Plans for a ‘garden village’ residential development on the site of Caerphilly Council’s former offices have been revealed.
Up to 120 homes – two thirds of which could be affordable – is proposed for the Chartist Gardens scheme.
A masterplan shows a mixed development with social rented, shared ownership and market housing on the Pontllanfraith House site.
The draft document features accessible one and two-bedroom homes around the Grade II listed cenotaph, which sits on a tree-lined road leading to a rural-style play area.
“The outline proposals are based on the garden village model which aspires to create a development which feels welcoming and green with a strong sense of community,” a council report says.
Caerphilly Council closed Pontllanfraith House in 2016, moving operations to its headquarters at Ty Penallta in Ystrad Mynach, in 2016.
Pontllanfraith House was one of five sites – equating to more than 50 acres of land – across the county borough earmarked for 455 new homes.
Other sites include the old Pontllanfraith and Oakdale secondary schools, the former Ty Darren care home in Risca and the Bedwellty School playing fields in Aberbargoed.
Last October, cabinet members agreed a requirement that 25 per cent of housing on the Pontllanfraith House site must be affordable.
Documents show that Pobl Group, which built the Loftus Garden Village in Newport and Kennard Point in Crumlin, are willing to offer 65 per cent affordable housing.
The developer hopes to present a final scheme to cabinet by September this year before a public consultation and submission of a planning application in October and November.
If all goes to plan, construction would start in March 2020 and be finished in December 2022.
No formal agreement has been reached for the site between the council and Pobl, with cabinet due to discuss the situation ‘in due course’.
