FOR the second and final time, Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority’s (BBNPA) Planning Committee has rejected controversial plans to change the use of a house into a children’s care home.

The proposal by Cwtch Children’s Care Limited was for a certificate of lawfulness to change the use of 15 The Shires, Gilwern, near Abergavenny, from a Class Three dwelling house to a Class Two residential institution.

The application returned to a BBNPA Planning Committee for a final decision on Tuesday, September 8, having been originally rejected by members at a meeting in July.

Members were advised by NPA planners that they should approve the application as the issues raised at the previous meeting had been addressed.

Continuing to refuse it would open the authority up to an appeal and the cost of it.

At the meeting, a number of local objectors were allowed to speak against the application.

Objector Christine Price said: “Operational, physical and managerial differences are incompatible with the Class Three use.”

She argued that refusing the application would not open the authority up to an appeal and costs being awarded against it, as the planning officer’s report had suggested.

Rhys Jones, the planning agent on behalf of the applicant, explained that the issues that had gone against the application in July had now been addressed.

Mr Jones told the committee that waste collection, and the waste that would be generated, would be: “no different to a family home.”

Mr Jones said: “Staff would work a 24-hour shift with the changeover between 10 and 10.45, which would avoid rush hour and have less of an impact than a typical domestic dwelling.”

Cllr Adam Rogers (Rhondda Cynon Taf) said: “I’m slightly confused.”

He wondered why this application was for a certificate of lawfulness rather than a full planning application.

He pointed out that his council had dealt with a similar proposal recently for four youngsters in Penderyn as a full planning application.

Cllr Rogers said: “If they are similar, shouldn’t they go through the same route?”

BBNPA legal adviser Charles Felgate of Geldards law firm answered: “The example is for up to four people, which would have a considerably greater number of vehicle movements and potential noise associated with it.

“This is for two, it’s very different and we don’t cross the threshold of materiality, but each case needs to be dealt with on the facts.”

Cllr Simon Howarth (Monmouthshire) said that on the company website, Cwtch Care said that an office would be part of the care home.

Cllr Howarth said: “They are advertising an office, and it has been categorically stated that there will be no office.

“If they had an office, it would be classed as a material change.”

Welsh Government appointee and committee chairman Steve Rayner said: “The office is news to us.

“On the site visit, we were told that it was a standard house layout.”

Mr Felgate said: “It’s a material consideration that would need to be taken into account, to work out as a matter of fact and degree whether a change of use is happening here.”

Eventually, the committee went to a vote.

The first one was to agree the application in line with officer recommendations.

This saw two members vote in favour, five against and two abstain.

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A second vote to refuse the application was then held, which saw five vote in favour, three against and two abstain.