Proposed
6 holiday let apartments through the conversion and extension of main building
and demolition of existing dwelling to rear of site and replacement with new
accommodation blocks
LOCAL
MEMBER: Councillor Dewi Roberts
Link
to relevant background papers
Decision:
DECISION: To refuse the application
Reasons:
1.
The proposal is unacceptable due to its scale, loss of a
house from the housing stock, location of the site within a residential areas
and there is an excess of this type of accommodation in the area where 42.29%
of the housing stock are second homes.
The proposal is therefore considered to be contrary to criteria ii, iii,
iv and v of policy TWR 2 of the Anglesey and Gwynedd Joint Local Development
Plan. Consequently, it is not considered
that the proposal would create a high quality development in terms of design,
setting or location and is therefore contrary to the requirements of policy TWR
2 of the Anglesey and Gwynedd Joint Local Development Plan and Supplementary
Planning Guidance: Holiday Accommodation (July, 2011).
2.
The Local Planning Authority has not been convinced that
measures such as bilingual signs and Welsh names would be sufficient mitigating
measures in terms of improving and contributing positively to the Welsh
language and Welsh culture in an area that is already under pressure in terms
of language skills together with second homes / holiday units. Based on the
information received, it is considered that the proposal is therefore contrary
to point 3 of policy PS 1 of the LDP as it is likely to cause harm to the
community's character and language balance in a way that cannot be avoided or
satisfactorily mitigated.
3.
The proposal
would not add to or enhance the character and appearance of the site in terms
of its setting, appearance, scale, height and mass, and it would create an
obtrusive and dominating feature in the local landscape that would be visible
from public spaces and that would not respect the context of the site. Therefore, it is considered that the proposal
is contrary to criteria 1 and 2 of Policy PCYFF 3 of the Anglesey and Gwynedd
Joint Local Development Plan.
4.
The proposal
would cause significant detrimental harm to the occupants of nearby housing
together with holiday unit users on the grounds of more activities,
disturbance, noise, over-looking and loss of privacy and therefore the proposal
is contrary to criterion 7 of Policy PCYFF 2 of the Anglesey and Gwynedd Joint Local Development Plan.
5.
Parking provision on the site is insufficient to serve the
proposal and is therefore likely that the proposal will lead to on-street
parking in a village where parking provision is under pressure, especially
during the holiday season, affecting road safety and it is therefore contrary
to the requirements of Policy TRA 2 and TRA 4 of the LDP.
Minutes:
Demolish existing building
and construct 6 new dwellings
Attention was drawn to the late observations
form.
a)
The Planning Manager elaborated on the background of the
application, and noted that this was an application to create six
self-contained holiday flats. Three
self-contained holiday flats would be created by converting and extending the
existing hotel/restaurant and the other three units would be created by
demolishing the small dwelling at the back of the site and disposing a static
caravan and erecting a new two-storey and one-storey building in their
place. It was explained that the current
use of the site included a five bedroom hotel and
restaurant in a traditional and substantially sized building with a small
dwelling and caravan for hotel staff use at the back of the site.
It was reported that the proposal was unacceptable due to its
scale, loss of a house from the housing stock, location of the site within a
residential area and there was an excess of this type of accommodation in the
area where 42.29% of the housing stock were second homes. It was considered
that the proposal was contrary to criteria ii, iii, iv and v of policy TWR 2 of
the LDP (as it would not create high quality accommodation in terms of design,
setting or location) and also Supplementary Planning Guidance: Holiday
Accommodation (July, 2011).
In the context
of linguistic matters, there was no requirement to submit a Welsh Language
Statement under Policy PS1 of the LDP. However, in accordance with the content
of the Supplementary Planning Guidance:
Maintaining and Creating Distinctive and Sustainable Communities,
applicants were encouraged to present a record of how consideration had been given to the Welsh language when drawing up the
planning application.
The Language Unit's summary opinion stated that they
disagreed with the conclusion of the submitted language statement and stated
that a negative impact was more likely as it was a development for holiday
units rather than contributing to the permanent housing stock in an area where
the Welsh language was vulnerable. Observations had been
received stating that a local company would receive the language
contract, there would be Welsh names on the units, that bilingual signs would
be erected and that holiday units could lead to people supporting local
businesses while visiting the area.
However, the Language Unit was of the opinion that the statement
submitted did not show any understanding of the local area's language
situation. As there was a fundamental objection to the proposal, officers had
not raised these concerns with the applicant's agent
as the receipt of an amended Language Statement in itself would not overcome
the other policy concerns highlighted in the assessment.
In the context of visual amenities, attention was drawn to criteria requirements and it was considered
that the proposal did not add to or enhance the character and appearance of the
site, the building or the area in terms of setting, appearance, scale, height
and mass. It was
considered that it would create an obtrusive and dominating feature at
the rear of the site. When considering the general and residential amenities,
it was noted that the proposal would cause significant
detrimental harm to the occupants of nearby housing together with holiday unit
users on the grounds of more activities, disturbance, noise, over-looking and loss
of privacy. The proposal was therefore contrary to criterion 7 of Policy PCYFF
2 of the LDP.
It was highlighted that the Transportation Unit had
also noted that parking provision on the site was insufficient to serve the
proposal and would lead to on-street parking in a
village where parking provision was already under pressure, especially during
the holiday season.
b)
It was proposed and seconded to refuse the
application.
RESOLVED:
To refuse the application
Reasons:
1.
The
proposal is unacceptable due to its scale, loss of a house from the housing
stock, location of the site within a residential area and there
is an excess of this type of accommodation in the area where 42.29% of the
housing stock are second homes. It is therefore considered that the
proposal is contrary to criteria ii, iii, iv and v of
policy TWR 2 of the Anglesey and Gwynedd Joint Local Development Plan. Consequently, it is not considered that the
proposal would create a high quality development in terms of design, setting or
location and is therefore contrary to the requirements of policy TWR 2 of the
Anglesey and Gwynedd Joint Local Development Plan and Supplementary Planning
Guidance: Holiday Accommodation (July, 2011).
2. The
Local Planning Authority has not been convinced that measures such as bilingual
signs and Welsh names would be sufficient mitigating measures in terms of
improving and contributing positively to the Welsh language and Welsh culture
in an area that is already under pressure in terms of language skills together
with second homes / holiday units. Based on the information received, it is considered that the proposal is therefore contrary to
point 3 of policy PS 1 of the LDP as it is likely to cause harm to the
community's character and language balance in a way that cannot be avoided or
satisfactorily mitigated.
3. The
proposal would not add to or enhance the character and appearance of the site
in terms of its setting, appearance, scale, height and mass, and it would create
an obtrusive and dominating feature for nearby properties and, therefore, it
does not respect the context of the site. Therefore, it is
considered that the proposal is contrary to criteria 1 and 2 of Policy
PCYFF 3 of the Anglesey and Gwynedd Joint Local Development Plan.
4. The proposal would cause significant
detrimental harm to the occupants of nearby housing together with holiday unit
users on the grounds of more activities, disturbance, noise, over-looking and
loss of privacy and therefore the proposal is contrary to criterion 7 of Policy
PCYFF 2 of the Anglesey and Gwynedd Joint Local Development Plan.
5. Parking
provision on the site is insufficient to serve the proposal and it is therefore
likely that the proposal will lead to on-street parking
in a village where parking provision is under pressure, especially during the
holiday season, affecting road safety and it is therefore contrary to the
requirements of Policy TRA 2 and TRA 4 of the LDP.
Supporting documents: