Plans for 163 homes on golf course site approved amid tree-loss concerns

Nicholas Thomas Local Democracy Reporter

Detailed plans for 163 new homes have won planning permission, despite concerns about tree loss and drainage.

The project in Caerphilly town is the second phase of the redevelopment of the town’s Virginia Park golf course, where up to 350 homes have been proposed – the first phase, comprising 174 properties, was approved for a different housebuilder last year.

At a Caerphilly County Borough Council planning committee meeting, on Wednesday May 13, agent Joe Ayoubkhani said Foxhill Homes planned to create “a neighbourhood where people can live and thrive”.

Outline planning permission for the Virginia Park redevelopment has been in place since 2019, and councillors were this week asked to approve more detailed designs for the new homes.

Mr Ayoubkhani said the redevelopment will “meet different needs” and comprise “family housing, starter homes, and homes suitable for downsizers”.

The project will “provide much-needed new homes in a sustainable location close to the town centre”, he added.

But the committee also heard concerns about the environmental impact of the redevelopment.

The second phase of the project includes a “large attenuation pond on the eastern boundary”, case officer Anthony Pyne told members.

Cllr Greg Ead asked whether the council could be “confident” about the site’s layout if the details of the pond “are still not fully confirmed”.

Senior planning officer Carwyn Powell said the golf course site had been “beset with perched water – that is water that is trapped within the earth”.

“When the site was remediated, all of that perched water was then released and had to be stored on site”, he explained, adding the golf course’s prior use as a landfill site meant the water was “not clean” and has “got to be treated”.

“Torrential downpours” had added to the problem, but Mr Powell said “those issues have largely been resolved and we’ve not had any issues for the last two or three winters”.

The water on site “is being dealt with” and would either be discharged into the sewer or a watercourse, or “tankered off-site”, he added.

Cllr Ead also raised local concerns about the loss of trees on the redevelopment site.

“The site previously contained trees, woodland and other natural features, but I’m reliably informed that has now been decimated to facilitate the development… in contravention of conditions that were put in the outline planning,” he said. “What assurance can we give residents that the tree loss which has already occurred will be mitigated rather than simply deferred to future conditions?”

Mr Powell said he had met the wider site’s developers earlier in the week to share the council’s concerns that they had “removed a significant portion” of a tree “buffer”, and had “failed to comply” with a breach of condition notice.

“We made it clear that they need to mitigate the loss of those trees in the short term,” he said. “The tree belt is an important corridor for ecology.

“Long-term they would have to put planting in to replicate the ecological and landscape features that were there previously.”

The committee granted permission for the 163 homes, subject to several planning conditions.