This 3.2 acre site is located on the edge of the village of Penyffordd in Flintshire, North Wales.
It is currently used for agricultural purposes, but its location between the edge of the existing settlement and the A550 bypass make a sensible location for the future growth.
Flintshire County Council’s existing Local Plan expired in 2015. Although they have started the process of preparing a new plan to guide development for the next 15 to 20 years, it is not expected to be adopted until 2020 at the earliest.
The dependence of the previous Local Plan on a number of large sites which have not delivered as anticipated has compounded the absence of a replacement plan. The council is therefore unable to demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing land, as is required by Welsh planning policy. That means it is possible to secure planning permission for new homes on sites which might not otherwise be considered suitable for development.
Given that background, we submitted a detailed planning application for 32 homes during 2017. Despite being recommended for approval by the council's planning department, the application was refused by councillors in the autumn of 2017. We appealed that decision and a public inquiry was held in January 2018.
During the run up to the inquiry, and based in part on the evidence we prepared for the planning inspector, Flintshire revisited their decision and opted not to defend the appeal. Instead, they submitted a signed statement to the planning inspector confirming that they now believed planning permission should be granted. We also used the appeal proceedings to argue that a £200,000 contribution the council had requested for new school places was not needed. In essence, although the school nearest the site was operating at capacity, there were other nearby schools which had significant numbers of surplus places.
The inspector issued his decision in February 2018, allowing the appeal and granting planning permission for the development. He also agreed with our analysis on the education contribution, and confirmed it should not be payable, saving £200,000 for our land owner partners.
The site was sold to Macbryde Homes in December 2019 for 150% of the estimate of market value provided by an agent before the site was marketed for sale.
This 3.2 acre site is located on the edge of the village of Penyffordd in Flintshire, North Wales.
It is currently used for agricultural purposes, but its location between the edge of the existing settlement and the A550 bypass make a sensible location for the future growth.
Flintshire County Council’s existing Local Plan expired in 2015. Although they have started the process of preparing a new plan to guide development for the next 15 to 20 years, it is not expected to be adopted until 2020 at the earliest.
The dependence of the previous Local Plan on a number of large sites which have not delivered as anticipated has compounded the absence of a replacement plan. The council is therefore unable to demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing land, as is required by Welsh planning policy. That means it is possible to secure planning permission for new homes on sites which might not otherwise be considered suitable for development.
Given that background, we submitted a detailed planning application for 32 homes during 2017. Despite being recommended for approval by the council's planning department, the application was refused by councillors in the autumn of 2017. We appealed that decision and a public inquiry was held in January 2018.
During the run up to the inquiry, and based in part on the evidence we prepared for the planning inspector, Flintshire revisited their decision and opted not to defend the appeal. Instead, they submitted a signed statement to the planning inspector confirming that they now believed planning permission should be granted. We also used the appeal proceedings to argue that a £200,000 contribution the council had requested for new school places was not needed. In essence, although the school nearest the site was operating at capacity, there were other nearby schools which had significant numbers of surplus places.
The inspector issued his decision in February 2018, allowing the appeal and granting planning permission for the development. He also agreed with our analysis on the education contribution, and confirmed it should not be payable, saving £200,000 for our land owner partners.
The site was sold to Macbryde Homes in December 2019 for 150% of the estimate of market value provided by an agent before the site was marketed for sale.
This 3.2 acre site is located on the edge of the village of Penyffordd in Flintshire, North Wales.
It is currently used for agricultural purposes, but its location between the edge of the existing settlement and the A550 bypass make a sensible location for the future growth.
Flintshire County Council’s existing Local Plan expired in 2015. Although they have started the process of preparing a new plan to guide development for the next 15 to 20 years, it is not expected to be adopted until 2020 at the earliest.
The dependence of the previous Local Plan on a number of large sites which have not delivered as anticipated has compounded the absence of a replacement plan. The council is therefore unable to demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing land, as is required by Welsh planning policy. That means it is possible to secure planning permission for new homes on sites which might not otherwise be considered suitable for development.
Given that background, we submitted a detailed planning application for 32 homes during 2017. Despite being recommended for approval by the council's planning department, the application was refused by councillors in the autumn of 2017. We appealed that decision and a public inquiry was held in January 2018.
During the run up to the inquiry, and based in part on the evidence we prepared for the planning inspector, Flintshire revisited their decision and opted not to defend the appeal. Instead, they submitted a signed statement to the planning inspector confirming that they now believed planning permission should be granted. We also used the appeal proceedings to argue that a £200,000 contribution the council had requested for new school places was not needed. In essence, although the school nearest the site was operating at capacity, there were other nearby schools which had significant numbers of surplus places.
The inspector issued his decision in February 2018, allowing the appeal and granting planning permission for the development. He also agreed with our analysis on the education contribution, and confirmed it should not be payable, saving £200,000 for our land owner partners.
The site was sold to Macbryde Homes in December 2019 for 150% of the estimate of market value provided by an agent before the site was marketed for sale.
