Trout Fishery in Pembrokeshire turned down for a third time

AN application to build holiday chalets at a trout fishery in north Pembrokeshire is recommended to be turned down despite planners giving the scheme a cautious backing.

This is the third time the application to provide nine accommodation cabins and ancillary works at a former fishery business at Millbrook, Manorwen, Fishguard, has been recommended for refusal.

Last month, members of the county council’s planning committee said they were ‘minded to approve’ the application, despite an officer recommendation for refusal.

The cautious approval – made following a site visit – meant it would return to a future meeting for final ratification.

At the April planning meeting, Pembroke Dock councillor Brian Hall, normally – by his own admission – a stickler for following officer recommendations, instead moved approval, describing it as “one of the nicest places that I’ve proposed a site visit to,” adding: “I think this is something where we could help the local economy and a very pleasant area.”

The application had also been recommended for refusal at the March planning meeting, members instead agreeing to a site visit ahead of the April meeting.

Officers had recommended the application by Messrs L & C Williams be refused on the grounds it would have an unacceptable adverse impact on the character and appearance of the countryside.

The application – diversification of an existing agricultural holding and trout fishery business – was a resubmission of a similar scheme withdrawn from the November meeting of the planning committee, which had also been recommended for refusal.

A report for planners said commercial farming at the site ended in 1998, but that use of the pond as a recreational trout fishery, which commenced in 1994, had continued to date.

However, it added there is no ready evidence of recent use for recreational fishery on-site.

A report for members ahead of the May committee warned: “Should the committee resolve to approve planning permission and as the proposed development is a departure from the adopted Local Development Plan, then the decision will have to be formally advertised and referred to council.”