Remove site from Plan

The proposal is potentially neither "acceptable" nor "deliverable" in terms of its
impacts on neighbouring existing developments and, in particular, local highways.
1) Question 10 in the Site Allocation Assessment for Sec16/h1 asserts that the site
is ”accessible from the existing public highway". This is true, but only in a very
narrow sense that the site can be accessed by an existing road. It says nothing of
the nature and character of that single road access - Parc Pencrug.
Parc Pencrug is a narrow and twisting cul-de-sac that currently serves around 50
homes. It cannot be widened, owing to the proximity of existing buildings and the
topology of the hillside. Access onto Parc Pencrug is via a tight-radius roundabout
on Llys Pencrug; any attempt to re-work that junction would necessitate the loss of
mature trees with significant amenity value, and would be to the detriment of the
existing character of the Pencrug development.
Furthermore, Parc Pencrug is steep with a gradient of around 15% over a 100m
length. There have been several incidents since the existing development was
completed of vehicles skidding and losing control on this gradient, causing
damage to both buildings and parked cars.
The current proposed development site - SeC16/h1 - would add around 50% to the
number of homes served by Parc Pencrug. On this basis, it can be estimated that
there would also be a 50% increase in traffic volumes on the road once any
development is completed. It is far from clear that the road as currently configured
could handle this increase. And given the intrinsic nature of the constraints on the
road - existing buildings and site topology - this factor cannot safely be set aside
now as something to be considered later as part of specific development proposals
at the planning application stage.
The highways impacts of the construction phase of any development need also to
be considered at this stage. Not only would this phase involve the direct
construction of housing, but the Site Assessment also indicates that there would
be a need for significant upgrades to the water and sewerage networks (see
"Additional Comments" under 026). It is clear that Parc Pencrug is not suitable for
any significant volume of construction traffic.
2)These comments address the direct proposal (Sec16/h1) contained in the draft
Second Deposit Plan. But in reality that proposal cannot be meaningfully
considered in isolation from the planning history of the wider area and further
proposals that might (re)emerge in the future.
The current proposal site was subsumed within a much larger site (T2/2/h1) in the
First Deposit Plan, which would have involved nearly ten times the number of new
homes. This earlier plan is still recognised in the Site Assessment for the current
reduced proposal both in terms of its name - "Llandeilo Northern Quarter" - and in
an explicit reference to Supplementa Plannino Guidance for the wider development adopted in 2009. This strongly indicates that the current proposal
cannot be considered in isolation - in effect, as a windfall addition to the existing
Pencrug neighbourhood - but has to treated as a first phase of a much wider plan
(potentially to be brought forward either outside the allocations in the current LDP
or in a future LDP).
These potential future plans may appear to be out with the scope of any
assessment of the 2nd Deposit Plan that is the immediate subject of the current
consultation/examination. But the continued existence of the wider-site SPG gives
the lie to this, not least because any planning application for the "narrow" site
would still have to reflect that wider-site SPG.
Significantly, the 2009 SPG presented as a supposed "benefit" from the
development that it would improve the "legibility and permeability" of the highways
network specifically by removing cul-de-sacs. The indicative site layouts identified
a connection from a new junction at Rhosmaen Street, along the "main street"
grade road through the new development, and then onto Parc Pencrug (and
thence to Carmarthen Road). This would - as a matter of deliberate policy - lead
to a massive increase in traffic flows along Parc Pencrug, both from traffic
generated by the development itself and from wider cut-through access.
For the reasons discussed above in terms of potential impacts from the current
"narrow" development, this much larger increase in traffic would clearly be
inappropriate in terms of its impacts on neighbouring developments.
The 2009 SPG makes passing reference to the role of pinch-points and design
details to reduce the impact of rat-running. But even if these are effective in terms
of reducing vehicle speeds, they would in practice do nothing to reduce traffic
volumes.
Forward-thinking local authorities across the UK are increasingly looking to
remove through-connections in residential areas - at the top-end through Low
Traffic Neighbourhoods and on a simpler scale through the closing off of individual
roads with impermeable gates and barriers. It would be sadly ironic if
Carmarthenshire chose to head in the opposite direction of opening residential
neighbourhoods up to new through-traffic, where they are currently self-contained.
On these bases, the proposal for site SeC16/h1 cannot be considered divorced
from its history, and can be appropriate only if the existing 2009 SPG for the wider
site is formally revoked and rescinded by Carmarthenshire County Council.