Council rejects bid to build new homes by school
PLANS to build 15 new homes close to a primary school in the Cynon Valley have been rejected by planners due to fears over safety, noise and environmental damage.
The proposals, discussed by Rhondda Cynon Taf council officials on Thursday, related to new homes on the land between Crown Row and Bron Haul in Cwmbach, close to 110-pupil Cwmbach Church in Wales Primary School.
But the outline planning application for 15 homes with adjoining garages was recommended to be refused by councillors after a petition of 16 names and seven letters of objection were received.
In the report discussed at Thursday’s meeting of the council’s development control committee, it said the letters and petition listed these objections to the plans:
that there are no pavements in Sion Terrace or Crown Row meaning parents have to step out onto the narrow road. More traffic will make it more dangerous;
15 homes would mean around 30 extra vehicles in the area - “too much”;
Sion Terrace/Crown Row is a single lane road, only suitable for small vehicles. Refuse lorries have to manoeuvre two or three times to enter this road, meaning it would be difficult for large lorries and earth-moving machinery;
there are already drainage problems on site;
children play in Crown Row and parents say their freedom will be “taken away from them” due to works;
the proposal will cause noise nuisance and disturbance from traffic;
there are hedgerows in the field behind Crown Row where songbirds nest and dormice live in the hedgerows; and
concern over the loss of daylight, overshadowing and privacy due to size and location of development and properties. The report agrees with some of the residents’ fears, and an objection was submitted by the Highways and Transportation Section, who said width of the access road was a “major concern”.
It also said insufficient information had been given regarding a number of issues including the impact on safety and surveys required to help define the status of bats, badgers and reptiles in the area.
The report concluded: “It is considered that the existing access road leading to the site and the proposed access road to serve the development are substandard which would be to the detriment of the safety of all highway users and free flow of traffic. The proposal is therefore considered to be contrary to policy AW5 of the Rhondda Cynon Taf Local Development Plan.
“Insufficient information has also been submitted to demonstrate that the development proposed would not have a detrimental impact on species.”
As with planning applications for a certain number of homes, 10% would have to be “affordable” meaning two units.
The homes would have been between 7m and 9m high, between 4m and 12m wide and between 5m and 12m in length, but more detailed layouts were reserved for future consideration.
Access to the site would have been served via Sion Terrace/Crown Row, with another new access road proposed to be built between numbers six and seven, Crown Row.
Along with all of the objections to the application submitted by a “Mr Turner” for the 0.62ha site, one letter of support said houses were needed in the area.