Thousands of new homes are needed, says council
AROUND 7,500 homes will need to be built in Bridgend over the coming years to meet the predicted housing demand.
Planning officers at Bridgend Council have started to draw up a new local development plan (LDP) which will allocate sites in the county for housing as well as schools, employment and recreation.
The local authority is basing its replacement LDP on an estimated residential growth of 505 homes per year and employment growth of 266 jobs per year.
While the new plan runs from 2021-33, the existing LDP will overlap with the new one to avoid a policy vacuum.
Planning officers said that because sites for 4,500 homes had already been identified under the current LDP, the new LDP would only need to determine sites for 3,000 new homes.
In March the council published a register with more than 170 sites put forward by landowners, developers and members of the public for potential development.
At a recent council meeting, Bridgend Council’s group manager for planning and development, Jonathan Parsons, said the plan would provide the framework for all future development in the county.
The replacement LDP strategy looks to continue to prioritise the reuse of brownfield sites as well as sites around public transport hubs and the M4, in addition to development of regeneration areas around Maesteg and the Llynfi, Ogmore and Garw valleys.
Pencoed and Pyle are identified as areas that could accommodate sustainable growth due to their locations near the M4 and proximity to railway stations.
Mr Parsons said work was ongoing to try to improve capacity at junction 36 of the M4, saying it was critical for the growth of Bridgend.
During the meeting councillors raised concerns about the lack of existing infrastructure for housing and said it was important to plan for services like GP surgeries and schools.
Councillor Rod Shaw, who represents Pontycymmer in the Garw Valley, warned of valley areas becoming increasingly disconnected from the rest of the county, saying more needed to be done to attract developers there.
Planning officers said they were looking at smallscale developments in the area and said the council may also trial self-build projects on land in public ownership.
At the June 26 meeting both officers and councillors highlighted the importance of public participation in the plan, saying it would be too late once individual planning applications came before the development control committee in a few years’ time.
A preferred strategy document for the replacement LDP will be published for formal public consultation in October/ November this year.
Councillors on the corporate overview and scrutiny committee suggested extra council funding be provided to ensure that the public consultation was as widespread as possible due to the scale of the plan.