Outline planning extension set for green light

Outline planning permission is set to be extended for a business park in Cardiff which will incorporate 130,000 sq ft of industrial space and be powered by a 9.5MW biomass power plant.An outline application for the land on Rover Way in Cardiff, previously used as a non-domestic land fill site and known as the former ‘frag tip’, was approved back in 2018, but that approval required a reserved matters application to be lodged by June of this year.A further stipulation was that development had to commence within five years of the date of the outline planning permission or two years from the granting of reserved matters permission.Applicant Parc Calon Gwyrdd Ltd is now seeking permission to extend the life of the outline planning permission by an additional two years to ensure that an appropriate Environmental Permit has been secured alongside approval of the Highways Authority under a section 278 agreement.Objections have been raised to the renewal of permission, including one from health minister Vaughan Gethin and another from Friends of the Earth, with the likely pollution generated by the biomass plant among the concerns raised.However, the extension of time application is recommended for approval. According to a report to be scrutinised at a council meeting later this week, planning officers, having considered the environmental information available, recommended that planning permission be granted to amend the life of the permission for a further two years, subject to relevant conditions.The Environmental Statement (ES) submitted with the original application was deemed to remain adequate to assess the significant effects of the development on the environment.