Issue - meetings

Erection of 2 affordable dwellings, creation of new vehicular access, parking, landscaping, and associated works.

LOCAL MEMBER: Councillor Dafydd Meurig

Link to relevant background documents

DECISION: To approve subject to a 106 agreement and conditions relating to the following:

1.    Commencement within five years

2.    Development to comply with the approved plans

3.    Use Welsh roof slates

4.    A condition to ensure acceptable visibility

5.    Removal of Permitted Development Rights to ensure affordability

6.    Welsh Water Condition

7.    The recommendations of the Preliminary Ecological Assessment must be observed

8.    The recommendations of the Flooding Risk Assessment must be observed

Note –         Welsh Water

                    Sustainable Drainage System

                    Transportation Unit's Observations

Erection of two affordable houses, creation of new access, parking, landscaping and associated works.

a)    The Senior Development Control Officer highlighted that this was a full application to construct two intermediate affordable houses near the village of Caerhun to the south-east of Bangor. Both single-storey houses would provide two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, a bathroom and a hall along with parking spaces for two vehicles. One access from a nearby third-class county road would serve both houses.

There were no environmental or heritage statutory designations for this plot of land that was presently used for grazing land. However, Natural Resources Wales had noted that the vast area surrounding the site of the application was subject to land surface flooding.

Considering the principle of the development, it was noted that the site was located outside any defined development boundary included within the LDP. Policy PCYFF 1 ('Development Boundaries') stated that proposals outside development boundaries would be refused unless they were in accordance with specific policies in the Plan or national planning policies or that the proposal showed that its location in the countryside was essential. The proposal was located directly adjacent to the Caerhun cluster as defined in the LDP and through this, Policies TAI 6: Housing in clusters; TAI 15: Affordable Housing together with the Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG): Affordable Housing, were relevant. Policy TAI 6 stated that proposals for new housing units in such locations must conform to seven criteria.

It was explained that a Planning Statement had been presented with the application that noted the high demand for two-bedroom houses in the area of Caerhun / Glasinfryn (the figures of the Local Housing Market Assessment, Tai Teg and Strategic Housing Unit supported this statement). It was reinforced that the plan was suitable and met the recognised needs.

In the context of visual amenities, it was noted that the new houses would not appear alien in this place despite their location on open agricultural land, because the location would be directly adjacent to other residential houses. Therefore, they would not have a significant detrimental impact on the area's general landscape quality.

In the context of transportation and access, it was noted that existing trees could disrupt the visibility from the entrance. As a result, a condition was sought to ensure that it would not be permitted that any highway boundary wall, hedge or fence would be higher than 1 metre above the carriageway level of the adjacent county road from either end of the site's boundary to the highway, and any vegetation should be cleared to maintain visibility. By imposing such a condition, it was considered that the plan was acceptable under the requirements of Policy TRA 2 and TRA 4 in relation to parking standards and road safety.

In the context of flood matters, it was noted that the amended Flood Consequences Assessment (FCA) received described that the risk of flooding to the development site had been managed by getting rid of the management structure within  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7