Llangennech housing plans turned down

A HOUSEBUILDER will reapply for planning permission for a new estate in Llangennech after it said a legal agreement to provide affordable homes couldn’t be signed in time.

Haywood Homes Ltd wants to build 30 homes on a field by Llangennech RFC, on Pontarddulais Road.

Carmarthenshire Council has turned down the application, which was submitted in September 2020, because of a lack of an agreement for affordable homes and a financial contribution towards education.

Haywood Homes said an agreement had been reached but that it couldn’t be signed due to the sad death of the landowner, who was required to sign it. The company said it would reapply for planning consent in due course.

A design and access statement submitted as part of the 2020 application said the three and four-bed houses, opposite the Parc Morlais estate, would have been set back from the main road and that trees and hedgerows on the perimeter would have been retained.

Environment body Natural Resources Wales said it had significant concerns about the application and recommended that it should only be approved if planning conditions relating to flood risk and a construction environmental management plan were attached. Carmarthenshire Council’s planning ecologist also recommended planning conditions.

The rugby club said it didn’t object in principle but pointed out that it had floodlights for training sessions, cheering spectators on match days and that balls may occasionally be booted into the new properties.

Llangennech Community Council objected, saying the village had been over-developed.

Two letters of objection were submitted by residents, who said road congestion in the vicinity would be made considerably worse if the houses were built.

One of them, Amy Taylor, said it could take up to 20 minutes to reach the junction of Pontarddulais Road and the main A4138 around 300 yards away. She added: “Also, the field in question is very wet most of the year and during heavy rainfall the road becomes flooded.”

The field is very close to the Carmarthen Bay and Estuaries special area of conservation, the Burry Inlet special protection area, and the Burry Inlet and Loughor Estuary site of special scientific interest.