PLANS to build 576 new homes on Upper Cosmeston Farm site have moved a step closer following decisions made at a Vale Council cabinet meeting on Thursday, 6th June.
The proposed development is partly on a site that was used for landfill in the 1970s, and local residents have expressed concerns about potentially carcinogenic chemicals seeping from the land and being airborne, and they have also voiced their disapproval at the prospect of losing green space between Penarth and Sully.
Development of the land owned by the Welsh Government was earmarked in the Vale of Glamorgan Local Development Plan (LDP), which also includes plans for a new primary school, public open spaces, an active travel route and community facilities.
Photo: Vale Council.
At an earlier Planning Committee meeting, Cllr Kevin Mahoney (Independent, Sully) said the development will put pressure on services in an area which is already “chock-a-block”.
Cllr Mahoney went on to say there are no places at schools, dentists and GP surgeries and that road infrastructure in the area is “falling to pieces”. He added: “We know full well that the road can’t take any more traffic.”
A planning officer at the 6th June meeting, Rob Lankshear, said there is an opportunity for health service issues to be catered for on site in the future. He also said the plans have been highly scrutinised and off-site improvements to local road infrastructure have also been recommended.
The development partnership, made up of the Vale Council, Newydd Housing Association, United Welsh Housing Association and Edenstone Homes, has put itself forward to build all of the housing on site. This will include 50% of the total planned housing that fulfil the affordable homes criteria.
Photo: Vale Council.
At Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, Cllr Sandra Perkes (Labour, Court), cabinet minister for Public Sector Housing and Engagement, presented a report that gave further details of the proposals, along with plans to form a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) with the construction partners if the council-led bid is endorsed by the Welsh Government.
The cabinet resolved that the proposals for collaborative bid and to form a LLP be ‘noted’.
Michael Garland, chair of the ‘Saving Sully and Lavernock Group’, said: “In the report presented to the cabinet last week, it became clear how desperate the Vale Council was to pass the outline planning application.
“Not only are the council accepting large financial inducements from the Welsh Government to purchase land and build the Ysgol Y Deri annex alongside the housing development site, they are also intending to make a bid to buy the housing site and lead the development of it.
“The report discloses an in-group, the Strategic Housing Board, decided 23 November last year, to make a bid for the Vale Council to buy the site and lead development of it, just the day before Savills opened up ’expressions of interest’ from developers.
“It’s to be delivered by a Limited Liability Partnership, but this huge undertaking, untried in the Vale is just to note, not for approval. Any commercial element has to be incidental, so a big loss could result.
“One would expect it had been widely scrutinised in the council. But no, the existence of the bid was disclosed at the 15 May Homes and Safe Communities Scrutiny Committee where councillors did not know and discuss the principle,” he said.
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