Second phase of major housing development to be considered by councillors

THE second phase of major housing development in Rhondda Cynon Taf is set to go before councillors.

The application for 421 houses at Parc Llanilid in Llanilid is part of a wider plan for 1850 houses on the former opencast coal site.

Persimmon Homes is behind the development which is located to the north of the A473.

This application is for reserved matters as the principle of development was approved when the hybrid planning approval was given for the whole scheme back in 2016.

The first phase for 216 new houses was approved by the planning committee in March 2019 and construction works on that are well underway with the plan that the whole site is developed in eight phases.

This application is for reserved matters such as access, appearance, landscaping, layout and scale to be considered.

The original plan had been for 462 houses in this phase but this needed to be reduced because of issues that became evident through the planning consultation and assessment process mainly to do with the potential impact on ecology and biodiversity.

The land for this phase of the scheme is brownfield land on the southern side of the A473 and lies at the eastern end of the wider site and covers just over 40 acres of the total 185 acres of the Llanilid site.

As well as the 1850 houses, the entire scheme includes a neighbourhood centre to include community and leisure facilities, a medical centre, a primary school, retail, services and food and drink floorspace; offices and commercial floorspace and public open space.

There were two public letters received by the council in relation to the application and neither were in support or against it.

The first commented on the presence and sighting of bats from their property, which backs onto the former opencast site, flying in and out of gardens and surrounding tree and hedge lines.

In addition, they query the seemingly unauthorised “land grab” by some households in the area that have extended their rear gardens into the land which would fall within the site and green/newt corridor.

The second comments on the potential for additional traffic, the provision of additional school and medical practice capacity and the need to protect wildlife and existing resident amenity within the green buffer zone between existing properties and the new development.

Planning officers at the council recommend this second phase be approved.

They said in the report that the application site constitutes part of one of the council’s strategic sites as identified in the Rhondda Cynon Taf Local Development Plan and that it complies with the LDP and national policy and guidance

They added: “The proposed scheme will deliver 421 modern, high-quality new homes in an area of high demand.”

They said that it will do this without having any significant adverse impact on highway safety, the character and the appearance of the area or residential amenity.

Officers added:

“Whilst some concerns have been expressed regarding interests of ecology, it is considered that the proposed measures of mitigation (which extend across the wider Parc Llanilid site) negate any impacts to a level which is not significant.”