Issue - meetings

Establish a touring caravan site (19 unit) with toilet block and associated works 

LOCAL MEMBER: Councillor Rhys Tudur

Link to relevant background documents

DECISION: to defer in order to conduct a site visit

Establishing a new touring caravan site (19 units) with a toilet block and associated works 

Attention was drawn to the late observations form.

a)    The Planning Manager explained that this was an application to change the use of agricultural land, to establish a touring caravan site for 19 units, extend the existing building to create a toilet block and associated work on land at Tŷ'n Lôn, Afonwen. The touring units would be sited around the boundaries of the field situated to the north-west of the property.

It was explained that a Planning Statement and summary statement about how the Welsh language would be considered had been submitted with the original application along with an Initial Ecological Impact Assessment, Botanical Survey and Badger Survey and that a Wildlife Mitigation Measures plan had been submitted at a later date. The original plans had been for a new toilet block, however, amended plans had been submitted (12 December 2022) which demonstrated a proposal to extend the existing garage building on the site to create a toilet/facilities block in its place.   

The application had been submitted to the Planning Committee as the application site was greater than 0.5 hectares.

It was noted that the material planning policy for approving developments involving touring caravans was Policy TWR 5 of the Anglesey and Gwynedd Joint Local Development Plan (JLDP). It was explained that the policy outlined a series of criteria and there was reference to criterion 1 which stated that any new touring caravan development must be of a high quality in terms of design, setting and appearance and well hidden by the existing features of the landscape and / or in a place where touring units could be readily assimilated into the landscape in a way that did not cause significant harm to its visual quality. 

It was reported that the proposed development would be located on a level field with mature trees along the boundaries and was therefore hidden from most public vantage points. It was reiterated that is was proposed to reinforce the screening on the site by planting a new hedge of native trees as the new western boundary to separate the caravan field from the wider field. This site was not within the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) or a Special Landscape Area and it was not believed that the development would cause significant harm to the quality of the landscape. The proposal was designed to meet the requirements of the licence in terms of space and facilities and therefore it was accepted that the development was up to standard.

It was noted that the second criteria of Policy TWR 5 required the avoidance of excessive areas of hard standing. In this case, no hard standings were shown for the caravans - the gravel track leading up the field from the entrance was the only hard standing and it was considered that the track could easily blend into the landscape. As no hard standings were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6