Redrow Update

The Planning Committee meet once a month, to review applications. We have been expecting the Redrow application to heard at the committee since August but it has never happened.

The agenda for each committee is only published one week before. The next meeting is next week on the 14th Dec - Redrow is not going to be considered then (the change of use of the Fagl Lane Quarry in Hope to a visitors centre is though).

We have heard from our Community Councillors, Cindy and David, that there are a number of aspects of the Redrow application that the Council have asked Redrow to review and resubmit. Assuming they receive these amendments, they are expecting to take the Redrow application to planning committee on the 22nd February 2017. 

The Council's Planning department have been reviewing your comments and objections and appear to have done a good job of representing those views in the amendments they have requested from Redrow.

When we hear more, we will provide a further update.

Questions about the Questionnaire?

So far we have had a fantastic response to the questionnaire with many completed online and some varied opinions and ideas - all very welcome! 

In the process, we have had some questions about the Questionnaire - so here are some answers to questions you might be asking!

What is the Questionnaire for?
The questionnaire responses will be used by the Penyffordd Community Group, together with the Penyffordd Community Council, to help to guide the writing of a Community Development Plan. This plan will set out 'policies' for the future changes in the village and aims to guide Flintshire County Council, Welsh Assembly Government, future Community Councils and other stakeholders when they want to make changes to our village(s).

Who will see my answers?
When you complete the questionnaire, your answers will be separated from your contact details so everything is anonymous. The data produced will be 'processed' to calculate the collective view on the different topics as well as comments and suggestions which will be taken into consideration for the plan.

What will my contact details be used for?
If you added your name and contact details they will be automatically be entered for the draw for the M&S vouchers. If you asked to be kept informed with progress as the plan develops, then we will email or post updates in the coming months. If you agreed to be involved in contributing to the history of the village, then we will be in touch separately to set something up.

Who decided what to include in the Questionnaire?
The content of the questionnaire was created by the Community Development Plan steering group - this is the process so far:

1. Announcement at public meetings (about the Redrow planning application) of the intention to create a Community Development Plan - invitation for volunteers to come forward if they want to be involved - this was also shared via Social Media and on the website.

2. Volunteers were formed into a Steering Committee and met with the Community Council for a session to explore the issues that affect the village today and may need to be considered in the future. Individuals then took this information and created questions for one aspect of the plan.

3. The Editorial committee took all of the questions and put them into a standard format that you see on the Questionnaire. The draft Questionnaire was then shared with the Steering Group and the Community Council and the final version printed and re-created online following their amendments.

4. Is the Questionnaire too leading and focussed on Housing?
The format of the questions allows people to demonstrate how much they agree or disagree with each statement or question. All of the questions represent genuine suggestions for things people would like to see or change in our community. Housing is just one part of the development plan - but it affects everything and is therefore very important.

5. Is the Questionnaire Anti-Flintshire County Council or Redrow?
The questionnaire is not anti anyone, it asks questions about things that we understand that people are concerned about in the village - from dog mess to housing development - if you don't believe something is a problem then say so. If you believe there are things missed, then let us know. We are supportive of Flintshire County Council and our Community Council and there is no criticism intended.

6. Is the questionnaire biased against development?
We have been asked this question by two people who question whether the inclusion of the words 'worst case scenario could see over 750 extra houses in the village' implied that the purpose of the questionnaire was to seek support of a campaign against growth. 

In response to that, the team who wrote the questionnaire and the perceived need for a Community Development Plan arose from the Redrow application for 190 houses on Chester Road. Over 400 objectives from the village have been received by Flintshire's planning department. However, the questionnaire is entirely impartial and the format of the questions structured to enable every viewpoint to be given. The data arising from the questionnaire will be openly published and the results will inform the content of the Community Development Plan. With hindsight, we should probably not have included the wording 'worst case' because this could be perceived as leading by some people.

The use of the word ‘town’ in the first question is also interesting in this context and we have been why we used that word (is it leading?) when there is no technical definition of when a village becomes a town. However, we believe that most people understand the differences between a hamlet, a village, a town and a city, though they are difficult to ‘define'.

In Flintshire County Council terms, we are currently designated as a Category B Settlement in their 3-tier system, where Category A is the largest settlement and Category C the smallest. There are no cities in Flintshire. In the emerging Flintshire Local Development Plan, yet to be fully defined or consulted upon, these 3 have been changed to 5 which are defined as Main Service Centres, Local Service Centres, Sustainable Village, Rural Defined Village and Rural Undefined Village. These are all also difficult to ‘define’.

Flintshire CC have classified Penyffordd as a Sustainable Village along with Higher Kinnerton. By way of comparison, Buckley is a Main Service Centre and Hope/Caegwrle/Abermorddu/Cefnebedd and Hawarden are Local Service Centres, Dobshill is a Rural Undefined Village. None of this has been finalised at this time. 

From our point of view, explaining the differences between these defined settlement sizes and the ability of Flintshire CC to link settlements together to combine facilities is too complex to explain in a simple and space limited questionnaire, where the simplified wording is more easily understood. The responses so far received indicate that there is clear understanding on this point, and a wide variety of opinions have been shared. 

7. Why haven't we included Capricorn Animal Centre or Hanson Cement?
We understand that some people have strong opinions about local businesses and organisations - we have only included those that are within the village Ward, which does not include Capricorn or Hanson Cement. Many villages talk about the impact of noise or dust from the cement factory and these are referenced for comment.

8. What happens next?
We will take all of the feedback and as a steering committee, including the Community Council, we will draft the Community Development Plan. The draft plan will set out a vision for the growth of the village in the future - it will be published online and available to view in key spots in the village - people will be invited to view it and feedback on the content before it is sent to Flintshire and Cardiff - we are aiming to have the completed document for the end of March 2017.

9. There are more things going on though...
At the same time that we are preparing the Community Development Plan, Flintshire are working on their master Local Development Plan (LDP) covering the whole County. They are currently consulting on their Spatial Strategy - you should voice your opinion before 9th December 2016! During 2017 they will be looking at Candidate Sites (and there are many in Penyffordd - but don't comment on these to Flintshire CC yet - they are not ready to consult on this part of the plan) - we aim to use our Community Development Plan to help us to guide them on how many and what size of site should be considered in our village. 

Can I get involved?
We would welcome more voices, expertise, interested villagers onto the Steering Group - please get in touch if you would like to contribute in any way.

Public Meeting Friday 4th November 7:00pm

There's a public meeting this Friday to update the village on:

- what's happening with the Redrow application (it hasn't gone away and we have a fight on our hands!)

- an update on the Flintshire Local Development Plan (LDP) and the current consultation period on their Spatial plan

- an update on the Community Development Plan - what we are doing and why it is important.

Please get to the meeting if you can and tell people about it - we would like everyone in the village to know about it.

Children are welcome. 

It starts at 7:00pm at the Royal British Legion - please bring a friend!

See you there!

The Future of the Village - be heard!

The next stage of consultation for Flintshire's Local Development Plan (LDP) is now open. The LDP will define how the County will grow between now and 2030.

Decisions will have to be made about how many new houses will be needed and where they will be build. 

This next part of the County Council's consultation process deals with these two big decisions. You need to make your voice heard!

There are different options and the Council want people to express an opinion. These are the 5 Spatial options:

Option 1 bases development in the same way the outgoing UDP worked - percentage growth limits for different settlement sizes. We could expect growth similar to that experienced in the last 15 years. The settlement categories have already been decided, Penyffordd/Penymynydd is a 'Sustainable Village', Dobshill is a 'Undefined Village'.

This option offers the greatest protection against growth for Penyffordd, but is unlikely to be adopted because the Council believes that there are many smaller settlements which could be developed sustainably.

The growth area is defined by an old Welsh national spatial plan. This presents the greatest threat to Penyffordd because it does not take account of the size of settlements, just their location.

Penyffordd is also vulnerable in the transport option because of the train station, although Flintshire County Council recognise the low use of the Wrexham - Bidston railway, if this option were adopted we could expect to see significant growth.

The sustainable option is the most realistic one to be adopted. This would bring some development to most communities, including ours, but it gives the flexibility to allow growth based not just on settlement size, but on the infrastructure and community needs.

Our Community Development Plan, with the strong views of the villagers and realistic growth planning should help our community to direct Flintshire County Council about the scale and suitability of developments in the LDP.

You can read all about the details of the Spatial plan and the considerations at the Flintshire County Council website:

Summary Document
http://www.flintshire.gov.uk/en/PDFFiles/Planning/Stategic-Options/Summary-leaflet.pdf

Easy Read version
http://www.flintshire.gov.uk/en/PDFFiles/Planning/Stategic-Options/Options-for-future-development-for-Flintshire.pdf

Consultation Document
http://www.flintshire.gov.uk/en/PDFFiles/Planning/Stategic-Options/The-main-'Strategic-Options'-consultation-document.pdf

Comments Form
http://www.flintshire.gov.uk/en/PDFFiles/Planning/Stategic-Options/Comments-Form.pdf

You can comment on the Spatial plan up until the 9th December.

We will be explaining the Spatial plan and the role of our Community Development Plan at the next village meeting on the 4th November 2016 at 7:00pm in the Royal British Legion.

We will also be sending out a consultation QUESTIONNAIRE in the next few weeks - please take the time to complete the questionnaire and be heard.

If you have any questions you can email the Community Plan Team at team@penyfforddcommunity.org

Meetings Meetings Meetings

We have all been lobbying for meetings with everyone who we believe could help us with our campaign to stop the overdevelopment of the village and then get involved with the preparation of our Community Development Plan.

In the past week we have had a very productive meeting with Mark Tami, our local MP who is very supportive of our cause. We have also met with the planning department at Flintshire County Council to discuss the objections they have received on the Redrow Chester Road application and how they are being viewed.

We need to do some more work on understanding some of the policies they referenced before we communicate what we need to do next - but there is clearly a need for further action from the community.

The planners suggested that the earliest we could expect the application to go to Committee is now December.  They also confirmed that we are still able to make objections and submit comments via the planning officer, Alan Wells (alan.wells@flintshire.gov.uk).

More to follow...

Redrow Update

Quick update on the Redrow application 055590.

PLANNING COMMITTEE DATE

The date has still not been published - this is very unusual. We understand that Redrow are late submitting additional information to Flintshire. Possible dates are:

- Nov 16th or

- Dec 14th

IMPORTANT TRAFFIC UPDATE

Documents have been updated on the Planning Application - there is an updated Transport plan which clarifies the situation for Hazel Drive. There is no longer a suggestion for emergency access, but it now includes pedestrian access through Hazel Drive. However, it leaves open the future need for Emergency services consultation which could mean vehicular access. It also responds to some of the details people have objected to such as the blind brow of the hill and traffic volumes from the other developments in the village. Details here:

https://digital.flintshire.gov.uk/FCC_Planning/Home/NewDocView/107033

PLANNING POLICY ARGUMENTS

Today Mark Tami MP was due to meet Colin Everett, CEO of Flintshire CC to discuss Penyffordd. We are expecting an update next week. Last month a small application in Caegwrle was refused because of the UDP policy breeches (good news) and the application for 56 homes in Kinnerton rejected on 'drainage' has been appealed (bad news).

There is a lot of correspondence between Cllrs on the planning committee, the Flintshire planning officers and ourselves.

We are being heard but we must continue to make our concerns heard!

Dyke Farm Update

We have received an update from Cllr Cindy Hinds that the application for a battery installation on Dyke Farm has been withdrawn.

It is possible that it may come back redesigned, but for now it is good news.

Thank you to everyone who submitted an objection.

Why 'Save our Village'?

There has been some debate on village Facebook pages about why we are trying to 'Save our Village' and questioning what is wrong with development and improvements to the village?

No one involved in this group has any objection to planned growth or improvements to the village and the facilities in the village - quite the opposite. But, there is a huge problem with planning policies right now.

In Wales, the Welsh Assembly Government have a policy of development based on 'Local Development Plans'. These LDPs take into account the need for housing of every type along with business, jobs, transport, health, schooling, the environment and so on. The idea is that each community grows in a planned way with everything taken into account.

When local authorities develop their plan, they consult with the community and other stakeholders and we end up with a plan. At the moment, Flintshire are writing their plan. The last one covered the period 2000 - 2015. The next one is not now expected to be ready until 2019.

With no plan in place, and because of a technicality about needing a 5-year supply of housing, right now developers are able to make applications for developments anywhere. The local boundary can be ignored. The limits on the size of developments can be ignored.

Pen-y-ffordd and Penymynydd are threatened because of where they are. From a developers point of view, our villages are ideally located to sell houses. Good commuter links, close to Chester and Wrexham, commutable to Manchester, Liverpool and Llandudno. We are in the country but with the facilities at Broughton, with nearby supermarkets, a good high school and everything you can need. All the reasons we enjoy living here.

Flintshire have already ignored their own policies to allow the developments we already have in the village. In the last plan, Pen-y-ffordd was designated as a Category B settlement (Category A is urban, like Mold and Buckley, Category C is smaller villages like Dobshill and Kinnerton). The growth limit for us was 8 - 15%. Right now we have grown 31%. If the next 2 developments are allowed, that increases to 46% and we have 3 more years before we have protection for the LDP!

We welcome the residents of the new developments at Meadowslea, Redrow White Lion and Taylor Wimpey - in reality almost everyone in the village is living in what was a new development at some point in the last 3 decades! In fact it is important that everyone in the village speaks up because the facilities we share cannot keep up with the housing development and our quality of lives is affected. Specifically for our villages:

- drainage and waste problems already
- lack of water pressure
- lack of internet capacity
- lack of school places
- no doctor and no capacity at nearby doctors
- transport for people without cars
- things to do for young people
- Spar access and parking
- traffic volume and noise
- housing for the elderly and the young

The village will always grow, it needs to. It will need development, but it needs to be planned. It needs to consider the infrastructure and facilities. Flintshire C.C. have their own priorities. As a group we are following the lead from Gwernymynydd and Mold communities who have devised their own plan for the improvement of their village - taking everything into account - and that is what we are trying to do. Create a document that represents the collective voice of the community. 

The finished plan will help to guide the Community Council, the Planners at Flintshire and developers about what the village needs and wants. We expect to work WITH developers in the future in order to help them to have an easier route to development, by ensuring that what they are planning fits with the community plan.

We would encourage everyone to use their voice to share their ideas, concerns, suggestions and needs via this site - we are listening and want to reflect the real views of the whole community. 

 

Planning Committee in Action

Flintshire County Council webcast the planning committee and it is possible to watch back recent sessions. Listening to the frustrations of the Councillors on the committee in dealing with the failings of the national policy is very worrying.

The Planning Committee vote on the Kinnerton development

The Planning Committee vote on the Kinnerton development

Many of the Councillors on the committee are sympathetic about overdevelopment, including Cllr Derek Butler, Cllr Alison Halford and Cllr Chris Bithell. Others feel like they are powerless to resist and have voted in favour despite their own personal viewpoint. Vocal among these is Cllr Gareth Roberts.

We need to write to the committee members to give them our support, remind them how strongly we feel about the over-development of our village and also provide them with the policy ammunition they need to stand up for our cause.

This is a link to view the July committee which considered a development of 56 houses outside of the Kinnerton village boundary.

https://flintshire.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/207662

We don't yet know the date of the Chester Road (Redrow) planning committee, but it is vital that we turn up in force with as many people as possible in attendance to show the strength of feeling in the village.

We are allowed only 3 minutes for someone to speak in objection, plus 5 minutes each for our two local Councillors, Cllr Cindy Hinds and Cllr David Williams. If you want to hear how we plan to use the time and have your own voice heard, please come to the next meeting at the Legion 12th September 8.00pm.