Residents have voiced their opposition to early plans to build 400 homes on the site of Virginia Park Golf Club in Caerphilly town.
Cllr James Pritchard, who represents the Morgan Jones ward for Labour, found out that planning and design firm Barton Willmore has submitted pre-application plans to Caerphilly County Borough Council.
The pre-application is currently being considered by planning officials. If they pass consideration, they will be made available for formal public consultation before any planning application is submitted.
Cllr Pritchard said he became aware of rumours about the future of the golf course from local residents last year, and called a public meeting on Friday, January 27, for them to air their views.
He said: “I’ve consistently submitted objections against development on this site and will continue to do so.
“The site is unacceptable not only on highways grounds, but officers have previously cited flooding consequences.
“The loss of amenity value will not be welcomed by residents and it needs to be killed.
“I’ve written to Barton Willmore to formally ask them to withdraw this unwelcome pre-application.”
Cllr Mike Prew, who represents the Morgan Jones ward for Plaid Cymru, has also vowed to fight the plans.
He said: “At an average of 2.2 cars per household, there will almost be an extra 1,000 vehicles on the road if the development goes ahead.
“We marched when there was a plan to put 800 homes on the old St Ilan site, which is now the Y Gwyndy Campus, and we are prepared to do the same again.”
Planning officers have previously considered the land not suitable for further consideration, and the site did not form part of the last approved Local Development Plan, or replacement draft plan, which was subsequently withdrawn.
A council spokeswoman said: “The local planning authority has received a statutory pre-application consultation. This gives the Council the opportunity to provide the developer with the policy and technical context of the proposal, but does not prejudice the decision taken on any subsequent planning application for the proposed development.
“In view of the size of the development, the developer will have to carry out a pre-application consultation exercise, which will include the local community and councillors. A report of that process will have to accompany any planning application for the development.
“The Council will carry out its own statutory consultation once an application for planning permission is received.”
So another place for more homes to make the town and roads even more congested than they already are. Council will get payment for allowing builders to do this. Disgusting and totally not necessary. They closed a hospital built with moners own money and made a massive housing estate, closed a hospital in Ystrad to build a sport centre and the main police station in Caerphilly to build a bigger one in Ystrad. No hospital in the town and no police station as of yet. Disgusting wrecking places just to build houses. Totally do not approve at all
I totally agree, no need for me to add further comment.
Caerphilly needs the new road out over the old tar plant which was part of the LDP but was thrown out because of the building of new houses on Greenfield land Virginia Park is not greenfield & I think is classed as white land perfect for housing. Caerphilly will always be a pinch point for traffic whether you live in the town or further up the valley maybe councillors should concentrate on infrastructure to help with the congestion People need houses
Golf course is closing because its losing money the business cannot survive going forward. So it will become waste land anyway. Virginia Park as a sports site is a disgrace to Caerphilly, the leisure centre is old & small & we need a new one, the rugby club falling apart the Tennis club want indoor facilities but got no money & the football & cricket pitches had over £100000 spent on drainage & its like a bod in winter so Virginia Park as a whole is a total waste of space its better off as a housing estate
like to know where in relation to this proposed development you live
I live on Van Road & work at Virginia Park Golf club so it affects me too
The job side will effect you but the increase in traffic in the locality will not effect where you reside. The traffic on Bedwas and Pontygwyndy roads at rush hour is horrendous already without another 400 households with cars. Besides which, that land used to be a tip, who knows what nasty infills went on there.
We as a household drive onto Pontygwindy Rd & Nantgarw Rd so it affects us all Graham but when a major outlet road over the old tar plant gets rejected whos to blame. Like I said Virginia Park is a disgrace as a sports park maybe if the council used some of the money they pay their executive staff on gardening leave & build a new state of the art Leisure centre on the site of the golf course & range with better sports facilities 4G pitch & allow some housing on the far side of the site it might be a better proposal rather than councillors just reject it totally
Research by the Assembly concludes that Wales needs 14’000 new homes to be built every year for the next 15 years to meet demand. We most probably all recognise this, we want new houses to be built for our children to live in when they grow up, get a job and move out but nobody wants houses to be built next to them do they, yes we need more houses built but build them somewhere else NOT next to me, NIMBYs I believe is the description. Demand will therefore outstrip supply and house prices will continue to rise to eye watering levels, and our offspring will be forced to move away to find a house they can afford to buy or rent.
400 new homes will generate around £2million in Community Infrastructure Levy for Caerphilly Council, not a bad little earner, this is money used strangely enough to provide the necessary infrastructure to accommodate all those extra cars from the new housing estate, although I dare say it gets spent on other things instead.
Sadly with Caerphilly being a satellite town of Cardiff and Newport it is a prime building location for developers, the land is cheaper and they can make more profit on every unit they build in Caerphilly.
Everybody protests, complains and objects when a new housing development is proposed but what is the alternative when we need more homes to be built.
More homes NEEDS better road infrastructure, Paul. And it needs to be put in place BEFORE building work commences.
Single lane traffic hitting the hotspots of Bassleg, A470 and Caerphilly mountain are no good.
Is junction 31 on M4 the answer? With link roads to it.
Definitely more investment in jobs further up the valleys is required. At the moment everyone just pours down each day creating more and more congestion to this town and others, like Pontypridd.
The railways are a joke. People with season tickets standing everyday of their work week. A disaster waiting to happen.
That’s what most are concerned about, how to get about, without making an 8 Hr work day, a 11/12 Hr one.
Where were the tar works Mark?
I like the suggestion of part homes and part sports facility. Can’t see the money being available though.
Perhaps if Welsh Labour had spent more of those billions of pounds of European funding on improving the road infrastructure here in Wales rather than covering the landscape in innovation centres, building plush new multi million pound local council authority offices, and using the money to safe guard their own jobs we’d all have a better road network to drive around on. Why isn’t there a decent road link to Cardiff airport? Why no fast route between North and South? Why haven’t the M4 issues been sorted out? In Ireland they used European funding to build better roads – in Wales they used it to build new Government buildings and council offices, we can see where Welsh Labour’s priorities are.
The fact remains that Wales needs more new homes to be built and if I were a house builder I’d be wanting to build where I can make the most profit, so that’s nowhere North of Pontypridd then.
Someone needs to compile a simple map of the all the brownfield sites suitable for housing in the Caerphilly area.
Developers don’t like building on brownfield site as its more expensive but if we the general public have a clear view and understanding of the situation we will be able to put greater pressure on “OUR” local council to protect “OUR”
Interests and not be swamped by the expansion plans of Cardiff.
There are already adequate maps of all brownfield sites in existence. The problem with building more houses in the Caerffili Basin or Rhymney Valley is one of infrastructure. How ever much is invested in roads in the borough area there are very few jobs. All the available work will be outside the council area.
This means that all traffic, no matter how good our roads are, wil be attempting to use the overcrowded A470 or the single carriageway roads to Cardiff and Newport. I agree with your comment and in my view both local government and the Welsh Assembly should concentrate on the interests of people who already live in Caerffili. If you vote Labour or Plaid in the next election the chances of this outcome is nil. Carwyn Jones visited recently and with great relish said that many more houses will be built in Caerffili – that seems to be the case, whether we like it or not.
How are pontygwindy road and bedwas road going to take the extra traffic going to and from 400 extra households,you would need yellow lines both sides from asda to the lights at the pick, plus traffic lights at the junction at the green lady.not at all workable,carwyn jones and his cronies need to stop wasting money on fancy council offices and sort out the improving the roads and rail ,m4 Newport to Cardiff
and to end this the amount of heavy trucks just clear the golf course would be large and do untold damage and disruption to the house that are near the proposed site.
All we have to do is trigger article 50 and the demand for housing will fall off 5 minutes after a hard Brexit completes.
The only reason we have a housing shortage is because 500,000 “New Britains” are arriving each year.
This problem will soon be forgotten once the Brexit train steams into the station.