Village social housing project set for planning decision this week
By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter
The proposal by the council’s housing services department is to build the homes and associated works or land west of Maes-yr-Esgob in the village.
The application will be before councillors at a meeting of the Powys County Council Planning committee on Thursday.
The land, which sits between the village primary school and football club, was transferred from the council’s strategic property department to the housing service in 2023.
The proposed development would be made up of 10 one-bedroom properties, six with two bedrooms and two would have three bedrooms. Four plots have been set aside for bungalows.
The report explains that the principle of developing the field has been established as the land has been allocated for housing in the current Powys Local Development Plan (LDP).
On the need for affordable housing in Llanrhaeadr, the report states: “There is evidence of need for the proposed affordable homes as set out within the consultation response.
“An affordable housing scheme has been submitted which provides details of the delivery of 100% of the units as affordable dwellings for social rent by the strategic housing authority.”
The report adds that the council will “ensure” that the housing will “remain affordable” forever.
A pre-application consultation took place from December 12, 2023, to January 16, 2024, which allowed villagers to have their say on the proposal before it was formally lodged with county planners in May last year.
This included a public meeting at Llanrhaeadr Village Hall on January 11 last year. Discussion there was deemed to be “positive” and would “guide” the proposal.
Senior planning officer, Kate Bowen, said: “The proposed development of an allocated housing site is welcomed to meet housing need. Officers consider the proposed development complies with the relevant local and national planning policy and guidance. Therefore, the recommendation is one of approval.”
Before building work can start a sustainable drainage application will need to be agreed.
Maes-yr-Esgob in English means the Bishop’s Field and is a nod to Llanrhaeadr’ s most famous historic resident, William Morgan, who is arguably the most important figure in Welsh history.
During his time as the parish vicar in the 1580s he translated the whole Bible into Welsh from Greek and Hebrew.
The translation of the Bible is one of the main reasons Welsh survived as a living language.
Morgan later became Bishop of Llandaff before moving on to become the Bishop of St Asaph.
He died in St Asaph in 1604.
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