Family’s bid for affordable homes rejected again amid location and price concerns

Plans for four affordable homes to be occupied by members of the same family have been refused for a second time, but it is hoped the applicants will reapply.

Sisters Ms Celyn, Sara and Carys Jukes, in an application to Ceredigion County Council planners recommended for refusal at the August 13 development management committee, sought permission for four affordable discounted-for-sale dwellings, this time bungalows, at Drws Y Coed, Cae Morgan Road, with a fourth home for other sister Mandy Jones. Three of the sisters currently live at Drws Y Coed with their parents.

Last August, a previous scheme for four £400,000 three and four-bed detached homes at the site by the same applicants was refused by county planners.

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Unaffordable

Head of planning for Ceredigion Russell Hughes-Pickering had raised serious concerns about the size and scale of the previous application, with houses proposed in the circa £400,000 range, describing them as “blatantly not affordable”.

A supporting statement for the latest scheme, through agent Harries Planning Design Management, said the proposed dwellings, reduced in size and design after the previous refusal, are “honest in their intentions, to provide long-term family homes which will be of an appropriate scale to serve their needs, whilst respecting the wider landscape context and neighbouring amenity levels”.

The latest scheme was recommended for refusal at the July meeting, on the grounds the site lies in the open countryside, outside of an established settlement, where there is a general presumption against new residential development  The site falls significantly below the expected housing density as set out in policy, and it would have a significant adverse effect on the general landscape.

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Site inspection

It was deferred at that meeting pending a Site Inspection Panel site visit, but was again recommended for refusal, the panel expressing “significant concern with regards to the layout of the proposed development and the siting of the dwellinghouses."

Speaking at the August meeting, Russell Hughes-Pickering said the scheme itself was generally supported but the location was an issue, with a fear any approval would be at risk of being “called in”.

The recommendation of refusal was backed by member with eight in favour and two against.

Committee chair Cllr Ifan Davies said he hoped the applicants would look at submitting an amended scheme in the near future.