Fresh bid to build new homes and school car park in Eyton

A planning application for six bungalows and additional parking to help ease issues at a nearby primary school has been resubmitted to Wrexham Council.

The authority’s planning department has received the application for land across the B5426 road opposite Eyton Primary School, from the landowner Ruth Morris and her family of nearby Groves Farm.

A previous application seeking to develop the land with 15 spaces to help alleviate hazardous parking issues outside the school was rejected by the council’s planning department in April.

Five reasons were given for refusing the development including a loss of grassland and development in open countryside, which was signed off by the council’s chief planning officer.

But the application has been amended to address some of these concerns and resubmitted, with Mrs Morris hopeful that on this occasion it will go in front of the council’s planning committee.

The proposed houses would be three or four bedroom bungalows in an area where there is a shortage of such properties available and would use land which Mrs Morris says is not suitable for agriculture.

And since the previous application two of the six bungalows have now been earmarked as affordable housing.

The applicant concedes that while approval would benefit them, they hope it will meet a housing need in the area and be part of a solution to parking problems along a busy road outside the school.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Mrs Morris said: “It’s an opportunity for us, I can’t say it’s not. But it’s also solving a situation.

“You can’t retire to this area, there aren’t the housing facilities. And we’re not asking for 60 houses, just six.

“We’ve tried to address the issues from the last application.

“The highways issue was only a small one about the run-off and sewage was another. We thought we were being clever putting in septic tanks but they (the council) didn’t want that because it was so close to the main sewer. But we think we have resolved that in this application.

“Oak Wood (nearby woodland) doesn’t come this far but if we were to put a buffer zone around Oak Wood it would preserve that and give something back.

“The council are so stuck on their housing policy and it being open countryside but how can it be open countryside when it’s right next to this busy road?

“Everywhere else they’re building on prime agricultural ground. This is not good agricultural ground and the fall of the land actually goes away (from the road) so you wouldn’t see the bungalows.”

The planning statement submitted with the application says a new footpath link would lead from the car park to a proposed pedestrian crossing point across the main road for safe access to and from the school grounds.

Mrs Morris added that the dangers of dropping off and picking up children in that area of the village stretch back decades, and that parents of current pupils at the primary school are supportive of the plans.

“We’ve been here over 40 years and when we first came here it was a 60mph road”, she said.

“I remember dropping our eldest here on the verge and they used to walk in front of a 60mph road and stand on the verge to catch the bus to the high school in Penley.

“The first week someone was talking, grabbed their bag and went straight in front of a car. Luckily the car stopped but I thought this is ridiculous.

“I got a petition going and they’ve been picked up outside Eyton Church for the last 30 years, but the church has now been sold and could be developed.

“The school can’t get involved so I came and talked to current parents of pupils outside here and they were in agreement, it’s needed. Something needs to be done.

“Whether there’s a different agenda with the council, I don’t know but it’s a very small development and it would help the children.”

A Wrexham Council spokesman said the authority does not comment on planning applications yet to be determined.

Marchwiel Cllr John Pritchard (Ind), the councillor for the ward where the development would be, says he may push for it to be considered by the planning committee but is awaiting more advice from council planning chiefs.

Speaking to the LDRS he said: “There have been no accidents reported there for a number of years, and at the moment everyone accesses the school by the same footpath so there is no need for children to cross the road.

“I understand the applicants’ situation but last time there were five issues with planning policy so I did not request it to go before the committee.

“I need to read through the new application properly, see what has changed, and hear the technical advice from planning officers, then decide whether to put it forward to go to the planning committee.

“The only concern I’ve got personally is children crossing that road, and the risk factor increasing. With housing there that could also potentially see bin wagons  or delivery vehicles turning in the car park too.

“If there was a zebra crossing there that would help, but the road is used as a short cut to the industrial estate so you get a lot of traffic and a lot of heavy wagons along there. I will follow planning officers’ advice and the applicant also has a right to appeal any decision.”

A decision will be made on the application at a future date.

By Rory Sheehan – BBC Local Democracy Reporter