Building housing estate on Berriew Street Car Park CAN go ahead

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

Assurances have been given that transferring a Welshpool car park between Powys County Council departments so that a housing estate can be built there, is legally sound.

At a meeting of the council’s Economy Residents and Communities scrutiny committee today (Wednesday), councillors received a report that explains the intention of building 32 affordable homes on Berriew Street car park.

The car park currently has 450 spaces and if the development goes ahead, it would be left with 56 spaces.

Deputy council leader and cabinet member for housing, Cllr Matthew Dorrance (Labour), said: “The council has set itself a target of achieving 350 homes for social rent by 2031 and we’ve identified that Welshpool is an area where we have significantly high demand for social housing but where land for development is in short supply.

“Working across service areas we have identified this area that could be offered up to develop social housing.”

The report explained that there are 414 households on the housing register with Welshpool as their first choice, with a further 239 households having the town as their second choice.

The council is currently working with 33 homeless households living in temporary accommodation in Welshpool where the average stay before they are homed is 370 days.

In addition to this there are 31 “live” homelessness cases with a further 20 presentations to the council from the villages and towns around Welshpool.

The cost of transferring the car park from the council’s highways, transport and recycling department to housing is £280,000, while the market value would be £525,000.

Cllr Corinna Kenyon-Wade (Liberal Democrat) said: “My worry is the regulations. It sounds great that you can hand this over to the HRA (Housing Revenue Account), but who arrives at these figures?”

Head of housing, Andy Thompson, explained that the figures were based on calculations in terms of how much developing houses to be sold at market value would be worth and the difference in building ones that are for social renting.

Committee chairwoman, Cllr Angela Davies (Liberal Democrat), asked for more reassurance.

Mr Thompson said: “It meets the legal requirements; it will generate a capital receipt.

“It’s a bit like Volkswagen selling things to Skoda when they are part of the same company.”

He pointed out that Clive Pinney, the council’s head of legal services and monitoring officer, had received the report and backed the scheme.

“It would not have come to members I can assure you, if there was any risk that this is not in full compliance to the law,” stressed Mr Thompson.

Cllr Liz Rijnenberg (Labour) added: “It’s great that we can get 32 homes to reduce that (waiting) list.”

Cllr Peter Lewington (Conservative) while being supportive of the project, stressed that he wanted a more “balanced picture” to be reported so that the loss of car parking spaces on Welshpool town centre businesses could be analysed.

The committee supported the scheme which will go in front of senior Liberal Democrat and Labour councillors at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, July 15 for a decision.