Council mulls over Holywell apartment plan

County planners will be asked to determine whether a bungalow can be demolished to make way for a quartet of apartments in Holywell.

Flintshire Council’s planning committee meets next week to consider an application seeking outline permission for the development earmarked for Halkyn Street in the town.

Originally the plan had been four six apartments at the site, but this has since been reduced to four. One of the apartments has been designated as ‘affordable housing’.

The planning statement submitted with the proposals by the applicants says that the development would meet a shortage of available housing in the area.

It said: “The development proposal represents an opportunity to help address an identified shortfall in housing delivery, on a previously developed parcel of land, within a highly sustainable location.

“By virtue of the siting and scale of the development, the proposal would not result in any adverse impacts upon the character of the surrounding area, residential amenity or highway safety.”

Holywell Town Council is against the proposal, citing concerns about highways, waste management and collection, and overdevelopment given its closeness to the Plas Yr Ywen care home.

Ahead of the meeting, ward member Holywell Central Cllr Ted Palmer (Lab) has requested the planning committee visit the site to judge the access to it.

But in a report to be read by councillors, the authority’s chief planning officer Andrew Farrow has recommended approval as it fits in with Flintshire’s Local Development Plan.

The report states: “The site is located within the settlement boundary of Holywell which is a Tier 1 Main Service Centre as defined in the LDP.
“Provision is made in policy for windfall sites coming forward, which help to contribute to the overall housing land supply and help to deliver the plans housing requirement.

“Given that the proposed development falls below the required threshold of 10 units, set out in policy, there is no requirement or obligation to provide affordable housing, this being discretionary from the applicant’s perspective.

“The principle of residential development is therefore supported, subject to the safeguarding of relevant development management considerations.”

In his conclusion, Mr Farrow writes: “The redevelopment of the site by the erection of a building as proposed as part of this amended outline submission, offers an acceptable scale / form/ design of development that is sympathetic to the site and that of existing development within the wider surroundings.

“There is no objection to the principle of development from a highway perspective.”

Flintshire Council’s planning committee will decide on the application when it meets on Wednesday (August 30).
By Rory Sheehan – Local Democracy Reporter (more here).