Penyrheol ward councillors have said hundreds of new homes could be developed on the Hendredenny estate in Caerphilly.
Plaid Cymru councillors Lindsay Whittle, Margaret Sargent and Steve Skivens have distributed leaflets to houses on the estate explaining the council’s Local Development Plan (LDP) is up for review.
Mr Whittle, who is also an AM for South East Wales, said: “This gives people who own land the opportunity to put forward their ideas for possible development sites.
“A house builder, which owns lands towards Abertridwr, has been spotted surveying in the area and we have been told that a planning application for more homes with access to the west of the Hendredenny estate is planned.
“As ward members we have consistently opposed the extension of the estate.
“A further few hundred homes would make traffic congestion worse, despite the road improvement works at the Hendredenny roundabout and at Hendre.
“There is just not the infrastructure capacity in place in terms of roads, sewerage and water supplies to cope with hundreds of additional homes.
“While there is no planning application yet, residents need to be prepared to fight to stop this development. There are already too many homes in the Caerphilly area and builders should be told to go to the north of the borough, as was originally planned in the LDP. It is important we keep our green wedges. We don’t want to see Penyrheol and Abertridwr joined up.”
Cllr Steve Skivens added: “We need a strategy to ensure that development is not at a price to local residents. We understand the need for housing and businesses but infrastructure must come with it.
“It is foolhardy to continue to build in an area where the road networks can’t cope today.
“Many of the local roads are operating well beyond their capacity. Dangerous conditions are being created at congestion pinch points.
“Even the Normans realised that Caerphilly was a control point for movement to and from the Valleys. Why can’t those in power see the same?”
Sorry but we dont need no more houses theres to many now there empty houses all over the Caerphilly sort them out 1st. They build houses and dont sort the roads out.x
caerphilly will be just houses in a few years as all the work will be gone.
This report is probably correct when it quotes Lindsay Whittle as saying there is a lack of infrastructure to support such major house building development, but, much of that lack of local infrastructure is down to his party in the way they last evolved the LDP.
The more houses they build in this area of Caerphilly the better, the is land available, the need for more homes exists, and it adds money to the local economy, it produces financial support for the creation of other community facilities due to the planning gain fund. and it adds to the money available to the Caerphilly CBC budgets through the Council tax system, so what is there to oppose?.
I agree 100% with the comments made by Lindsay and Steve. The character of the town and quality of life of Caerffili residents has already been degraded by building too many houses. There are literally thousands of homes in South Wales that have been empty for more than a year, sometimes for many years. There is no need to bury farmland under more concrete.
I don’t feel that part of Caerphilly can cope with more traffic congestion, but I am sure that the developers will get their way and make their millions and clear off and leave us with the hassle of driving towards st cenydd roundabout which has become a real bottleneck at certain times, whilst they sit in their mansions counting their cash! It’s all very well building more houses, but what about infrastructure? Perhaps they should accept that certain parts of Caerphilly have reached saturation point, and maybe should look at developing areas beyond Castle View if we are that desperate for houses?
There can be an argument for no more houses in Caerphilly as a whole but I shall focus on the argument in this article.
Hendredenny has one access road and a small lane in awful condition. In the mornings the roads are congested and you spend longer waiting at traffic lights than you do actually driving to the centre of Caerphilly. The local primary school is over-subscribed and pupils on the estate have been turned away. St Cenydd is large and is struggling to cope with the numbers. It’s already larger than was originally planned. The hospitals nearby are struggling to cope and air pollution is increasing.
Building more homes is not the solution. You need to build more infrastructure first. You don’t build aeroplanes without the runways and terminals. You build the runways and the planes come second.
The Community Infrastructure Levy is there to help pay for the supporting infrastructure that is needed when housing developments are built, or is this money being syphoned off by Caerphilly Council to pay for other things, or the developer throws in a new health centre or some park equipment to sweeten the deal.
Has Caerphilly now become an attractive and cost effective place for developers to build houses, Persimmon have already stated that they will no longer build in parts of Wales as there is not enough of a profit margin due to Welsh Government red tape.
Lets not forget Aber Valley as well, any further building in the area also effects us in the Aber Valley, we have one main road in and out of the valley, you can currently spend 30 minutes at rush hour traffic just getting out of our valley…..planners need to think of wider impacts not just the immediate area….