The Brynhir site in Tenby which has been earmarked for development is set to be discussed at a Cabinet meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council on Monday.

County councillor for Tenby’s South ward, Clr. Mike Evans, has submitted a Notice of Motion for consideration and determination to the cabinet, that PCC withdraw from open sale of the land, so that a social housing scheme to meet the needs of local residents, including social rented, low cost ownership and innovative self build opportunities can be brought forward in cohesion with the Council’s Habitats Regulations Appraisal (HRA).

Clr. Evans has stated that there are two purposes to his Notice of Motion, firstly to increase the number of available social rented houses in Tenby, whilst also looking at alternative methods of providing local housing, including shared ownership and self build; and secondly to produce a capital receipt for PCC.

“Shared ownership has been successfully operated in the county by Pembrokeshire Housing Association for several years, allowing many families to get onto the housing ladder,” states Clr. Evans in his proposal.

“Self builds are relatively new to councils, but since the implementation of the self build housing act 2015, councils are now also going down this route of provision. A combination of these three methods will also lead to a good mix of housing provision on this site,” he added.

However, the Notice of Motion is being recommended for refusal by PCC’s director of finance/development, who states: “Council is committed to an element of social housing provision on this site, however, council does not accept the first part of the Notice of Motion at this time to ‘withdraw from open sale the land owned at Brynhir, Tenby’ but, instead, agrees to a pause in the sale process to enable Cabinet to review all the options in the context of the need for affordable housing, the opportunities provided through the HRA Business Plan and the potential to maximise the capital receipt.

“No sale will be pursued until completion of this review, with input from the local member and a further report to Cabinet.

“At this juncture, it is not possible to agree to the second part of the Notice of Motion which specifically refers to the type of proposed development, e.g. low cost ownership, self build etc.

“The future development of the site will require an options appraisal to identify the funding streams available as the Housing Revenue Account can only contribute to the social housing aspect of the site.”

At a recent meeting of full council at County Hall in Haverfordwest, PCC’s cabinet member for housing, Clr. Pat Davies, said that the authority was ‘totally committed’ to building new homes on the 15.7 acre land at Brynhir, reaffirming the ‘need in Tenby’ and across Pembrokeshire for ‘good quality affordable homes’.

“We will look at Brynhir in Tenby and other parcels of land across the county with a view to developing Pembrokeshire’s housing scheme further,” commented Clr. Davies.