Outline housing plans on land behind village petrol station given the go ahead

Outline housing plans for land behind a village petrol station have been approved.

Members of Wrexham Council’s planning committee this week backed the outline plans to demolish the ‘existing buildings associated with Balmuir Garage’ on Chester Road, Gresford and construct four dwellings on the site.

The application, which does not propose the demolition of the service station itself – rather the buildings at the rear of the site.

Speaking at this week’s meeting planning officer David Williams explained that an initial application for six houses had been submitted earlier this year, but was subsequently withdrawn due to access and visibility from the site.

The amended scheme for four dwellings was resubmitted this year, which is based on the traffic generated from the existing site usage.

Welcoming the application, Gresford Councillor Andrew Atkinson said: “I am happy with it, I’m happy with the officers report and agree with all of that. I think its a good use of an existing site and I’ve got no problem with it.”

Questions were asked about the lack of response to the application from the education department.

Cllr John Pritchard said: “My concern again is that the education department have provided no response to the application. It is happening quite often.”

Mr Williams explained: “It is something we have raised with them. At the end of the day it is up to them how they manage their own service.

“There is now a restriction on the number of contributions which can be requested for a particular school. Whether they have decided to manage their portfolio in a different way to make a request when a more substantial pressure arrives through a bigger application, that may be a reason for not asking for a small development.

“It may be because of restrictions imposed by Welsh Government for how many times you can ask for a contribution.”

The report was supported unanimously by members of the committee.

*Picture – Google Maps