Plans advance for homes at former aluminium factory despite traffic congestion concerns

Richard Youle, local democracy reporter

Plans to build houses at a former aluminium factory have taken a step forward although Swansea Council said it would lead to delays for motorists.

The factory operated in Pontarddulais until 2010 before the site was bought by Walters Land Limited, which has demolished some buildings and applied for outline planning permission for up to 150 homes.

A report before the council’s planning committee about the housing plan said traffic modelling provided by the applicants led highways officers to conclude that “it will lead to congestion and delays to the local area” but not pose a road safety risk.

A planning agent on behalf of Walters Land Ltd argued at the committee meeting that the impact of the traffic generated by the development on the nearby Station Road-Water Street junction would be negligible and imperceptible.

The factory site is part of a much larger area of land in Pontarddulais which could deliver up to 720 new homes, plus employment facilities, and is to include a so-called spine street taking traffic away from Water Street, which runs through the town centre.

New spine street

When it allocated the aluminium factory for housing in its local development plan several years ago, the council envisaged a new spine street along the west of the site parallel with the railway line. But it has emerged that this area is at risk of flooding, so Walters Land Ltd has proposed the spine street running along High Street to the south, then Woodville Street to the east. It would then turn west into the factory site and then north towards land which is under separate ownership.

Councillors heard Walters Land Ltd had considered running the spine street through the middle of the proposed housing development but this was considered to take up too much land.

There were 28 letters of objection to the application, and the traffic and spine street issues were taken up by a resident, Allan Capp. He said he’d warned when the local development plan was being drawn up that the proposed new housing would cause blockages on Iscoed Road, which joins Water Street at a mini-roundabout, and “bring all Pontarddulais to a standstill”.

Citing the committee report Mr Capp said council officers had now concluded that there were “significant issues” with queuing capacity at the Station Road-Water Street junction, that the proposed development would exacerbate this, and that queues would extend beyond the nearby Iscoed Road mini-roundabout.

“Frankly it would be a scandal if you gave planning permission for this development to go ahead in these circumstances,” he said.

‘Imperceptible’

The planning agent on behalf of Walters Land Ltd said it did not accept the council’s conclusion on this matter and that, in its view, the Station Road-Water Street junction would operate better than the modelling had shown. The impact of the planned development, she said, “would be imperceptible and would not change the operation of the junction”. She also pointed out that the factory site was brownfield land and that the principle of residential development had been established.

Committee member Cllr Phil Downing, who representants Pontarddulais, said he could not support the application if it meant the spine street running along Woodville Street when he and others had assumed it would be to the west of the site. He said traffic, including HGVs, would go along Woodville Street, then into the new housing development and then out again at the northern boundary. “It’s either going to be a functional road, or it’s not – in which case what are we doing?” said Cllr Downing.

The committee also heard that 10% of the new homes would be affordable, half the 20% target figure for the area, because of abnormal development costs given the site’s industrial past. The report said Walters Land Ltd was proposing to remediate and then market the site to a housebuilder, which would in turn submit a detailed planning application to the council.

The committee voted in favour of the outline plans, which will require £401,100 of developer contributions for education, junction improvements, cycling and walking upgrades, and off-site play provision, by seven votes to two.