Plans for 15 new homes in Penley refused amid claims village has been “overdeveloped”

Plans to create 15 new homes in a village on the outskirts of Wrexham county borough have been refused amid claims it has been “overdeveloped”.

Primesave Properties previously put forward proposals to build on greenfield land to the back of Brookfield Close in Penley.

The scheme, which the developers said would cater for people looking to buy their first home, received the backing of a senior official from Wrexham Council.

However, with more than 100 houses recently built in the village near the Shropshire border, some residents expressed concerns that local facilities won’t be able to cope.

Councillors met at Wrexham’s Guildhall on Monday to discuss the application, where a community leader echoed the issues raised.

Cllr John McCusker, whose ward it falls under, said: “Penley has been so over built over the years you would not believe it.

“I have never seen so many objections from the community council since I’ve been on the planning committee.

“Besides that, they’ve had 35 houses passed in the not too distant future and a lot of those haven’t even had a brick laid yet.

“If you look at the area here, it’s outside the permitted boundary.

“People have got to stop playing on the fact we’ve got no Local Development Plan. This is green belt land – end of.”

Ahead of the meeting, the local authority’s chief planning officer Lawrence Isted acknowledged the proposals went against a number of its policies.

But he recommended the application should go ahead because of the lack of an up to date housing plan for the county.

A total of 13 letters were submitted against the scheme with some residents highlighting the impact of on traffic and flooding.

During the debate, most planning committee members sided with Cllr McCusker’s view that the village had already been extensively developed.

They included Bronington councillor Rodney Skelland, who said: “For me it’s disappointing that we’re seeing more greenfield sites (built on), especially in Penley when you see the vast amount of development there.

“There was a brownfield site sold there just before Christmas about 200 yards from this.

“Why are we building on a greenfield site when just a couple of hundred yards away there’s a brownfield site there?”

The committee backed a motion to refuse the plans by 14 votes to two because of the site being located outside of the current development boundary for Penley.

By Liam Randall – BBC Local Democracy Reporter (more here on the LDR scheme)