Councillors from Tenby have been told that an outline application for a housing development at Brynhir are likely to be submitted to the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park by the end of June.

Members of Tenby town council met with Pembrokeshire County Council’s Cabinet member for Housing Clr. Mrs. Pat Davies recently at County Hall to receive an update on plans for a proposed housing development on the land at Brynhir.

The 15 acre site at Brynhir has been earmarked for a development of 168 homes and it was agreed by cabinet last year that the housing scheme would be pushed forward by PCC after it ‘bought’ its own land using the housing revenue account (HRA).

At the meeting with Clr. Mrs. Pat Davies, it was explained that Tenby county councillors Michael Williams and Mike Evans who were present, along with Cabinet Member for Infrastructure, Clr. Phil Baker, would not express any views on an application at this time, due to them being members of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park’s development management committee, they would not express any views on the application at this time.

Clr. Mrs. Davies opened the meeting explaining that the development was still in the initial stages and there were no definite layout plans yet indicating as to where on site the houses would be located.

Tenby councillor Laurence Blackhall explained that the long standing position of the town council was that the development of this site was supported on the proviso that it would deliver a significant volume of social/affordable housing to meet the needs of Tenby.

He added that all were aware that there was local opposition to the development but he felt meetings like this presented the opportunity to manage the scheme in such a way to mitigate against these concerns.

Clr. Mrs. Davies said that PCC acknowledged that the county was in desperate need of good quality social housing to maintain community cohesion and it was the policy of the current administration to deliver this.

There were a number of sites throughout the county that were being progressed to deliver these goals, and Clr. Blackhall felt it had been a bold and brave move by PCC to appropriate the site for the HRA. While the authority could possibly have made more money selling to a private developer, the approach taken by PCC would ensure the deliverability of the maximum number of social housing needed.

Mr. Darren Thomas PCC’s Head of Highways and Infrastructure explained that bringing the site within the HRA enabled PCC to mitigate risk and have more control over it, particularly in regard to infrastructure.

PCC had established a Housing Programme Board and were working to bring forward planning applications on three sites, one in Johnston, one in Milford Haven and Brynhir.

A Pembrokeshire architect had been commissioned to design a ‘pattern book’ of ‘Pembrokeshire’ houses which would be the blueprint for the dwellings being developed.

In relation to Brynhir, consultants had been appointed, ecological impact assessments were under consideration and information was being gathered with a view to submitting an outline application to PCNPA in the near future.

He was aware that PCNPA had proposed that the site be taken out of the LDP going forward. PCC had object to this and would be reiterating these objections at the Public Inquiry stage. Clr. Blackhall pointed out that TTC had also raised objections to the PCNPA proposal.

Mr. Thomas said that PCC were working on the current LDP’s allocation of 168 dwellings (roughly 30 dwellings per hectare) but this number could reduce going forward.

PCC’s Structural Engineer Chris Pratt explained that this might partly be due to requirements to create a 10m wide ecology ‘buffer zone’ around the site and a play park.

The site would be split between social and open market housing with a small element of self-build, explained PCC’s Private Sector Housing and Housing Strategy Manager Andrew Davies-Wrigley.

The largest percentage would be social housing which would meet the needs of between 70 and 100 percent of those with local need achieving gold status on the housing list. All first lettings would be subject to current local need policies.

The Welsh Government were also launching a self-build scheme in April using the Development Bank of Wales to support projects and PCC would be looking at the possibilities of this being utilised on the site.

Mr. Thomas said that in regard to timescale all the draft information would be compiled for internal review by the end of March with a view to an outline application for the site being submitted to PCNPA by the end of June.

Clr. Blackhall thanked Clr. Mrs. Davies for arranging the meeting and looked forward to more being held going forward.