Plans for ‘claustrophobic’ flats above Wrexham restaurant receive green light despite size concerns

Plans to create flats above a restaurant in Wrexham have been approved, despite claims they would be too small to live in.

Councillors met online on Monday to discuss an application to convert the first and second floor of a Grade II-listed property on the town’s High Street.

Wrexham Council’s planning committee heard it would result in a total of 19 flats being constructed above the Frisky Pudding bar and restaurant – four of which would measure just 14 square metres in area.

One politician said some people would prefer to live in a cardboard box after officers advised that size standards were not applicable to private accommodation.

Developers Clydesdale Project Management Ltd had already reduced the number of flats a result of previous objections.

The proposals were backed by a single vote after several committee members expressed concern about expecting people to live in such small spaces.

Local councillor Alun Jenkins said: “In terms of what is being proposed with the 19 flats, 10 of them are of a size of 18 square metres or less.

“Four of them are just 14 square metres in size, and that includes four square metres or thereabouts for a toilet and shower.
“We’re looking at an allocation of nine, maybe ten, square metres (of living space).

“If you’re trying to locate a kitchen, a living room, and a bathroom within that…how on earth would you fit a kitchen sink, work surfaces, kitchen table and a chair on which to eat your dinner, a bed on which to sleep, and an easy chair in which to relax?

“What is being proposed here is considerably substandard and dare I say, even claustrophobic, for anybody who would have to live in such a space.”

Members of Offa Community Council lodged a series of objections against the plans, including regarding the size of the apartments, as well as the impact on electricity supplies in the town centre after recent power cuts.

Waste storage has also been highlighted as a problem amid claims that bins are making the High Street look untidy.

Planning officer David Williams said it was a matter of personal choice for people living in the flats whether they were happy to live in a small space.

However, Llay councillor Bryan Apsley took issue with his comments.

He said: “I’m very concerned about David Williams’s comments there. What if the choice is that it’s there or the cardboard box on the street? It’s personal choice, he said.

“Well, if it happened to be that the choice was between that and actually being in a cardboard box then some may go for the cardboard box.”

Meanwhile, the committee’s vice-chair Michael Dixon describes the size of the units as “dreadful”.

He said: “It looks as if I can’t find any planning ground to refuse this, but I can’t support an application where we’ve got apartments that are 14 square metres.

“I think 14 square metres or 15 square metres for everything is way too small. I think that’s dreadful.”

However, Cllr Paul Pemberton said members should focus more on the quality of the flats than the size.

He said: “It’d be nice to see this building come back so we can get some use into it.

“I think David (planning officer) said that it’s not so much the size as the quality.

“The company’s already done some works on that particular building further down and I think the quality’s fine.”

The committee was tied at eight votes to eight on whether to approve the plans at the end of the debate.

Chair Michael Morris, whose casting vote meant the proposals received the green light, admitted there was unease about the decision among councillors.

He called for the council to develop its own guidance on the size of accommodation as a matter of urgency.

By Liam Randall – BBC Local Democracy Reporter