In his regular blog for Caerphilly Observer South Wales East AM Lindsay Whittle gives his take on recent news.
Hendredenny Plans
The Caerphilly Observer has reported on the outline planning application by Redrow to build up to 260 new homes on green fields north of Hendredenny in Caerphilly.
Plaid Cymru ward councillors will fight tooth and nail to prevent this development because, we believe, it will bad for Caerphilly as well as those living in the immediate area.
There are already significant congestion problems at peak times so can you imagine the traffic issues with vehicles entering and exiting Hendredenny Drive.
Redrow has yet to provide details of how they will access the land. We will continue to oppose the local authority selling off a strip of land to make it easy for them to develop.
We have concerns about the impact on local schools and doctor’s surgeries, as well as local services like sewerage and water supplies, because there will be a big increase in the local population if this scheme goes ahead.
Residents are writing to the council planning department in Pontllanfraith re application number 15/0412/outline and we hope as many as possible will register their opposition.
As ward members we strongly believe that all new housing should not be sited around the Caerphilly Basin and developers should be directed by the Welsh Government to look at sites further up the Rhymney Valley. The Welsh Government needs to consider what support it can give to encourage builders, both social and, indeed, private to build in the mid and northern parts of the Caerphilly constituency.
This issue needs to be given top priority.
Voices for women
I attended a presentation in the Senedd which included a film highlighting the contribution women make and continue to make in the working life of Wales.
I know from having worked at the Stadium and Dialoy factories in Caerphilly how key were women for those companies and for the contribution they made to the family budgets.
Leanne Wood
It was great to hear the vision for Caerphilly and Wales from Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood in Bedwas last week. What was particularly pleasing to see was the number of members of the public. This is a good sign ahead of the 2016 assembly elections.
As a resident of Golwg Y Coed, Hendredenny, the impact of this proposed Redrow development on my family is huge! Our property backs onto the fields and therefore we face financial loss which is so frustrating when every local resident I have canvassed are opposed to this ridiculous plan! We simply do not have enough adequate amenities to cope with any further development of the land proposed, which has always been set out as a ‘Green Wedge’ to prevent our communities from losing their individual character! With local political figures such as Lindsay Whittle and Wayne David MP opposed to this development, how on earth can Caerphilly County Borough Council permit this development to happen?! It’s time for the local councillors and MP’s to support the views of their constituents and STOP this crazy plan from becoming a reality! I await a response from anyone who wishes to support and rally against this Redrow planning application! T.Edwards
I agree with the argument raised, but Golwg Y Coed itself should never have been built. The Caerffili basin reached saturation point more than 20 years ago. There is absolutely no reason to build on farmland or woodland as there are no employment prospects in the town or surrounding area and our road system cannot cope with the current traffic.
As a lifelong resident of Caerffili I implore people to stop voting for Labour and Plaid Cymru who have between them just about destroyed what was once a pleasant town.
The idea of building instead in the North of the borough, why? There are even fewer jobs there and all the resultant traffic of new residents going to work in Cardiff will funnel through Caerffili, further degrading our living standards and worsening the air quality of a town that has already been identified as an air quality blackspot .
It’s going to happen they are going to do it, we need hundreds of thousands of new houses in this country every year because of insane immigration policies. What we are seeing in Caerphilly is the trickle down effect of EU policies that we have no control over. lib/lab/con/SNP/plaid are all in on it and devoted to the cause or to frightened/gutless to oppose it.
If you don’t like it vote outside this group, or perhaps you should of when you had the chance.