A CONTROVERSIAL application due for consideration by the County Council’s Planning Committee was removed from the agenda of its meeting last Tuesday (Oct 5).
The application due for discussion relates to a massive housing development of 729 houses on land off Slade Lane, Haverfordwest.
Head of Planning David Popplewell sprang the surprise move on the morning of the meeting.
The Committee was asked to consider scrapping an affordable housing commitment in the development under matters reserved from the existing planning permission.
The existing permission contains a condition that 25% of the houses built would be affordable homes.
The applicant now claims meeting that condition would make developing the site commercially unviable.

A GLIMPSE BEHIND THE SCENES

Invited to explain the late decision by a clearly frustrated Cllr Jacob Williams, Mr Popplewell told the Committee: “There has been consideration of a number of matters since publication of the agenda relating to development viability. “We consider the viability study prepared by the district valuer should be before the Committee and the report before members today does not, perhaps, give the full range of information to inform their judgment on the recommendation to approve the changes the developer seeks.”
Cllr Williams responded by lifting the veil on preparations for Planning Committee meetings.
The day before the meeting, it’s Cllr Williams’s practice to review items on the agenda with the Council’s planning officers to iron out any details and grasp the issues that come to the Committee.
He told members – and the watching public – he met with planning officers on Monday (October 4) and expressed concern at the thinness of the report Planning Committee members were supposed to form a judgement on, especially as it related to such a large project. He told members that if the matter came before the Committee as scheduled, he would have moved a motion to defer it pending the delivery of more complete information to them.
“It’s only since then,” he said, “that this matter has been removed from the agenda. My view is that members should see the district valuer’s report, upon which so much hinges. There was a lot of push-back on that and I was told my request was ‘unreasonable’.”

WE MUST SEE THE EVIDENCE AND REPRESENTATIONS MUST BE ALLOWED

Cllr Williams continued: “My position is that where planning officers would have sight of reports to inform their decisions if they decided the matter themselves, it is only right that committee members have the same material to inform them.”
He also outlined that it was only the previous day he’d been contacted by Haverfordwest Town Council informing him they were unaware of this application and had not been notified of it. He explained that the Planning Department’s position was that the Town Council did not need to be told because this was not a planning application but an application to modify existing permission.
Jacob Williams expressed the opinion; “There is something when we don’t notify concerned parties of such a consequent application.
“By the time this comes back to the Committee,” he said, “I hope all those who might wish to speak on this matter will have the opportunity to do so.”

COMMITTEE SHARES CHAIR’S CONCERNS

Cllr Mark Carter supported the Chair. He tartly observed that the Committee was being asked to remove 180 affordable houses from Haverfordwest on the back of a very slim document.
Cllr Tony Wilcox observed that the Committee was being asked to approve something the size of a medium-sized village in Haverfordwest with no affordable housing without any supporting documentation.
Jacob Williams moved a proposal that the decision be deferred.
He wanted Committee members to see all documents and appendices from the District Valuer’s report and a copy of the applicant’s representations supporting scrapping the affordable housing provision.
Cllr Mark Carter seconded the motion.
Cllr Jonathan Preston expressed disbelief and concern that removing the affordable housing provision could have been done “at the stroke of a pen.”
He thanked David Popplewell for ensuring it did come before members to decide.
Cllr Jacob Williams’s motion was carried unanimously.

SIZE AND ECONOMICS THE ISSUES

According to Welsh Government statistics, the average household size in Pembrokeshire is circa. 2.3 people.
The Slade Lane development would add well over 1,600 people to the population of Haverfordwest. That would make the housing estate the size of a whole County Council ward if fully occupied.
While Pembrokeshire faces a housing shortage, the shortage of houses is most acute for those seeking affordable homes or social housing to rent.
When a previous planning committee granted permission, the scheme involved the construction of a new petrol station and supermarket. It was hailed as bringing commercial opportunities and employment to our county town.
That permission hinged on the promise of 500 jobs being brought to Pembrokeshire by Sainsbury’s.
At the time, the then developer’s agent said: “Financial realities have meant there has been little progress with this site in seven years. Sainsburys now makes this possible. The new store cross-subsidises the wider development.”
However, the supermarket scheme went down the drain in 2015, when Sainsbury’s withdrew their interest.
Despite having some infrastructure in place, the site has remained vacant and undeveloped ever since.
The developer’s problem undoubtedly boils down to money.
Supply lines are stretched, material costs have skyrocketed, margins are shrinking, and qualified workers with the appropriate certifications are in very short supply. New Welsh Government regulations on phosphate solutions and the requirement for new builds to be more energy efficient also drive up developers’ costs.
The current Pembrokeshire housing boom is driven by purchasers from outside Pembrokeshire snapping up our county’s relatively cheap housing stock in a limited number of areas for second homes or as holiday-letting investments.
At that end of the market, the ratchet effect has inexorably raised prices elsewhere in the county, where stock is limited. The end result is that many Pembrokeshire residents are unable to get on the property ladder.
Suppose houses at the Slade Lane development are priced out of locals’ reach. In that case, the most likely outcome is that properties would be bought as investments by speculators and private landlords, second homes, Airbnb’s, or even outright holiday lets.
That is not what was originally promised and is not the basis upon which the original permission was agreed in 2013.