SeC6/h2

Remove site from Plan

Further to the publication of the above document, we have been asked by our Clients to
review its contents, policies and proposals and advise them of any aspects we believe would
unreasonably affect their aspirations and interests. In doing so we consider it necessary to
make a formal representation to the “soundness” of the Carmarthenshire Deposit Local
Development Plan in relation to the allocation for residential development at land Between
Clayton Road and Bronallt Road, Hendy (LDP Ref. No. SeC6/h2) under the provisions of
Policy HOM1. The proposed allocation has been fully assessed and in considering its
context and background (summarised below) it is considered that its continued inclusion will
lead to the Plan failing the 3 Tests of Soundness for the reasons set out below.

Site Background and Context
The allocation relates to the land shaded brown on the Proposals Map extract below and is
proposed for allocation in the 2nd Deposit LDP for the purposes of 20 residential units.

Plan A
(Extract of Proposals Map for Land Between Clayton Road and Bronallt Road Allocation)

As part of the current consultation process into the 2nd Deposit LDP, the Council have again published a “Site Assessment Table” (2023), which provides details of the Council’s analysis of each received Candidate Site submission and existing allocations within the current adopted LDP. Proposed allocation SeC6/h2 was considered as part of this process and as a result the Council concluded as follows:

“Site to be retained as a residential allocation as an integrated scheme with site T3/7/h5 below. Reference is made to SR/069/009 below. Site to be allocated as an integrated scheme within the revised LDP with reference SeC6/h2.”

It is clear from the above that the Council considers that the site is deliverable for the purposes of 20 houses, although it is not clear on what basis this conclusion has been made.
The allocation is greenfield in nature with its topography sloping gently from north to south. The northern, eastern and western perimeters of the site are bordered by residential properties. The southern boundary is then bordered by further open pasture as can be seen from the aerial photograph below (outlined in red below).

Photograph 1
(Extract from Google Earth – June 2021)

Access to the allocation is currently gained off Bronallt Road, that being a residential street running north to south through Hendy (see below).

Photograph 2
(Streetscene of Bronallt Road)

Full Planning Permission was granted in April 2018 for the Construction of 8 houses together with associated vehicular and pedestrian accesses, car parking, landscaping, drainage and other ancillary development (S/34537). However, to our understanding, this development is
yet to be completed. The application also only relates to part of the allocation, with no application made to the remainder of the site.
The site is allocated in the Carmarthenshire Local Development Plan (2014) under allocation T3/7/h5 as well as the Carmarthenshire Unitary Development Plan (2006) under allocation GR2/3 (as can be seen below).

Plan B
(Extract of Current Carmarthenshire LDP Proposal Map for Allocation Site (Adopted 2014))

Plan C
(Extract of Carmarthenshire UDP Proposal Map for Allocation Site (Adopted 2006))

Despite having almost 20 years of support for the principle of residential development at the historic allocation from the Council, only 5 housing units has been delivered to date to a site allocated for 20 units. It is submitted that only 8 units should be allocated at this site to reflect the extent planning permission and the remainder omitted in the same manner as the Council omitted T3/7/h4 in the last Site Assessment Review.

Tests of Soundness
Based on the above information and the guidance documents provided by the Welsh Government and Council itself, it is considered that the inclusion of the adoption of the LDP in its current form with the inclusion of the allocation in question, would result in it failing to meet the requirements of the Tests of Soundness, for the reasons summarised below.

Test 1 – Does the Plan Fit?
The allocation fails the test of soundness as its inability to be delivered is in conflict with Paragraph 4.2.2 of Planning Policy Wales (Edition 11) requirements of national planning policy.

Test 2 – Is the Plan appropriate?
The allocation fails the test of soundness as its inability to be delivered would fail to address key issues set out by the Plan (housing supply). The Council’s decision to allocate the land appears to not have been done so on credible or robust evidence.

Test 3 – Will the Plan deliver?
The allocation fails to test the soundness as the site is clearly unable to deliver any new housing. The Welsh Governments Development Plans Manual (Edition 3) is quite clear with regard to rolling forward allocations and states that allocations “… rolled forward from a previous plan will require careful justification for inclusion in a revised plan, aligning with PPW. There will need to be substantial change in circumstances to demonstrate sites can be delivered and justify being included again. Clear evidence will be required that such sites can be delivered”. No evidence has been presented to demonstrate a change in circumstances to indicate the allocation will now be deliverable and so its continued allocation would lead to the plan being deemed unsound on this basis.

In summary, we object to the inclusion of the allocation in question on the basis of the above and that its inclusion within the Plan would result in the document being ‘unsound’.

We therefore respectfully request that this Representation be given careful examination, and that the allocation be removed to ensure that the document passes all the relevant tests of soundness.

Deallocate HOM1 allocation SeC6/h2

We are instructed by Mrs D. Davies to a make a formal representation to the “soundness” of
the Second Deposit Draft of the Carmarthenshire Local Development Plan.

Our clients made a formal Candidate Site Submission in August 2018, which was referenced
SR/069/014, seeking inclusion of their land for future residential development within the
defined settlement limits of Hendy & Fforest within the Replacement Local Development
Plan. The Candidate Site comprises the rear garden area of “Oaklands”, a substantial
detached dwellinghouse which has two independent vehicular accesses onto Heol-y-Felin,
and Bronallt Road respectively.

The Council have published a “Site Assessment Table” (January 2023) which provides
details of the Council’s analysis of each received Candidate Site submission, and in the case
of our clients’ submission, reasons why the site was not selected for inclusion within the draft
settlement limits of Hendy & Fforest, as contained within the Deposit Draft.
We note that the submission successfully passed through all three Assessment Stages,
being Stage 1 (site compatible against the location of future growth presented in the
Preferred Strategy), Stage 2A (Initial Detailed Site Assessment), Stage 2b (Further Detailed
Site Assessment) and Stage 3 (Sustainability Appraisal and Habitat Regulation Assessment)
of the Council’s site assessment.

It therefore crucially was adjudged acceptable in all technical aspects of formal
assessment, but was only rejected at the final selection stage, with reasons for non-inclusion
reported as follows:
“There is sufficient residential elsewhere allocated in the settlement. The site will remain
outside of the development limits.
It is immediately apparent that the Council have repeated the same conclusion from when they published the First Draft of the Replacement LDP in January 2020.
Our clients consider the LDP is “unsound” and should be changed, as it fails to meet the tests for “soundness”, in that the Plan “is not appropriate”, and “will not deliver”, as defined by the Planning Inspectorate’s LDP Examinations Procedural Guidance.

Specifically, our clients consider that the draft settlement limits for Hendy & Fforest, as defined under Policy SD1 “Settlement Limits”, should be amended to include the land as edged in red upon the extract of the Proposals Map for Hendy & Fforest, as reproduced below in Figure 1. The land should be appropriately allocated for housing under Policy HOM1 “Housing Allocations.”
Figure 1 – Extract from Second Draft Proposals Map with site edged in red
This formal representation letter supplements the following documents which comprise a complete submission to the Second Deposit Draft Consultation stage:
- Completed Deposit LDP Representation Form
- Completed Sustainability Appraisal form
Response to Council’s Reasons for Non-Inclusion
of Site within Settlement Limits

1.0 Overall Housing Supply at Hendy & Fforest within Deposit Draft

1.1 The Council consider that the only reason for the Candidate Site at Oaklands not being included within the draft Plan as a Residential Allocation is that they believe that there are sufficient residential sites allocated elsewhere in the settlement. On this basis, it must be accepted that the form of the Candidate Site set to the rear of established properties which front Carmarthen Road (A48), together with the
proposals to utilise the existing vehicular access onto Bronallt Road (subject to
appropriate widening and junction alignment) is deemed acceptable, and in accord

with the spatial form and character of the settlement.
1.2 The proposals under this Representation merely seek the addition of circa 7
residential units to the overall housing supply of Hendy & Fforest, which forms part of
the principal service centre centred upon the Llanelli Cluster as defined within the
draft LDP. Figure 2 below provides an extract of the indicative site layout plan for this
Representation site.
Figure 2 – Indicative Site Layout plan of Representation Site

1.3 The Llanelli Cluster aims to provide an additional 2840 residential units over the Plan
period to 2033, with Hendy & Fforest (Settlement SeC6) providing sites totalling 81
units to that overall Cluster total. We would submit in the first instance that the
addition of an allocated site of 7 units will not lead to an over-supply of
dwellinghouses within the Cluster, nor the defined Hendy & Fforest settlement
supply.

1.4 We have examined and researched sites which have been brought forward as
Residential Allocations with the Deposit Draft. In Hendy & Fforest, great emphasis
within the Draft Plan has been placed upon the continued allocation of proposed
housing sites still left allocated from the 2014-21 Local Development Plan. Figure 3
below provides an extract from the Second Deposit Draft Schedule of Housing Sites
from Policy HOM1.
Figure 3 - Schedule of Allocated Sites for Hendy & Fforest from Second Deposit Draft
This Schedule needs to be contrated with the January 2020 Schedule as reproduced below
at Figure 4, and it is noted that only Fforest Garage has been omitted. That site was
indicated as capable of acommodating a total of 17 units. Also SeC6/h2 at “Land between
Clayton Road and East Of Bronallt Road” has been reduced in capacity from 39 units in
2020 to 20 units in 2023.

Figure 4 – Deposit Draft Housing Schedule
1.5 In relation to land adjacent to Clos Benallt Fawr (SeC6/h4), we note all 35 houses at
the site have since been completed.
Site SeC6/h1 at Clos-Ty-Gwyn (Llwyngwern) has also been completed during the last
LDP period of 2014-21.

1.6 However, we note that the Proposals Map in relation to “Fforest Garage” (SeC6/h5)
and “Land between Clayton Road and East of Bronallt Road” (h2) has not altered.
Both undeveloped sites remain allocated. In the case of the latter site off Bronallt
Road, it has the benefit of planning permission for 8 detached houses, of which only
two have been constructed. The 8 dwellings form a phase immediately off an estate
road junction with Bronallt Road, and the phase is restricted to the north-western part
of the entire allocation of 39 units, which stretches south over steeply sloping and
heavily undulating fields to the rear of Clayton Road. No planning permission has ever been sought for the majority of the site, despite the site being included in the Llanelli Borough Local Plan (1996), Carmarthenshire Unitary Development Plan (2003), and latterly the Local Development Plan (2014).

1.7 Consequently, twenty-five years of Development Plan allocations have elapsed without any signs of wholesale delivery of this site, apart from two units directly off the Bronallt Road frontage. Clearly, there is no historic demand for a site of this scale in this part of the Hendy area. It is almost certainly a physically challenging site, due to steep topography and the inability to adequately dispose of surface water, given there is no obvious watercourse receptor to deal with run-off from new development. Yet still the Council is prepared to allocate the site once again in a new Development Plan?
The allocation fails the test of soundness as the site is clearly unable to deliver any new housing. The Development Plans Manual (Edition 3) is quite clear with regard to rolling forward allocations and states that allocations “ … rolled forward from a previous plan will require careful justification for inclusion in a revised plan, aligning with PPW. There will need to be a substantial change in circumstances to demonstrate sites can be delivered and justify being included again. Clear evidence will be required that such sites can be delivered.”. no evidence has been presented to demonstrate a change in circumstances to indicate the allocation will now be delivered.

1.8 The Council has agreed with our client’s objection to the First Deposit Draft and not allocated “Fforest Garage” with the Second Draft of the LDP. Nevertheless, it has not sought to compensate our client by re-allocating part of those proposed 17 units to our client’s site at Bronallt Road, where only 7 units are proposed. The substitution of sites, and particularly for one with a lower density and capacity, is unjust, and does not aim to deliver a sound plan as it relates to the Hendy & Forest sustainable settlement.

1.9 We submit that there is clear evidence in Llangennech, Hendy, Fforest and Llanedi that such modest sites are far more likely to be brought forward and developed in full by regional and small housebuilders given that construction and development costs are more likely to be viable in relation to house sales and the general housing market in this part of Carmarthenshire.

1.10 In the case of Oaklands at Bronallt Road, there are little signs within the immediate locality of properties for second sale, and no evidence of undeveloped land available within this part of the settlement limits, which is a strong indicator of a healthy property market at Hendy. Consequently, it is a location where housing proposals are deliverable, assisting to meet housing needs in this part of the Llanelli Cluster.
In conclusion, this Representation to the Second Deposit Draft of the Revised LDP has sought to examine the Council’s reasons for non-inclusion of a Candidate Site.

Our clients have illustrated that their indicative proposals to construct circa 7-10 dwellinghouses will not appear at odds to the prevailing spatial pattern of development in Hendy and Fforest. The locality has numerous examples of modern cul-de-sac development
being completed at backland locations, which in turn, advocates that the form of development proposed at Oaklands is no different, resulting in it being respectful to the character and setting of the locality.

We respectfully request that this Representation be given careful examination, and consequently the defined settlement limits of this part of Fforest realigned to include the Representation Site, as a Residential Allocation in the Proposals Map of the adopted Local Development Plan.