Planning application for 250 homes in Ebbw Vale

Plans for the development at the former Rhyd y Blew Reservoir site on Beaufort Road had been approved in 2014 subject to a Section 106 agreement – through which the applicant agrees to pay a specified sum to the council to be used for green space, schools, roads or other facilities in the area. However no such agreement was completed.

As a result, the plans have come back before Blaenau Gwent council’s planning committee.

The outline application leaves all detailed reserved matters for a later application.

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The original planning report requested a contribution of more than £1.6 million from the education department through a section 106 agreement. However, this was reduced to £625,000 because the original request would have left the scheme unviable.

The section 106 agreement also required 10 per cent of houses in the scheme to be affordable.

Since then, the applicant has argued that the scheme would not be viable, even with the reduced section 106 agreement sum. An independent party verified this.

The independent party concluded that the scheme “proposed shows to be unviable and does not produce a competitive rate of return if a planning obligation payment of £625,000 is required”.

Therefore in the application to be considered by councillors there is no requested sum in the section 106 agreement.

However, the plans to provide 10 per cent affordable housing remain in place in the updated application.

The application will be considered by Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s planning committee next week.