Plans for up to 600 houses which were originally approved almost nine years ago have now been refused

Anthony Lewis, local democracy reporter

Plans for up to 600 houses which were approved almost nine years ago have now been refused because of a lack of progress on an agreement around affordable housing and open spaces.

The plans from Newhall House LLP for a site in Tonyrefail were approved by committee in 2016 but have come back to committee following a lack of any progress with the associated Section 106 legal agreement since.

The planning report also said that it did not appear that the applicant would be in a position to complete the process going forward and so the planning committee on Wednesday, November 21, agreed to give the head of prosperity and development the authority to refuse it.

This planning application was originally submitted to the council in 2012 but given the major scale of the proposal and site constraints, several issues came up so it was not reported to committee until April, 2015.

Acceptable

Officers considered the proposed scheme acceptable and provided a recommendation of approval but it was deferred for a site visit to consider the impact of the proposal on highway safety, maintaining the separate identities of Gilfach Goch and Tonyrefail as well as ecological and public health issues concerning the site.

Committee members raised concerns at the next meeting in May, 2015, around the proposed site access and it was deferred again so that officers could investigate the concerns and look for amendments from the applicant.

Amendments were made and the application went back to committee in February, 2016, where members decided to approve the application subject to a Section 106 agreement.

But the applicant has failed to secure the section 106 agreement since the 2016 committee approval and so the application has remained undecided since with no planning permission ever being issued.

The section 106 agreement was set to include:

Minimum of 10% affordable housing across the site,
On-site public open space including play areas
Improving off-site sport pitches (in lieu of on-site provision of sport and recreation facilities) and an initial maintenance package
Future management of the public open space to be provided by a management company
A written plan prepared by the South and West Wales Wildlife Trust in relation to the future management of the habitat area and the phased transfer of control of the habitat areas to the Wildlife Trust.

A programme of interim management proposals of the two parcels of Rhos Tonyrefail Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) until their ownership and management is transferred to the Wildlife Trust as part of the agreement.

2019

The planning report for November 21, said that the last meaningful discussions with the applicant were in 2019, where the applicant said that the Section 106 had to be completed before June 3, 2019, or the lenders were likely to remove any funding.

The report said there had been very little contact with the applicant since 2019 and none since January, 2024, despite attempts from officers.

It added: “The above appears to suggest that the scheme is and has long been undeliverable. Also, that the applicant is not in a position to sign the legal agreement at this time and that it is doubtful they will be in a position to do so going forward.”

It also said that numerous changes to planning policy had happened in the time that had passed since the application was originally submitted so much of the supporting information was now out of date and could not be relied upon.

It added that even if the applicant were in a position to sign the Section 106 agreement today, all supporting information would first have to be updated and presented for further assessment which would effectively result in a new application and would take a considerable amount of time.

The report said: “Given the history of discussion with the applicant (or lack of) it is considered unlikely that the necessary updates could be achieved in any reasonable amount of time; and there is also no guarantee that the proposal could meet all current policy requirements.

“This uncertainty combined with the lack of contact from the applicant in recent years has resulted in officers being of a mind that it is unlikely the Section 106 will ever be completed.”