Bridgend MP Jamie Wallis and Regional Senedd member Altaf Hussain have joined forces to challenge BCBC’s proposals to concentrate 80 per cent of all new house building south of the M4 and within the Bridgend parliamentary constituency.
Welsh Conservative Dr Wallis said that the council had to allocate land for 5,000 extra residential units – houses and flats - to meet Welsh Government requirements in the revised Draft Local Development Plan which has been out for consultation with residents.
He went on: “I am concerned that the council, which covers Bridgend and Ogmore, intends to permit large swathes of land within the Bridgend constituency to be developed while leaving many areas in the Ogmore constituency almost free of new development.
“We are seeing proposals for 1100 extra housing units to be built on two sites in Porthcawl – Sandy Bay and Salt Lake. Having an extra 4,000 to 5,000 people move into the town will create intolerable burdens on all local services, including GP’s, which they will not be able to cope with.
“These worries are shared by residents in other parts of the constituency like Brackla, Laleston, Coity, Bryntirion and Penyfai who fear that Bridgend is in danger of becoming over-developed.”
Dr Hussain, whose region of South Wales West covers Bridgend and Ogmore, said that focussing almost all new housing in Bridgend would leave the valley areas of Maesteg, Ogmore and Garw starved of investment.
He went on “Young people living in these areas may be denied the chance to remain within their home communities if there is not a range of suitable houses available to them. We need a good mix of both private and social housing in every community.
“Many people are being forced to move to Brackla or other parts of Bridgend simply because of the unavailability of affordable, modern homes in the valleys. When they move, they deprive the shops, pubs and other businesses in their communities of their spending power. New businesses may also be more reluctant to invest in those areas.”
Welsh Conservative Altaf Hussain added: “Traffic is also a major concern in Bridgend with residents fearing new housing developments will increase pressure on already congested roads and contribute to the creation of “rat runs” as motorists seek to find a way around bottlenecks and use country lanes and other unsuitable roads in their daily commute.
“We already see this in my home village of Penyfai with cars travelling from Bryntirion down a lane into the village en-route to the M4.”
Both men are calling for the council to re-think the allocation of sites for new housing and look again at candidate sites in Ogmore to assess their suitability for new housing and relieve pressure on land in Bridgend.
Both are also opposed to the decision to scrap the green wedges in the plan.
Jamie said: “These are the buffer zones between communities which prevent them from coalescing into each other. If they go, it will be much easier for developers to argue that they should be permitted to build on open land adjoining and linking separate communities. These wedges also provide important wildlife habitats which we must preserve.
“Building houses without any regard for community creates developments where people have no facilities or amenities and where services are stretched even further. We must not allow new housing estates to become just collections of houses without the means to become vibrant communities where people know and support each other.”