Agreement reached with Persimmon Homes for social housing at Sandy Hill site

PEMBROKESHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL has secured twenty-one new affordable homes at the Sandy Hill development in Saundersfoot after Cabinet approved entering into a contract with Persimmon Homes Ltd.

The homes will be delivered as part of the planning obligation for the Ger y Môr development and transferred to the local authority for use as social housing.

The agreement covers a mix of properties, including twelve one-bedroom flats, six two-bedroom houses and three three-bedroom homes. The wider site is already under construction, with a limited number of open-market homes expected to be completed during 2025 and 2026.

The Cabinet Member for Housing, Cllr Michelle Bateman said the deal would help address local housing need across the county.

She said: “We’re delighted to be going into partnership with Persimmon, taking on twenty-one new homes here at Ger y Môr and helping to deliver secure homes for local people in Pembrokeshire.

“The purchase of these properties as social housing is one of a range of affordable housing options we are offering to support families and individuals with diverse housing needs. The homes at Ger y Môr reflect the Council’s commitment to providing affordable local housing and revitalising our communities.”

Local county councillor for Saundersfoot, Cllr Chris Williams, welcomed the agreement and praised engagement with the community.

He said: “Persimmon has shown itself to be a genuinely local developer that has properly engaged with the Saundersfoot community on this development. It is hugely positive that the company will be helping people on the local housing waiting list by partnering with the Council through this agreement.”

Residents seeking further information can contact the Council’s Customer Liaison Team by email at [email protected] or by phone on 01437 764551. Updates are also shared via the Council’s Housing Facebook page.

PEMBROKESHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL’s Leader has released a statement to say that the Authority is deeply saddened to have learned of the death of Milford Hakin County Councillor, Mike Stoddart on Sunday, January 4.

In a statement Cllr Jon Harvey said “Cllr Stoddart joined Pembrokeshire County Council following the elections in June 2004.

“A former journalist who set up the Milford Mercury newspaper with his family, Cllr
Stoddart has served on Council alongside his wife Vivien, County Councillor for
Milford Hubberston and daughter Tessa Hodgson, County Councillor for Lamphey
and Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care

He added: “I was deeply shocked to hear of Cllr Mike Stoddart’s death at the weekend.

“I pass on the condolences of everyone at the Council to his family and many
friends.

“Mike was the prime example of what someone in local politics should be – working
for and demanding better for his constituents. 

“Mike was unashamedly forthright. He would argue his corner with conviction and
always with facts on his side.

“He has kept me and many predecessors as Leader firmly on our toes. The chamber
and Pembrokeshire as a whole will be much poorer for his loss.”

A CALL to allow a Pembrokeshire quarry to drain surplus water from its operations into a mill pond below a historic castle has been lodged with Natural Resources Wales (NRW).

In an application to NRW, Templeton-based A & C Aggregates Limited seeks to vary an existing abstraction licence at Carew Quarry, Carew Newton.

The NRW consultation may be viewed on its website.

A supporting document on behalf of the applicant says: “Carew Quarry is an operational quarry that has consent to quarry limestone to 30m below Ordnance Datum that requires the quarry void to be dewatered.  The operator has an environmental permit allowing for a maximum of 10,000m3day of dewatering water to be discharged to a naturally occurring sinkhole in the field between the quarry and the mill pond.

“It would appear from observations that at least part of the water discharged to the sinkhole drains ‘directly’ to the northern bank of the Mill Pond via a fissure in the limestone. It is understood to alleviate flooding of Butts Lane from the overtopping of the sinkhole, the previous operator of the quarry installed an overflow pipe that discharges directly to the northern bank of the Mill Pond.

“Since dewatering commenced in 2024, the capacity of the sinkhole has been observed to vary with seasonally, presumably in response to varying groundwater levels, from circa 4,000m3day and 7,500m3day.

“This has hampered the ability of the operator to dewater the quarry and to maintain levels in the quarry over the wetter winter months.  It is for this reason that a permit variation is being sought to allow a direct discharge to the mill pond via the overflow to supplement the capacity of the sinkhole initially during the dewatering phase and then over the winter months to maintain groundwater levels in the base of the quarry void.

“This application is currently being determined. The purpose of this variation is to ensure the discharge permit and the abstraction licence have the same discharge locations. The variation required is therefore to add a discharge point on the abstraction licence at National Grid Reference SN 04582 03925 in addition to the current discharge point at SN 04595 04048. No other changes to the current abstraction licences are proposed.”

Details of the application were also lodged with Pembrokeshire Coast National Park planners, the authority’s role to act as an observer of the overall application.