Politics
Second home ruling sees Pembrokeshire council tax arrears rise to nearly £9m
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PEMBROKESHIRE is facing nearly £9m in council tax arrears, in part due to an “unprecedented bloc” of some 90 homes unable to meet the 182-day holiday letting guidelines, leaving their owners liable for second homes premium rates.
Pembrokeshire had been operating a 100 per cent council tax premium for second homes, effectively a double rate.
However, in December councillors backed a 200 per cent council tax premium, effectively a treble rate, for second homes.
Properties used as holiday lets were exempt from the premium if they could be let over a number of days per year, which has risen to 182, up from a previous 70.
Since the premium rise, effective from the start of this financial year, second home-owners have been faced with hefty council tax bills, as much as £15,000 in some cases.
A call for information related to the premium was heard at the May 9 meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council.
Martletwy county councillor, and Conservative group leader of the council, Cllr Di Clements will ask: “Can the Cabinet member for Finance [Cllr Alec Cormack] please provide me with the number of properties that have applied for a council tax exemption since the delivery of this year’s council tax bill?
“This should be split out by properties that were charged a second homes premium and properties which were not charged a second homes premium.”
Cllr Cormack responded by saying there were seven classes of “exception rather than exemption” from the premium, with five static and two with changed figures.
Of those two changed, he said Class 1, properties currently for sale, had seen a rise from 34 on March 1, to 81 on May 1.
The second exception, Class 6, properties which had a planning condition restricting occupancy leading to an exception in the premium, had seen a rise from 402 to 417 during the same period.
He said figures were now being recorded monthly to provide feedback on the Welsh Government 182-day lettings rule.
A similar pair of questions were raised later by Cllr Clements.
“Can the Cabinet member for Finance provide me with the current number of properties in council tax arrears and the total figure of such arrears?
“What were the above figures a year ago, and what are the estimated figures a year from now?”
Cllr Cormack responded, saying the March 2023 figures were 9,458, with 9,860 as of March 31 of this year.
He said provisional council arrears were £8.819m for 2023-24, compared with £7.175m for 2022-’23.
“The past history is there’s been significant figures downwards; a significant element in the increase is due to the approximately 90 properties which the valuation officer agency moved from non-domestic rates to council tax, an unprecedented bloc, these people move into council tax by virtue of in the previous 12 months they haven’t done 182 days in the previous year; so the they immediately become in arrears for a whole year’s council tax and the council tax premium.”
Cllr Clements, in a supplementary question, said: “I’ve been contacted by people who have £7,000 to £15,000 council tax bills; that’s a huge amount of money for them to find, so how can you help these people? What have you put in place to help these people manage that debt? Many out there are panicking, quite reasonably.”
Cllr Cormack responded, saying anyone in such a situation should contact the revenues and benefits team, which was reaching payments plans for such circumstances.
“They are talking to people; they are reaching payment plans with individuals who have had a large bill appear.
“Talk to the team and they will see what they can do. I know the team is dealing with a much larger number of enquiries.”
News
Community asked for views on allocation of new St Davids homes
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THE FIRST phase of Pembrokeshire County Council’s Glasfryn housing development in St Davids is progressing well with the second phase also underway.
The development being built by GRD Homes Ltd, began in November 2023, with a first phase completion date of Winter 2024 looking hopeful, ahead of the scheduled plans.
The first phase consists of seven properties, including a mixture of one and two bedroom bungalows
As completion draws closer the properties will be advertised via Pembrokeshire Choice Homes.
Ahead of this, the Council’s housing team will be holding community engagement on the 13th August 2024 at the Ty’r Pererin Centres, Quickwell Hill, St Davids, SA62 6PD, 5pm-7pm.
This will be a chance for officers to liaise with the local community about the allocation process for these properties.
Glasfryn’s second phase is well underway, with the initial groundwork already completed. This phase includes a further 11 two bedroom bungalows, with a completion date in late 2025.
These bungalows will meet the latest Welsh Government’s Development Quality Requirement, and will be energy efficient, built to EPC A specification and include solar panels to help tenants with running costs.
The Glasfryn development is funded in partnership with Welsh Government.
Cabinet Member for Housing Cllr Michelle Bateman said: “We are really keen to work with the community on a local lettings policy for these new properties, as we have done for our developments in other parts of the County.”
If you have any queries please email the Customer Liaison Team on [email protected], phone them on 01437 764551, or visit Housing’s Facebook page.
Business
Legal call to stop £6m expansion of holiday park still ongoing
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A LEGAL request to overturn a Pembrokeshire County Council-granted approval for a £6m expansion of a south Pembrokeshire holiday park is still ongoing despite a previous announcement it had been turned down, county planners heard.
Back in February, Pembrokeshire planners were informed a legal challenge to a November 2023-granted application for works at Heritage Park, Pleasant Valley/Stepaside had been launched.
The holiday park scheme had previously been backed twice by county planners after a ‘minded to approve’ cooling-off period was invoked as it was against repeated officer recommendations to refuse.
The controversial scheme by Heritage Leisure Development (Wales) Ltd includes the installation of 48 bases for holiday lodges, a spa facility at a former pub, holiday apartments, a café and cycle hire, equestrian stables, a manège and associated office, and associated works.
It is said the scheme, next to the historic remains of the 19th century Stepaside ironworks and colliery, will create 44 jobs.
Officer grounds for refusal, based on the Local Development Plan, included the site being outside a settlement area.
Along with 245 objections to the current scheme, Stepaside & Pleasant Valley Residents’ Group (SPVRG Ltd) – formed to object to an earlier 2019 application which was later withdrawn – also raised a 38-page objection, with a long list of concerns.
A failed legal challenge to try and overturn a council decision to approve three separate planning applications at Heritage Park was launched in 2021 by SPVRG Ltd, which failed in early 2022; the council awarded costs of £10,000 despite external legal fees paid totalled £34,000 plus VAT.
At the June meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council’s planning committee members were told the recent judicial review call by SPVRG Ltd had been refused by the high court, the grounds put forward “not considered to be reasonably arguable”.
Committee chair Cllr Simon Hancock said a council request for SPVRG Ltd to pay costs incurred by the county council in defending the claim had now been submitted.
Following that, at the July planning meeting, in his chair’s announcement, Dr Hancock gave a clarification on the position.
“I can advise that whilst the application for judicial review was refused by the High Court Judge on May 31, 2024, the appellants have challenged this decision.
“This matter is listed for a renewal hearing, and accordingly the legal challenge is still in progress; I’m hoping that’s a clarification from the announcements I made back in June.”
Responding to the clarification, Trish Cormack of SPVRG Ltd pointed out it was not “an appeal,” adding: “Firstly, we are ‘requesting the decision to be reconsidered at a hearing,’ which is a bit less dramatic than ‘challenging the decision’.
“Secondly, the claim remains open for seven days after the decision on the papers in expectance of you requesting the hearing, and the form 86B comes attached to the decision with the case number already filled in for you. This is just part of the process for a judicial review. If the Judge really thought there were no merits to the case, he was free to issue a ‘without merits refusal’.
“That would have ended the claim there and then. The only way to resurrect it would have been to take it to the appeal court. But he didn’t.
“Thirdly, the announcement makes it sound like our ‘challenge’ had happened after their previous announcement, whereas in fact we only had seven days from May 31 in which to make the request, so they knew the moment we did (June 7) because we had to simultaneously email it to the court, PCC and the developer’s agent. So, they knew full well that there would be a renewal hearing.”
Farming
Farm building scheme near Lawrenny given go-ahead by planners
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AN APPLICATION for a storage building at a south Pembrokeshire farm, made by a family member of an officer on Pembrokeshire County Council’s planning service, has been given the go-ahead by the authority’s planning committee.
In an application recommended for approval at the July 23 meeting of the authority’s planning committee, Laura Elliot sought permission for the erection of an agricultural storage building at Tedion Farm, a dairy farm near Lawrenny.
The application had been brought to committee, rather than being delegated to planning officers, due to the family connection.
The farm, near to the Pembrokeshire coast National Park border, comprises 270 milking cows and dairy heifer replacements kept on the farm comprising land over 138 hectares. The farm is mainly down to grass and the cows are paddock grazed in order to utilise grass efficiency.
No objections had been received from local community council Martletwy.
A report for members said: “The application seeks consent for the erection of agricultural storage building. The erection of an agricultural building will be used to store stay, hay and farm machinery.
“The building would be located within the existing farm complex, to the north-east of the site, adjacent to the main farm dwelling. The building will measure 18 metres in length by 13.6 metres in width, with a pitched roof height of 5.71 metres.”
Approval was moved by Cllr Alistair Cameron, seconded by Cllr Brian Hall.
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