A proposed community centre which has split opinion amongst residents of a Risca housing estate could be moved to “avoid conflict”.
Ty Sign Community Hall and Resource Centre, a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO), received planning permission last July to establish the building outside the Ty Sign estate.
The hall would provide a new home for the 5th Risca Scout Group and the Agape Community Church, both of which were previously based at the dilapidated Channel View community centre.
But the proposed Holly Road site drew nearly 200 letters of objection, along with 37 letters in favour and a petition with 34 signatures in support.
Considering this division, the CIO has proposed relocating the building and a car park to land east of Rowan Road, opposite Ty Sign’s skate park, multi-use game area (MUGA) and open space known locally as the Spar playing fields.
A report to Caerphilly Council’s planning committee says: “[As] there was a considerable amount of neighbour opposition to this development, the trustees sought to identify an alternative site that they could lease from the council in a more suitable location to avoid any neighbour conflict.”
The centre would have a main hall, lobby, meeting room, garden and a car park with 17 spaces, including two disabled spaces.
But the revised proposals have again provoked a mixed response, with 21 letters objecting and 12 written in favour of the development.
There are concerns the hall could ‘undermine’ the skate park, which was reopened in February, and lead to a ‘heart-breaking’ loss of communal open space.
But the report says: “There is still sufficient land left over within the site and within the surrounding area for the community to continue to enjoy.”
Planning officers say “minimal” construction work needed to build the centre and car park means formal play facilities would not be impacted.
Concerns over road safety, and the safety of those using the skate park and MUGA, have also been raised, as well as the potential for the centre to attract antisocial behaviour.
Officers say that it would be a matter for the police to enforce, not the council, if any antisocial issues were to arise as a result of the development.
The council’s planning committee has been recommended to approve the application when it meets on March 20.