Opposition to Planning Application 2006/1031 - housing development near Pwlldu REJECTED

News
04/07/06: APPLICATION REJECTED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE COMMITTEE! This is not the end - the applicant can appeal. But it is for now very good news for Gower. This website will keep you informed of developments. Thank you to all who have supported this particular campaign. There were over 450 letters of objection in total, plus hundreds of signatures on petitions
30/06/06: Local MP Martin Caton (Labour) has written to the planning Department voicing his concerns about this proposed development
29/06/06: Application 2006/1031 will now go to Committee at 2.00pm on Tuesday 4th July. Location is the same as previously - the Council Chamber, County Hall. Members of the public are welcome to attend
13/06/06: The item was deferred at the Planning Committee meeting (2.00pm, 13th June) because they were waiting for more information from the Environment Agency
11/06/06: The City Planners have produced an excellent report to the Planning Committee, which recommends that this application be rejected. Hopefully the Committee will uphold this recommendation at their meeting
10/06/06: The Planning Department has received around 300 letters of objection and a 400-plus name petition against this application
25/05/06: The Gower Society has decided that it will formally oppose this application

Background
Planning Application 2006/1031 is an outline application to build 16 new houses on two green fields in Bishopston between Pwlldu Lane and Brandy Cove Road. You can see an arial photo of the fields here. You can also take an excellent 'virtual tour' of the field.

The application is being made on behalf of the owners of the fields by a developer called Baytree Homes Limited (Previously Havencray Limited). Its company secretary and director are listed in the Company Record at an address in Cilfrew, Neath, and its registered address is Phoenix Way Enterprise Park, Swansea. You can find out more about Baytree Homes Limited - and the sort of houses they build - on their website.

The application went in to Swansea Planning Department on the 3rd May 2006 and a letter was sent out to immediate neighbours of the proposed site on the 12th May. Site notices did not go up until 21 May. People who want to write to the Planning Department about this application have until the 12th June 2006 to do so. Anyone and everyone has the right to make an observation - including an objection - to any planning application.

More information about 2006/1031
It is our current understanding that the proposed development would have a permanent 'in' access route via Brandy Cove Road and an 'out' access route via Pwlldu Lane (single track road, already heavily congested at times)

The Bishopston Community Council is opposed to the development. It is understood that an irregularity may have occured at the meeting to discuss this proposed development, when a member declared a personal interest but failed to leave the room. You can see contact details for Bishopston Community Council on the 192.com website.

We have done our best to make as much information as possible on application 2006/1031 available through this website.

You can see brief details of the application on the Swansea Planning Department website.

You can view a copy of the full application, including a plan of the proposed site.

You can read a copy of the letter sent out to immediate neighbours of the proposed site.

You can see a detailed colour coded map of the proposed site, showing the AONB line and land planning designations.

If you have any more queries, please contact us and we'll do our best to answer them.

Opposing this development
If you've read this far then chances are you're opposed to this development - and hopefully you want to do something about it. But what can be done?

Writing a letter (or email) to Swansea Planning Department outlining your objections to this proposal is an excellent way of standing up and being counted. You can see contact details for the Planning Department on their website.

Your letter doesn't have to be long, but it should list one or two (or more!) valid objections. You can read a list of some (but by no means all!) good reasons to object here.

Tell as many people as you can about this and encourage them to write and object if they're opposed to it too. Remember - anyone can object, but most people won't have been sent a letter of notification so they may not even know about it. Pass on the address of this website to them too - it's easy to copy lots of people into a short email.

Consider making you views known to:

• Your Local Councillor and Community Council
• Your Welsh Assembly Member (AM)
• Andrew Davies AM, the Welsh Assembly Minister for Enterprise. He recently wrote about the importance of protecting Gower for future generations (it was on the Welsh Assembly website, but not any more)
• Your Member of Parliament (MP)

If you're against this development, but you just know you won't get round to writing a letter of objection, why not drop us an email of support? Give us your name and address and we'll collate a list of individuals who are opposed to this development to hand in to Swansea Planning Department. You can contact us here. And don't forget you can always email Swansea Planning Department direct.

Swansea Area Planning Guidance - it's on our side!
Planning Guidance documents for the Swansea region robustly defend the need to preserve Gower in an unspoilt state for future generations.

You can read a detailed analysis of relevant local planning policy here - it's a tad boring, but it's very useful for objection letters...

You can also read what planners had to say when they turned down a similar application more than 30 years ago.

More information is available on the Government Planning Portal website and it's well worth a read (sorry - both of these links point at specific pages, but the site bounces you to its home page - worth a dig around though):

PLANNING POLICY GZ 7 - BISHOPSTON VALLEY/PWLLDU/CASWELL

PLANNING POLICY CL 1 - LANDSCAPE CONSERVATION - GENERAL