Concerns Raised Over Conwy Councils Planning Rejection To Turn Former Nursing Home Back To Two Family Homes!

 

There are some major concerns about this, basically, two houses were turned into a nursing home and a link corridor and a day room were added. The home closed and the owners applied to have it put back to two houses but this was refused as it did not have an affordable element!

This is all I could find about this there is a drive to bring empty homes back in use, and developments that are small are exempt from the affordable element, 10 UK, which won on appeal, and 5 Ireland, see

And Wales and West who do not own the site and the site is not up for sale have already got their plans ready for the Land, so can someone tell me what the hell is going on?

Small site exemption

In November 2014, Eric Pickles MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government announced plans to make clear that Section 106 agreements should generally not be sought from the smallest housebuilders on sites of 10 homes or fewer, including self-build, extensions and annexes. In very rural areas, sites of five homes or fewer should not face the charge. See Section 106 exemption for more information.

However, in a landmark case at the High Court in July 2015, Justice Holgate quashed government policy on affordable housing exemption thresholds, as a result of the which, planning guidance on planning obligations was amended to remove paragraphs 012-023. In addition, the vacant building credit policy was quashed.

West Berkshire Council and Reading Borough Council challenged the policies arguing that the consultation process had been unlawful. Justice Holgate accepted that the government had failed to take into account "obviously material" considerations.

See R (on the application of West Berkshire District Council and Reading Borough Council) v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for more information.

A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said they would seek permission to appeal against the judge's decision, and in May 2016, the Court of Appeal restored the policy. Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis said: "Today's judgment by the Court of Appeal restores common sense to the system, and ensures that those builders developing smaller sites – including self-builders - don't face costs that could stop them from building any homes at all." ref. gov.uk 11 May 2016.

NB: In June 2014, the Northern Ireland Executive proposed requiring developers of five or more dwellings to provide an element of social housing.

So what exactly have the council based turning this application down on?

• 0/50812
• Site Address

  79-81 Guys Cliff Care Home Conway Road Colwyn Bay LL29 7LN 
• Application Type

  Full 
• Development Type

  ChangeBuildUse 
• Proposal

  Proposed conversion of care home into 2no detached dwellings inclusive of part demolish to ground floor day room and first floor link passageway 
• Existing Land Use

  Residential Institutions - Applies to Buildings 
• Proposed Land Use

  Dwelling Houses - Applies to Buildings 
• Current Status

  REGISTERED 
• Electoral Divisions

  Rhiw 
• Community Councils

  Cyngor Tref Colwyn Town Council 
• Site Co ordinates

  Easting 284302 Northing 379371 
• Case Officer / Tel

  Liz Wood  01492575227   
• There is now a FOI Request as well, 
• Looks like the council have been under the spotlight, and quite rightly so.

• Dear Conwy County Borough Council,

  Please can the council clarify the following

  1, If a dwelling has a change of use to commercial and then applies for it to return back to residential dwelling,
  A, would an affordable element be requested by the council?
  B, Why would an affordable element be put and a building be returned to residential?
  C, Which piece of law is this from, and which section, Can you clearly quote the act and part of it please?

  D, Would the council purposely impose restrictions such as affordable elements on a property to stop the owner from being able to re-use the buildings thus forcing them to sell to a housing association for redevelopment?

  Yours faithfully,

• From....https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/planning_informatio