Housing Development on Former Factory Site Tipped For Approval

Proposals to develop 79 new homes on former factory space in Wrexham have been recommended for approval.

In a report due to go before Wrexham’s Planning Committee on Tuesday 2nd May it has been recommended that proposals to develop 79 homes on the former Brother Industries site on Croesnewydd Road are approved.

Initial plans for the development were submitted in November 2015 – which also includes the remodelling of the unction at the point of the existing access.

If approved the development itself would consist of 79 dwellings, made up of a mix of two, three and four bedroom dwellings. Each property will also have two parking spaces provided – along with play area provision for the new estate.

With regards to traffic it is anticipated that the development will create no more than the former Brother factory.

The site itself has remained vacant since 2004 and has previously been subject to two large scale planning applications for housing developments before – with outline planning permission for residential developments approved in 2007 and 2010.

In 2012 a further application for the site was submitted, however was refused permission in 2013 because ‘it was not possible to agree an approach on the issue of affordable housing’.

The issue of affordable housing runs through the comments from the local Community Council, which are detailed further in next week’s report.

A number of concerns are raised by the Community Council, with one such comment stating: “Any sub-division of the area is, of necessity, arbitrary and although the A483 may seem a natural boundary, it should be noted that the site is only a few hundred metres from the ‘Western Borders’ sub area, which has the highest unmet need for affordable housing in the County Borough .

“To allow the arbitrary subdivision of the WCBC area to over-ride the needs of the whole County Borough seems unreasonable, particularly since the report (table 3.5) shows a high level of movement between the two areas (in both directions).”

However comments supplied by the Local Member for the area state that they are: “Mindful to now support the above application on the basis that the Housing Needs Assessment 2015 report has established there is no current need for Affordable Housing to be provided as part of any new general housing developments to be built within the Wrexham town-centre sub housing area.

“The applicant has assured me that he is seeking an early commencement of work on site and as such would agree to a one year commencement planning condition being applied.”

Addressing the lack of affordable housing in the application, the planning officer states that while local planning guidance previously ‘advised that 25% of dwellings build on housing developments of 25 or more dwellings should be affordable, there have been significant material changes in circumstance since the LPG was adopted as well as since the previous application was considered’.

He adds: “A Housing Market Assessment (HMA) for the County Borough was completed in March 2015 and identifies the requirements for affordable housing throughout the County Borough. The HMA was commissioned primarily to inform the Local Development Plan however it is the most up to date assessment of affordable housing needs and is therefore also a material consideration in determining planning applications.

“Given that the site is in an area where there is not currently an identified need for affordable housing, it would be extremely difficult to justify refusal of planning permission on the grounds that the applicant is not providing affordable housing in this instance.”

The report will go before Wrexham’s Planning Committee at 4pm on Tuesday 2nd May. For those who cannot attend the meeting, it will be webcast live on the Wrexham Council website and also archived for later viewing.