'Bonkers' plan by fours sisters to build four houses next to each other
The Jukes sisters - Celyn, Sara, Carys and Mandy - have lodged a planning application with Ceredigion Council seeking approval to construct four discounted bungalows at Drws Y Coed, Cae Morgan Road, on the outskirts of Cardigan. The scheme, which has been recommended for refusal at the August 13 development management committee meeting, incorporates a fourth dwelling for their sister, Mandy Jones.
Three of the sisters presently live at Drws Y Coed alongside their parents. Last August, a comparable scheme put forward by the same applicants was rejected by county planners. The proposal, which involved constructing four £400,000 three and four-bedroom detached properties at the location, faced criticism for describing them as 'affordable', a term branded "bonkers".
The previous application was recommended for refusal due to several reasons including its location in open countryside, which contravenes planning policy, reports WalesOnline.
The application also "fails to demonstrate that the proposed occupiers of the dwellings are in real affordable housing need, with [the applicants'] search focusing on properties up to a value of £350k," and "there is no real need for the proposed occupiers to live at the application site, and is rather a desire to live close to the family".
Russell Hughes-Pickering, the head of planning for Ceredigion, has voiced serious concerns about the size and scale of the proposed development. He described the houses, which are expected to be in the region of £400,000, as "blatantly not affordable".
"Anyone looking at the application and thinking they are affordable houses is bonkers, these are not affordable houses: the size of the properties, the size of the plots, the value of the houses; they are just not affordable."
A supporting statement from Harries Planning Design Management, the agent for the latest scheme, says: "Due to their personal and family ties to Caermorgan Road, it is such that they seek to build homes on the land to the rear of Drws Y Coed.
"This will provide independent living accommodation where they can settle and continue to live, work and raise a family within their local community."
The statement also mentions that the proposed dwellings, which have been reduced in size and design after the previous refusal, are "honest in their intentions, to provide long-term family homes which will be of an appropriate scale to serve their needs, whilst respecting the wider landscape context and neighbouring amenity levels".
The most recent proposal was once more advised for rejection at the July meeting, because the location sits within open countryside beyond any established settlement where new housing development is generally opposed, the site falls well short of required housing density standards outlined in policy, and it would cause substantial harm to the surrounding landscape.
The application was postponed at that meeting awaiting a Site Inspection Panel visit, but faces rejection once again, with the panel voicing "significant concern with regards to the layout of the proposed development and the siting of the dwellinghouses," according to a report for councillors.
The document also reveals the panel deemed the suggested layout and positioning unacceptable, whilst a planned pedestrian pathway connection "would only benefit the occupiers of the proposed dwellinghouses".
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