Another month, another meeting of Bridgend Council’s planning committee. Part 1 of the webcast is available here, Part 2 is available here.
The main item on the agenda was the re-consideration of two applications at South Wales Wood Products near Heol-y-Cyw. The items were deferred from January to yesterday’s meeting to allow a virtual site visit (which happened earlier this week).
The details were listed last time. In short, the two applications seek to allow household garden waste to be processed at the site and to extend timber storage for three years respectively.
Since the last meeting, additional concerns emerged about a possible gas leak near the former Bryncethin Nursery (pdf). There are no safety worries, but following an investigation by Wales & West Utilities no source of the leak has been found – which Cllr. Ken Watts (Ind, Newton) said suggests there is a leak of some kind and warrants a ban on HGVs using that area.
A planning officer believed there was nothing the operators were doing that put the gas pipe at risk, but with the agreement of the Committee, the conditions were amended to prohibit (rather than restrict) HGV movements near the pipe until the issue is located and fixed.
There was some criticism that the virtual site visit didn’t do justice to the scale of the site. Having regularly cycled past the site, Cllr. Amanda Williams (Ind, Coity) said wood had fallen off piles into adjoining land and there were clear drainage issues.
In an odd turn of events, the Vice-Chair, Cllr. Richard Granville (Lab, Cornelly) – claiming he had received emails, but providing no evidence(“I will ask the questions now”) – accused her of breaching Covid-19 restrictions by going there herself – but the legal officer dismissed this as it was allowable daily exercise.
Cllr. Janice Lewis (Lab, Bryncoch) noted the potential for invasive species to be included in the garden waste if it isn’t checked. Several councillors noted the site isn’t presentable or well maintained. Cllr. Stuart Baldwin (Lab, Morfa) described it as a “complete and utter tip”, but ultimately that was unavoidable for a working waste/recycling site. Officers agreed.
There were several calls for sanctions to be applied if the company doesn’t meet planning conditions (given the history of the site) and an officer set out that the owners could be taken to court for planning condition breaches and fined in needs be.
Given so many councillors felt the virtual site visit wasn’t enough, a motion was tabled to defer the application until a full site visit can take place.
Councillors were advised that it’s not clear when such visits could happen. Any further delay would risk the application being appealed on non-determination grounds (planning applications usually have to be decided within 8 weeks of receipt). A recorded vote was taken on deferring again, but it was rejected by 11- 3.
The vote on the first application (garden waste processing) was tied 7-7, and the Vice-Chair used his casting vote in favour.
The conditions for the second application (timber storage extension) were amended to cut the extension period from three years to two years. Resultingly, the application was unanimously approved.
Former Pencoed chapel flats plan approved; extension to Maesteg Aldi delivery hours rejected
There were two other applications of note.
The first is a proposal from Wales & West Housing Association to demolish Trinity Chapel in Pencoed and build twelve one-bedroom apartments (pdf). The chapel has been vacant since 2016 and was sold to Wales & West in 2018.
Several councillors expressed disappointed that parts of the original building couldn’t be kept or rebuilt into the new development, as well as raising concerns about trying to fit too much into a small space and a lack of parking/drop-off spaces.
Nonetheless, the application was unanimously approved.
The second application sought to extend delivery hours at Aldi in Maesteg to 05:00-22:00 all year round (pdf).
Concerns were raised by Maesteg Town Council and local ward members over the noise and potential traffic impact on nearby residents.
Council officers deemed the proposal “unacceptable and excessive”. They recommended changing it to allow deliveries from 06:00-22:00 Monday-Saturday and 07:00-20:00 on Sundays and Bank Holidays for a temporary 6-month period (March-September 2021) to enable evidence to be gathered on the impact on local residents during the summer (when many are likely to have windows open).
Many councillors thought this was still too early, though some argued that early-hour HGV movements were a fact of life for many people in the county.
There was a recorded vote and councillors voted 7-5 against the extension to delivery hours. The Planning Committee will now have to formally set out their reasons for refusal.
