Plans rejected for home deemed ‘more suited to Beverly Hills than Mynydd Nefyn’

Gareth Williams, local democracy reporter

Plans to extend a home overlooking a Llŷn town, having been once described as “more suited for Beverly Hills than Mynydd Nefyn” have been rejected.

By a margin of 12 to one,  Gwynedd Council’s Planning Committee reject the proposals to refurbish and extend Tan-y-Mynydd.

This follows the refusal of earlier proposals for the same property last September, with the committee going against the advice of officers after citing the visual impact and claiming that approval would “open the floodgates” for similar developments.

Last month the committee decided to delay any decision on the subsequently amended plans until the findings of the Llŷn Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Joint Advisory Committee were available in full and part of the overall report.

But despite officers remaining steadfast in their recommendation to approve, Monday saw members state the amended plans still represented over-development and would impact visually on the nearby Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The amended plans involve the refurbishment and extension of the house, including demolishing an existing outbuilding, rear two-storey extension and a glass side extension.

Relocating a stone wall in order to create a parking and turning area, it would also see a new two-storey and another single-storey extension and a balcony on the gable-end of the existing house.

‘Overbearing’

When discussed in September 2020, Cllr Gareth Jones described the “overbearing” plans as “suitable for the slopes of Beverly Hills but not Mynydd Nefyn.”

But speaking last month, applicant spokesperson Lowri Jones stressed the property would not be used as a holiday home and spoke of the applicants’ fondness for the area and hope of setting up home in Nefyn.

Adding that the property had laid empty for years, it was not the intention of the applicants to create an eyesore.

In his supporting documents, applicant Warren Hadlow said that their previous application was “beset by a campaign of disinformation as to its size and ambition”.

Having amended the plans to use white render, he hoped it would ensure the property to be “more in keeping with the existing surrounding buildings and true to the existing building.”

But local councillor, Gruffydd Williams, told members on Monday, “We have a statutory duty to protect the AONB and what we have at present on Mynydd Nefyn is a series of historic white cottages.

“What we don’t need here is over-development and impacting the views in and out of the AONB.

“We know what happened at Plas Pistyll, this gentrification simply has to stop.”

Cllr Anne Lloyd Jones, however, saw no reason to refuse on policy breaches, believing the plans to be acceptable and suggesting that if the applicants were to appeal they would likely be successful and the authority liable to pay costs.

She was the only member to vote against approval, however.

Cllr Gareth Jones, who represents nearby Morfa Nefyn, claimed that people “would forever wonder how the development was awarded planning permission,” were they to green light the plans.

The committee, by a margin to 12 to one, voted to go against the advice of planning officers and refused the application.