley confirms that the Article 4 Directive, which he and his team are currently working on, is indeed a game changer.

“It’s a good thing, but I’m afraid it doesn’t come with the help of additional resources. But we know perfectly well that communities want to see us do this, and I’m sure our members withing the park also want us to do this. I shall be presenting a paper to our members on this next month.”

Hillside Parks Ltd have been approached for comment.