Buckley councillors critcise planning appeal decision

May 3 2012 by Eleanor Barlow, Flintshire Chronicle

AN APPEAL decision to give planning permission for changes to a Buckley housing development has been branded ‘awful’ by councillors.

The Leason Homes application was to make changes to two plots and include an additional dwelling on the planned 50-home development, made up of apartments and three, four and five-bedroomed houses, on land at the rear of Pottery Cottage, Ewloe Place.

Councillors had raised concerns about the space between properties and the removal of a hedge next to neighbouring properties.

Cllr Carol Ellis told a meeting of Buckley Town Council: “I am very disappointed with the way the whole process was dealt with.”

She said pensioners living next to the site now wanted to move because their homes would be overlooked and there would be loss of light.

Cllr Richard Jones said he had written to Flintshire County Council’s chief executive Colin Everett asking for an internal investigation into the way the case was dealt with.

In his decision, planning inspector Anthony Thickett said: “The relationship and orientation of plot one and the closest bungalow would be such that I am satisfied that it would not have a significant visual impact nor lead to an unacceptable loss of light.”