Plan to build homes on site of former school tennis courts rejected
Plans for 14 homes at tennis courts in Colwyn Bay were refused – but are likely to be resubmitted. Northfield Property Development Ltd applied to Conwy County Council’s planning department, seeking permission to build 14 homes at the former sports court on Oak Drive, Colwyn Bay.
A planning committee at Bodlondeb this week heard the land was previously used as tennis courts by Rydal Penrhos but was sold by the school. Planning officers had initially advised councillors to back the plans, which were submitted in two separate planning applications, one for three homes and another for eleven.
But concerns from Welsh Water and the council’s waste officers led to planning officers revising their advice, insisting the planning applications would need more work around sewer connections, drainage, and surface water, amongst other issues, before they could be backed.
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Highways officers also advised the road access would need redesigning to provide parking for visitors. Speaking against both applications, resident Miss Campbell slammed the proposals, criticising the size and scale of the plans and the impact on the environment and conservation area.
She also said pollution created by the development would negatively affect residents, both during construction and after. “It doesn't matter that there are two applications here. They are 14 dwellings on less than an acre site,” she said. “Fourteen (homes) seems utterly preposterous.”
She added: “The key issue in all of this is the ongoing environmental impact 14 houses will have on this site. Nowhere in any of the documents is this properly addressed or taken into account because the pollution is noise, lights, odour, and emissions, not just from the site itself during construction but when people are living and inhabiting these 14 dwellings. Just because you could build 14 houses on this site, doesn’t mean that you should.”
The applicant’s agents then requested the item was deferred for a month whilst solutions to highways and sewer issues were resolved. Cllr Chris Cater proposed that the committee deferred the application until a future meeting in the interest of being fair. Cllr Cater added he wasn’t worried about the density of the number of homes on the site.
But Cllr Dave Jones disagreed and added: “I’d like it noted after the site visit yesterday that I’m not happy with the density of housing on that site. After looking down from a height at the tennis courts, fourteen houses on that site, at the moment, I’m not happy with that density of housing.”
Conwy’s head of planning Ceri Thomas said it would be several months before council officers could realistically back the scheme, due to the amount of work needed to resolve sewer and highways issues. Mr Thomas then said it was more appropriate that the application was refused, advising a new application would be needed, given how much work was needed to bring the application up to a standard that officers could back. He added: “We are just concerned that this could drag on for quite some time.”
But Cllr Cater stuck to his guns in proposing a deferral. Cllr Trevor Stott proposed that the application was refused, and this was seconded by Cllr Jones, and the committee voted to reject the plans. The second application, relating to the same site, was also refused after Cllr Alan Hunter proposed the committee refused the plans, which was seconded by Cllr Jo Nutall, and voted through.
But Cllr Nuttall added: “I walk this area quite a lot, and it doesn’t take much rain for the bottom property, for the water to gush out of the driveway across the road and flood the house opposite. So there are big problems that need sorting. So to put houses there is only going to add to that problem.”
Cllr David Carr added: “I think residents are putting up with an awful lot of flooding in the area, and those issues need to be resolved.” Mr Thomas said the committee could only consider planning matters and not existing issues in the West End of Colwyn Bay.
Both applications were refused.
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