Plans lodged for 28 social homes on former care home site

Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

Plans for 28 homes for social rent which includes a mixture of terraced housing, flats and bungalows, have been lodged with county planners at the site of a former care home.

The application has been submitted by R & M Williams and includes the demolition of Crawshay House on Greenland Road in Brynmawr.

The development would be made up of 16 one-bedroom apartments, two three-bedroom bungalows, two three-bedroom semi-detached houses, two four-bedroom semi-detached houses and five two-bedroom terraced houses.

Planning agent Dylan Green of Asbri Planning Limited explained the proposal in a planning, design and access statement.

Mr Green said: “The proposed development comprises of the demolition of Crawshay House on site.

“The building itself is vacant and has been for a number of years, it was formerly used as a residential care home that provided 32 bedrooms, communal facilities, kitchen and offices over two floors.”

“The properties will be managed by Trivallis as the Registered Social Landlord and it is envisaged that the tenure will be 100 per cent social-rented properties.

“The mix has been designed to reflect the local housing market assessment in the area whereby the predominant need was for one bed apartments.”

“The scheme also includes bungalows to the rear of the site as there is an overriding need for such properties within the area and Blaenau Gwent as a whole.”

Mr Green explains that the proposal also includes redesigning the current site access for vehicles.

Mr Green said: “The existing access located at Darren Felin Road will be closed, and the proposed development will utilise the existing access at Greenland Road to provide both vehicular and pedestrian access to the site.

“In terms of parking, a total of 45 parking spaces is proposed in the form of parking bays or driveway, with an additional parking bay provided for SuDS (sustainable drainage) maintenance.”

Blaenau Gwent Council has received 1,025 applications for social housing in Brynmawr.

This list includes 397 applications for one-bedroom accommodation and 327 for two-bedroom houses.

The council also deems 248 of these applications as “urgent.”

Mr Green said: “The properties will be managed by Trivallis as the Registered Social Landlord and it is noted that there is a high level of demand within the Brynmawr Town Centre with more than 1,000 applications.

“It is considered that the proposed development will help to contribute towards the housing target and bring vacant land back into effective use.”

A decision on the application is expected by July 24.

Trivallis provides homes to 25,000 people in Rhondda Cynon Taf and Cardiff Bay.

They were set up in 2007 as RCT Homes and in 2015 were rebranded as Trivallis to take over running Rhondda Cynon Taf council’s housing stock.