Carmarthenshire Council’s planning committee has approved an 84-home development off Ffordd Pendre in Carmarthen, with half of the properties designated as affordable. The scheme is subject to a revised assessment about potential impacts on the River Towy and Carmarthen Bay special areas of conservation being authorised by environment regulator Natural Resources Wales (NRW).
Scheme details and contributions
The 84 properties will range from one-bedroom to four-bedroom units, with 25 available for social rent and 17 for low-cost ownership. The development is planned by Lovell Partnerships Ltd, but the council will submit the revised assessment as set out in legislation. Lovell Partnerships will also pay the council £458,178 towards a link road that has been built and the provision of a new primary school in the area.
The Carmarthen West site where the estate is planned has been earmarked for around 1,100 homes – some of which have been built – and a primary school. Council planning officer John Thomas told the committee the planned estate was low-density and would come with a “very pleasant” landscaped area and hedgerows. Surface water run-off would go to a basin and a soakaway onsite.
Wastewater and environmental concerns
Sewage would go to a network that drains into Welsh Water’s Parc y Splott wastewater treatment works off Llansteffan Road. The treatment works is failing to comply with a certain wastewater performance standard, a committee report said. To offset the extra sewage load on the system from the houses, surface water is to be removed from a combined public sewer on council land at St Mary’s Primary School.
Councillor Russell Sparks said housing was much-needed and commended the significant affordable housing element but was “slightly concerned” about any effect on the River Towy given NRW has predicted salmon could be extinct in some Welsh rivers by 2030. NRW said last week it had a number of ongoing enforcement and compliance investigations within the Towy catchment.
Community infrastructure
Councillor Sparks said the primary school proposed as part of the wider Carmarthen West site was welcome. “We’ve got a significant community growing which needs a school,” he said. Mr Thomas said school contributions from developers were being collected by the council and it would be up to the authority’s education department to submit an application for a school in due course.
Councillor Jean Lewis asked if a new health surgery was going to be considered for the Carmarthen West site. Mr Thomas said a doctors’ surgery had relocated to Parc Dewi Sant, which is the other side of Ffordd Pendre.
