A Tenby county councillor has written to authorities questioning why there appears to be no provision for any affordable housing element attached to the development on the site of the town’s former Cottage Hospital, stating that as the original facility was funded by the local population - there was a ‘strong feeling’ that any benefit accruing from the sale of the land should directly benefit the town.

The new development of 10 houses on the site of the former Tenby Cottage Hospital at Church Park situated on Traflagar Road, is currently being marketed by Guy Thomas Estate agents as the ‘Cottage Mews development’ with the houses constructed by South Meadow Homes.

The application for the erection of 10 dwellings, with associated garden and parking spaces, at the site were unanimously approved by members of Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority’s development management committee back in 2015 after the site had been left derelict for some time.

PCNPA planning officer Caroline Bowen noted at the time that it had been accepted that the provision of affordable housing would make the scheme unviable at present time, and therefore the applicant had provided an agreement in respect of an ‘assessment of viability,’ which would re-assess the viability of the development at a set period after its commencement, an approach that was praised by development management committee member and county councillor for Tenby’s south ward Clr. Mike Evans, who suggested that the ‘local connections’ policy could be used for the development to meet an identified local need for housing.

Planning committee members agreed that the application be delegated to the chief executive, director of park direction and planning/head of development management to be granted planning permission subject to appropriate conditions.

Now Clr. Michael Williams, who represents the Tenby north ward on the county council has written to both PCNPA’s head of development management Nicola Gandy, and Pembrokeshire County Council’s director of resources Jonathan Haswell querying why the planning consent given to the site made no provision for any affordable element.

“Given that the developed site is now for sale enabling a truer valuation to be understood, should the decision not to make any affordable provision be revisited?” he stated in correspondence to Ms Gandy, who explained in return: “It was a requirement in the legal agreement to re-visit the viability appraisal if the developers had not started and completed construction within a certain time period.

“They have complied with their requirements in the legal agreement so unfortunately we are unable to re-visit the viability,” she continued, stating that the matter has been monitored by both the National Parks and County Council.

Clr. Williams has also contacted PCC’s director of resources on the matter.

“The site was recently sold by public auction for the sum of £250k.

“Bearing in mind the extent of the development carried out on the site and the price of the properties offered for sale, do you consider that this sale reflected value for money?” he stated in correspondence to Mr. Haswell.

“Do you consider upon reflection that the WAO (Wales Audit Office) should be asked to carry out an investigation into this transaction?

“The original hospital was funded by the local population of Tenby, and there is a strong feeling that any benefit accruing from the sale of this land should directly benefit the town which originally owned, funded and built the hospital.

“It would appear that the main beneficiary of this transaction is the property developer!” he continued.

Clr. Williams told the Observer that it was ‘disappointing’ that no provision for affordable housing had seemingly been attached to the development given the urgent need for affordable homes in Tenby for local youngsters.

“They are being priced out of their home town by people who move from away having sold properties at a price beyond our comprehension,” he remarked.

“I did suggest a few years ago that local authorities should be permitted to purchase second homes if they had a housing crisis. This might be the time!

“One chink of light is the construction of 29 units in Knowling Mead which will go a little way towards helping local people, but nowhere near enough.

“The endangered species gets ever more endangered! Perhaps local residents should receive the kind of protection that rare birds are afforded by the RSPB. Those of us left would certainly be on the ‘red’ most endangered list,” added Clr. Williams.