A plan to sell council-owned land to housing developer Redrow has been deferred by Caerphilly County Borough Council’s cabinet.
Leading councillors were due to make a decision on whether to sell the land in Hendredenny on February 4 but asked for more time to consider it.
Council officers had recommended selling the small plot of land to Redrow to allow it easy access to a plot of 27 acres, of which it has an option to buy.
But local councillors and residents are against the sale, saying they do not want more housing in the area.
An online petition has almost 300 signatures against the sale, stating road infrastructure is already stretched.
They claim “Abertridwr, Senghenydd, Penyrheol and Caerphilly’s identity would also be dramatically compromised with an increase in population and traffic”.
In December, Penyrheol councillor, Steve Skivens, who chairs Penyrheol Community Council, said: “There is just not the infrastructure capacity in place in terms of roads, sewerage and water supplies for a development of this size.
“This scheme will further strangle our communities and it is not acceptable.
“We will be fighting hard to stop this development.”
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the council owned the 27 acres of land which Redrow has an option on.
Good, let’s hope this deferral is not just unril after the General Election and that the next move by the council is to permanently protect this land.
GE year, Labour behind Tories is most polls, UKIP on the rise, UKIP did well here in Euro Elections, Labour MP wanting his job, Labour council not popular, Labour drop in session on Saturday at a college, and the Greens stealing Labour votes. The current MP takes Caerphilly for granted as a Labour safe seat and I don’t care which party wins provided they give him a hammering. The socialist workers party can win the seat for all I care.
Bad publicity is all Labour need. Labour will decide what to do before the GE, but do it after the GE as it will be unpopular.
The approval for this sale, and respective planning permission WILL be agreed after the general election, otherwise the Council and the property manager and planners would have recommended refusal on both issues NOW!.
Don’t let them build anything until they have honoured their commitment to other councils. One of the conditions which they agreed to when building in Cwmbach Aberdare was to construct a play area for the residents children to use at 90% completion which did not happen. Councils should get background information on previous contracts undertaken by company prior to considering any application.
Are they going to improve the road so it doesn’t take regularly over 20 minutes to get out of Abertridwr every morning? I had heard it was 500 houses. That’s at least another 500 cars to add to the already ridiculously jammed road
Not to mention the dismantling of the rail link to Abertridwr & Senghenydd in the late 1970’s. When this railway was laid down in Victorian times all track bed and bridges were designed for twin tracks (see ‘Caerphilly to Senghenydd’ by Mark Chapman) although only one track was laid. This was to cater for future demands on the rail service.
Now this route is destroyed, and very recently too, by people who do not posess the foresight of our forefathers. So we are stuck with one road which is not sufficient to serve the existing population let alone an increasing one.