Controversial Wern tourist site approved despite flooding protest

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

Photographs and video clips showing flooding in the area where a controversial tourist accommodation development will be built were barred from being shown to councillors who made the decision, it has been revealed.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Planning Committee on Thursday, councillors received a proposal by the Lewis family for six holiday lodges, a reception and office building, a toilet and shower block, as well as a septic tank and access track.

The proposal has been scaled down from the eight lodges submitted by the family in 2024 and is for a field at Wern, between the villages of Arddleen and Guilsfield, to the north of Welshpool.

The area is prone to flooding, and the proposal was called before the Planning Committee by the local county councillor for the area, Ian Harrison (Conservative – Guilsfield).

The report shows that during a public consultation in 2024, 30 objections were raised against the scheme on a variety of issues, including flooding, highway safety, the impact on protected species and protected sites, the suitability of foul drainage proposals, pollution of a watercourse and issues with land ownership relating to vehicle passing bay locations.

Photographs and video clips had been submitted to back up these objections.

But Planning Officer, Rhian Griffiths, recommended that councillors should approve the scheme.

After she spoke, nine objectors lined up to speak against the proposal.

Objector George Whitworth said: “For two and a half years we’ve been told that only 15% of the original application field floods. In fact, 75% of this field was observed, filmed and recorded to be under floodwater.

“It is at the confluence of two uncontrollable watercourses that cause flooding. It is hard to imagine a site less suitable for this type of development.

“Flooding over this field is actually beneficial to the community and aligns well with the aspirations of your Severn Valley Water Management Scheme plan to absorb water upstream.”

He said that if this was approved, then Powys and Shropshire councils “might as well abandon” the mutually beneficial policy of trying to manage flooding of the Severn.

Mr Whitworth said: “Solid science is built on observation, not on intermittent technical estimates.”

Another objector, Steve Southam, pointed out road safety issues with blind junctions and said there had been two serious crashes near the site in recent years. With an increase in traffic, the risk would be “greater”, he said.

Another objector asked whether there was a need for more tourist accommodation in the area, as there are 18 other caravan sites within a 30-minute journey of Wern.

Due to the time given to objectors at the meeting, Planning Agent, Gerallt Davies of Roger Parry and Partners, was told he potentially had 45 minutes to present the developer’s case.

Mr Davies said that the Lewis family live 200 metres from the site and that the application was intended to help their farming business.

Mr Davies said: “It’s a large field and the southern part does flood, but that is 200 metres from the lodge site. No historic flooding has happened on the site where the lodges are proposed.”

He explained that a sustainable drainage application would need to be approved before the lodges could be built.

Mr Davies said: “That will consider surface water flooding and the site itself, and the proposal is to ensure that water is dealt with on site and any water going into streams or rivers falls into a greenfield runoff rate.”

Cllr Jonathan Wilkinson (Conservative – Meifod and Llangyniew) said: “I understand that there are photographs and video clips that were not made available for us to see today. Why not? Would that not have been useful for us to be able to see?

“Because of my local knowledge, I know the road to the north-east of the site does flood.”

Planning Committee solicitor, Rachel Mole, answered: “In line with the planning protocol, objectors are not permitted to provide those videos and photographs. Their presentation is limited to verbally referring to them.”

She added that the photographs and video clips had been assessed by planning officers.

Cllr Wilkinson stressed that it would have been beneficial for the committee to see these, particularly those who do not live as close to the site as he does and know the flooding issues in the area.

Ms Griffiths explained that a problem with the photographs and video clips was that they were not of the “proposed site itself”.

“They are photos that residents have taken of their driveways underwater and don’t relate to this application and this site,” said Ms Griffiths.

Eventually, the committee went to a vote, which saw 13 councillors vote in favour of the proposal and one vote against it.