Plans for 12 homes approved despite affordable housing concerns

Dale Spridgeon, Local Democracy Reporter

A 12-home development in north Wales has been approved despite falling short of planning policy requirements for affordable housing.

The plan to build 12 houses at Bryncrug has been approved by Eryri planners. Four of the homes at Ffordd y Felin would be “affordable homes” with eight marketed as open market properties.

Although the number of affordable homes was considered “below planning policy requirements of 50%”, it was established that it was “unviable” to provide six of the homes as affordable.

The application was made by Daniel Jones of Towyn Marine Properties Ltd.

Planners voted in favour of the scheme during the Eryri National Park Authority’s planning meeting on Wednesday, September 9.

A report described how initially all the properties were to be five-person, three-bed dwellings – predominantly houses but also some bungalows.

However, the housing mix had been changed to offer four, two-bedroom houses, in two pairs of semi-detached houses, of the “intermediate-type of affordable dwellings”.

The open market homes would be three, three-bedroom, and one, four-bedroom semi-detached houses, and four, three-bedroom (two detached and one semi-detached pair) dormer-type bungalows.

The development would connect with the public highway at the southern end of the Ffordd y Felin cul-de-sac.

The authority received ten objections against the proposal, three signed by residents of Ffordd y Felin and one from Cymdeithas Eryri.

Concerns were raised over the scale of the development, the plan having no regard for local infrastructure capacity and concerns it would not meet community need for affordable housing.

Objections also related to “the decline in Welsh speaking households following the developments in rural communities such as Bryncrug,” and the design not integrating with existing developments.

Others included Ffordd y Felin “regularly flooding,” worries over the junction of the A493 with Mill Road from the Tywyn side being “partially blind, and a tight turn,” and a place where collisions had occurred in the past.

The meeting was told “there was a need for affordable housing in the area,” however, it was stated that providing 50% of the homes as affordable was “not viable”.

They said: “Although the provision of four affordable dwellings is below the policy requirement of 50%, it is considered that the provision of four on-site dwellings is preferential to a financial contribution as it will secure affordable dwellings as part of the development.”

Among those in favour, Cllr Louise Hughes thought the homes were “not too big”. She said: “There is definitely a local need for this…I think it is a great idea, let’s do it.”

Cllr Edgar Owen agreed there was “a need for affordable homes”.

Cllr Delyth Russell was “not happy” over the number of the homes considered affordable.

“There are 12 houses, I can’t see why 50% could not be affordable homes, like in other places such as Bontnewydd. I can’t why it has to be four instead of six. I am not convinced,” she said.

Director of planning and partnership Keira Sweenie said it was “something that they had challenged with the developer, but the financial element of the project shows it is not feasible for them to develop more than four”.

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