Council debates ‘preferred option’ for former Conwy pupil referral unit earmarked for housing

A council sat behind closed doors recently to discuss its “preferred option” for the disposal of a former pupil referral unit, earmarked for housing.

Conwy county council’s cabinet sat in private to assess tenders for the former Gyffin Education Centre, Maes Y Llan, Gyffin, Conwy.

A pre-planning application had already been completed for five houses on the site, but councillors debated a number of proposals for the former pupil referral unit which closed in summer 2019.

Built in 1970 the building started out as a primary school and covers 0.69 acres, and is offered with grazing land to the rear totalling 1.32 acres.

The land is a Special Landscaped Area (SLA) meaning it is countryside of high visual quality and sits around a mile outside Conwy town’s walls.

Referring to the meeting about the site, a spokeswoman for the council said: “The report asked cabinet members to agree their preferred option for the site.

“Officers will now liaise with the preferred bidder to discuss the next steps.”

In a brochure issued by the authority, in which it says the land is “for sale by formal tender”, it outlines the site would need to undergo a change of use from the winning applicant from D1 (non-residential institution).

A pre-planning overview, outlined in the pamphlet, said: “Ainsley Gommon Architects acting on behalf of the authority have completed a pre-planning application for five residential dwellings with the local planning authority.”

The keys points in the overview were:

• Housing Development Principal: Not allocated in the LDP, classed as a windfall site
• Site forms part of the Conwy Urban Area Settlement

Affordable Housing and planning obligations:

• 30% Affordable Housing requirement
• Housing mix and density would need to be discussed with CCBC housing strategy
• Pre-app scheme for five dwellings—Affordable Housing, one on site and 0.5 off site in the form of a commuted sum, subject to viability
• A viability assessment pro-forma would be required
• Design, visual amenity and landscape impact
• Grazing land fall within Conwy Special Landscaped area
  Development should be appropriate in terms of form, scale, massing, elevation detail and use of materials

Highways:

• Access is narrow and would require improvements
• Maximum of five dwellings
• Road would need to remain private (ie. not adopted)

On top of any section 106 payments (commuted sums in lieu of services) for affordable housing, the successful tenderer would have to fork out an extra £6,212 for waste and open space provision.

By Jez Hemming – Local Democracy Reporter