Plans for 23 homes backed despite ‘chronic’ parking concerns

Nicholas Thomas, Local Democracy Reporter

Initial plans for 23 new homes have won the support of councillors, in spite of “serious implications” for the local area which already suffers from “chronic” parking issues.

Caerphilly County Borough Council has proposed replacing the former youth and community centre, on Brookland Road, Risca, with a mixture of houses, bungalows and flats.

The plans are at an early stage, and members of the council’s planning committee have granted the local authority three years to come up with more detailed proposals for the site’s redevelopment.

Case officer Elizabeth Rowley said the new homes would be a maximum of two storeys in height and the site would also include play areas.

However, one councillor warned the project – if it goes ahead – would worsen the neighbourhood’s parking problems.

“I am against this development in principle, on the basis that such a residential development in this location will have serious implications, in terms of its impact on the locality,” said Cllr Bob Owen, in a statement read out by the committee chairman.

“As is the case with most of Pontymister, Brookland Road and the surrounding streets close by all suffer from chronic parking congestion,” warned Cllr Owen. “We cannot afford any overspill from this site.”

Instead, Cllr Owen suggested the site could be redeveloped for three-storey accommodation for over-55s, providing more homes for people less likely to need multiple cars per home.

Cllr Nigel Dix, a committee member, asked for reassurances the new homes would have enough parking spaces.

Ms Rowley said planning permission would include conditions for a “relevant number of spaces” but said it was too early to say how many spaces would be proposed.

The council only provides guidance on parking capacity, added senior planning officer Carwyn Powell.

“We do look to follow it as much as possible,” he explained. “In sustainable locations we will give sustainability points, and in some of the higher sustainability locations, certainly as planning officers, we might even accept zero car parking.

“We’re only looking at the outline consent here, and this gives them three years to come in with reserved matters.”

Mr Powell also said parking guidance and the council’s Local Development Plan – an overarching strategy for building – may have been updated by the time the full application is submitted.

Another committee member, Cllr Christine Bissex-Foster, sought clarity on planning officers’ criteria for deeming an area sustainable.

Mr Powell said officers would consider “the sort of facilities you would normally want to rely on for any residential development”.

“You get points for proximity to those services,” he said. “So if you’re close to a school, bus stop, train station, supermarket – so that you don’t need to use personal transport to access those facilities – then you’re in a higher sustainability location.”

Highways officer Lisa Cooper said that “in this instance, we’ve got an infants’ school within 500 metres, a pharmacy on the main road, Risca and Pontymister railway station, a medical centre, bus stops adjacent”.

“It is pretty sustainable,” she said of the Brookland Road site. “We don’t know exactly what the layout or the makeup of the units is going to be. Currently the parking layout is compliant. It is ticking all the boxes in that respect.”

The committee’s members granted planning permission by a majority vote.