In a move that could have repercussions for other proposed village developments in the area, Powys County Council have ignored the wishes of Guilsfield Community Council and granted planning permission for eight houses to be built on land outside of its development plan.
The application was rubber stamped in County Hall before the weekend after the Powys inspectors recommended the development as the need for new housing outweighed the local concerns.
It means the village housing boundary will be extended by the proposal which is expected to include two local needs properties, along with vehicle access and other required works.
“Having carefully considered the proposed development, officers consider that the proposal broadly complies with planning policy,” the inspectors said in their report to councillors: “Whilst a departure from the development plan, in this instance, the provision of housing is considered to outweigh the plan and therefore justifies the grant of consent as an exception to normal housing policies. The recommendation is therefore one of conditional approval.”
But the county’s decision goes against the wishes of the community council who opposed the application adjacent to Oldcastle Avenue on several grounds.
The applications was ‘called in’ by local Powys Councillor David Jones due to the controversy it had caused with affected residents also objecting to the plan.
In August, the Community Council voted to object to the plan for a number of reasons including the fact that it lies outside of the current Land Development Plan and stating that, if approved, it creates an “undesirable precedent making it difficult to resist similar proposals elsewhere”.
However, they were overruled and the development was approved with a number of conditions. One of those is that work must begin on the development either before the expiration of five years from the date of the permission or before the expiration of two years from the date of approval of the last of the reserved matters to be approved, whichever is the later.