It’s one of the largest, ambitious, contentious and long running development proposals in Bridgend County history, but it does seem that at long last, the Island Farm saga is coming to an end.
The original outline application for a “Sports Village” at the site was made in December 2008, and previously there was a plan for a WRU Academy and houses – as well as the long-term ambition of an extension to Bridgend Science Park. The planning application itself runs into hundreds of documents.
There has been a consistent fight against development at Island Farm by locals for the best part of a decade, and this application was no different. A petition/pro forma was signed by pushing 1000 people – though only 711 of them were from Bridgend County and even fewer were from areas adjacent to Island Farm itself.
However, Bridgend planning officers are giving the scheme a thumbs-up with no fewer than 39 conditions:
“The application is recommended for approval as the substantial number of benefits, that can be attributed to the proposal, largely outweighs any land-use policy conflicts and the mitigation and planning requirements, identified in relation to each of the planning considerations, can be secured through planning conditions and a Section 106 obligation and satisfied all other relative material considerations.”
In English : There’s no reason to turn it down as long as the developers meet the conditions.
The decision date has been pushed back several times in the last few months. Next Friday (24th June) Bridgend Councillors will decide whether the development, by local company HD Limited, will be given the final go ahead.
I’ll post my own, more detailed thoughts on the scheme when we have a final answer from BCBC next week.
