PLANS adapt an outbuilding at a north Pembrokeshire cottage, which has had two previous extensions, to provide additional space for visiting family members are expected to be refused.

In an application recommended for refusal at Pembrokeshire Coast National Park’s development management committee meeting of January 29, Mr and Mrs Lewis seek permission for the park to allow habitable rooms in a consented building, along with a link to the existing dwelling at Lleine, near Moylegrove.

A supporting statemen through agent Harries Planning Design Management says: “This planning application follows a previously submitted planning application for extension to the dwelling and the rebuilding of existing outbuildings.

“It also follows a pre-application advice enquiry for an extension and to allow habitable rooms in the outbuilding and a refusal for an application of a similar nature.  Following the refusal, we met with officers at the [national park] offices in Pembroke Dock to discuss a way forward for this proposal given the reason is to enable relatives to stay with the family. We therefore have followed the advice of the officers and provided amended plans following their response.”

An officer report for planners says Lleine, on a minor coastal road linking Newport and Moylegrove, is a traditional single-storey cottage that has been extended on two occasions previously.

It adds: “This application seeks consent to allow habitable rooms in an outbuilding which previously gained planning permission, together with the erection of a link to the existing dwelling. The current application follows the refusal [of a previous application], which also sought consent to allow habitable rooms in the previously consented building, and the construction of a link to the main dwelling.

“It was considered by officers that the proposal represented an over-development of the original dwelling by introducing additional accommodation and built form over and above that which was granted.”

It says that while the revised proposal is smaller, “it is still considered that the further additional built form would be an over-development of the existing dwelling, which already been extended extensively”.

The application has been brought to committee consideration rather than decided by officers at the request of the local councillor.

THE POLICE part of the council tax bill in Dyfed and Powys is expected to rise by nearly nine percent, meaning the average household could be paying £360 for that element alone.

The overall council tax bill for residents in the counties of Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Powys is made up of the county council element of the council tax, the Dyfed-Powys Police precept, and individual town or community council precepts.

In a summary before the January 24 meeting of the Dyfed Powys Police and Crime Panel, held at County Hall, Haverfordwest, Police and Crime Commissioner Dafydd Llywelyn calls for a raising of the precept by nearly nine per cent for the 2025-’26 financial year.

The summary says: “After extensive scrutiny by the Police & Crime Panel (P&CP), I was unanimously supported in setting a council tax precept for 2024/25 in Dyfed-Powys of £332.03 for an average band D property, once again being the lowest in Wales.

“At every stage within the series of precept and medium-term financial plan meetings, and indeed through my scrutiny and review of the in-year financial position, I critically question and constructively challenge aspects of the revenue budget requirement and organisational delivery structure to assure myself of the requirements, progress and ultimate delivery. I also undertook a series of challenge and scrutiny sessions specifically reviewing the Estates, ICT and Fleet Strategies and future capital programme.

“To inform my considerations for 2025/26 and to fulfil my responsibilities as Commissioner, I consulted with the public to obtain their views on the level of police precept increase. It was pleasing to see an increase in respondents since 2024/5 with 76 per cent supporting a precept increase above Nine per cent.”

It added: “I am painfully aware of the pressures that the cost-of-living crisis continue to put on our communities. There is a fine balance between ensuring an efficient and effective, visible and accessible Policing Service, addressing operational services demands to ensure the safety of the public, whilst also ensuring value for money for the taxpayers and sound financial management.

“Having undertaken a comprehensive process, I am confident in the robustness of this MTFP, but this does not underestimate the difficult decisions or indeed mitigate the financial challenges and uncertainties which are outside of our control.

“I therefore submit my precept proposal for scrutiny by the Dyfed- Powys Police and Crime Panel, which will raise the average Band D property precept by £2.39 per month or £28.65 per annum to £360.68, an 8.6 per cent increase. This increase will raise a total precept of £86.366m.

“This will provide a total funding of £153.304m, representing a £9.4m/6.5 per cent increase on the revised funding for 2024/25.”

For the individual council tax bands of A-I, the proposed levels, and increase on last year, are: £240.46 (+£19.10), £280.53 (+£22.29), £320.61 (+£25.47), £360.68 (+£28.65), £440.84 (+£35.02), £520.99 (+£41.39), £601.14 (+£47.76), £721.37 (+£57.31), and £841.60 (+£66.86).

Ceredigion is currently mooting a near-10 per cent increase in that element of the overall council tax bill.

Anyone paying a premium on council tax, such as second home-owners, also pay the premium on the police precept, meaning their bills for this element are proportionately higher.

LAMPETER is to cease to have any university education with its humanities courses transferred to Carmarthen, ending undergraduate teaching at Wales’ oldest university, following a decision by University of Wales Trinity St David this week.

Lampeter University students learned of the decision  just days after more than 100 students and alumni took their battle to save the university to the Senedd.

Former students, including Escape to the Country TV presenter Jules Hudson, travelled to Cardiff from all over the UK to take part in a four-hour protest outside the Senedd on Tuesday, January 21.

They were joined by Lampeter residents and councillors, along with current students, who came down by coach from the former St David’s University College.

The students face having to move in September to a different campus in Carmarthen under controversial plans by the University of Wales Trinity St David (UWTSD) to relocate all humanities courses away from Lampeter.

This would end undergraduate education after almost 200 years in the town.

Protesters held banners declaring “St David V Goliath” and “Achub campws Llambed” (Save the Lampeter campus).

Speeches of support were given by several members of the Senedd, including Cefin Campbell and Adam Price, town councillor and former student Rhys Bebb Jones, and TV presenter and ex-archaeology student Jules Hudson.

MS Elin Jones called for a more appropriate time frame for the decision and for current students to be able to complete their courses in Lampeter, and for the Welsh Government to intervene.

The protest was organised by Esther Weller of the Lampeter Society, a group of thousands of Lampeter alumni, and was staged a month after around 100 campaigners marched through Lampeter and held a demonstration outside the university.

A petition to save the university has come close to collecting 6,000 signatures online and on paper.

Since then, a letter from University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) Chief Operating Officer Peter Mannion has been received today, January 23, and shared by students.

It says: “On November 11, 2024 the University informed students and staff at the Lampeter campus of a proposal to move its current and future Humanities teaching and learning to the UWTSD campus in Carmarthen from September 2025.

“Since then, the University has engaged in regular conversations with students and staff to listen to their responses to the proposal and undertaken a formal consultation with trades unions and affected staff. Discussions have also been held with external stakeholders representing local, regional and national interests.

“The University has now concluded its decision-making process and approved the proposal to relocate its Humanities provision from Lampeter to Carmarthen.

“The preparation and practical considerations for this forthcoming change will be communicated with you over the next few weeks.

“We are very grateful for the engagement from students and staff which has made an essential contribution to challenging and helping to further develop the original proposal.

“As you know, the Lampeter campus is of great importance to the University. We will shortly be establishing a mechanism by which we can involve stakeholders in proposing a range of economically viable, education-related activities that would bring a new, sustainable lease of life to the campus.”

The University of Wales Trinity St David has published an identical statement.