Testun llawn:
am objecting to the inclusion of grounds Site ID 4069 Land East of Colwinston on two principal grounds. These are:
1. The unjustified redrawing of the settlement boundary to include candidate site 4069
2. inclusion of this site for affordable housing, being unsustainable and unviable and likely to cause significant irreversible damage to village heritage status. The inclusion of this site fails to reflect planning policies and LDP objectives. It fails on the majority of Impact Sustainability objectives and should not be approved for inclusion in the final LDP.
These were the comments made, by the Vale of Glamorgan Council, on the RLDP Stage 2 Candidate Site Register in 2023, concluding that site 4069 to be unsuitable for further consideration:
"The site would represent unacceptable intrusion in to the open countryside.
The site is located within a minor rural settlement, and the scale of the
proposal would be greater than that supported by the preferred growth
strategy of the Replacement LDP. The site is also at a scale that could not
be considered as a suitable affordable housing led development site"
It begs the question:- what has changed??
My additional comments to backup my objection are:
o Major highways constraints. Access to the village is via a single file road. Due mainly to the development to include an additional 65 dwellings in recent years, leaving or returning home has become a major challenge (especially for my wife who is not a particularly confident driver) due to multiple vehicles (usually large) needing to use the single file road down through the village. This is particularly bad at the beginning and end of the school day. It is incomprehensible to consider the impact of another 30-40 vehicles toing and frowing through the village adding to the congestion!
This issue is further impacted by the fact that there is no regular public transport, which is key if the proposed development includes a significant number of affordable homes!
o Flooding risk - there are historic local drainage and flooding issues. The additional load on the drainage and sewage systems, local and at the Cowbridge waste water treatment works, could cause major problems of flooding and worse.
o Lack of infrastructure to sustain an enlarged population which will require more road congestion, less safe walking or cycling around the village and the general environmental impact of an increased population in such a small rural community.
