120-home development set for approval

Plans to build more than 100 homes on a site in the Vale of Glamorgan are set to be given the green light.Acorn Property Group subsidiary Bonvilston Vale Ltd and Village Homes, via agent Barton Willmore, lodged plans for land at Sycamore Cross in Bonvilston, next to the Cottrell Park golf course.Proposals include the construction of 120 homes, together with new access, landscaping and improvement works to Pendoylan Lane.A mix of five, four, three and two bed houses, plus one bed flats, are included, while 24 properties are earmarked for affordable housing.The site is currently used for equestrian activities and the existing stables would be demolished under the plans. It is allocated for housing in Vale of Glamorgan Council’s local development plan, currently at examination stage.The applicants have said the scheme will provide “significant social, economic and environmental benefits” along with the new housing.Among the objections to the scheme is a letter from October 2015 from Alun Cairns, the MP for Vale of Glamorgan. He was an under secretary of state in the Wales Office at the time, and is now secretary of state .The minister said the development represented an “extreme increase” in the size of Bonvilston, which would lead to its character being changed “significantly and irreversibly”.He also expressed concerns over an increase in traffic and the use of greenfield land for the scheme.Objections have also been submitted from St Nicholas and Bonvilston Community Council, Pendoylan Community Council, Peterston Community Council, and St Georges and St Brides Community Council with 35 received in total.Vale of Glamorgan Council’s planning committee will vote on the application on 2 February 2017.A report prepared for the meeting recommends approval, subject to the signing of a Section 106 order to the affordable housing provision as well as financial contribution including £1.2m towards Dwr Cymru Welsh Water’s Bonvilston East Wastewater Treatment Works and £500,000 for education.