Community ‘drop-in session’ for Mancot residents opposed to housing development plans

A ‘drop-in session’ is set to take place in Mancot today – Sunday November 3 – aimed at guiding local residents through the “objection process” to Flintshire Council’s recently published Local Develop Plan (LDP).

The LDP outlines land where up to 7000 new houses should be built over the next decade, along with employment sites which could deliver up to 10,000 jobs.

The final draft of the authority’s LDP was approved by councillors in July.

A consultation was launched by Flintshire Council in September, it is set to close on November 11.

The development plan earmarks greenbelt land between Ash Lane and Park Avenue in Mancot where up to 280 houses could be built. 

Sundays drop in session takes place at Mancot Village Hall between 6-8pm, Councillor Sam Swash, who has organised the event said:

”There has been a lot of concern locally about the short window that residents have been given to object to these plans.

On top of that, the online portal isn’t particularly user-friendly and a lot of people have struggled getting access to it and using it appropriately.

So the aim of the drop-in session on Sunday evening is to guide residents through the objection process and to also help them make sure that their objections are as effective as possible.

It is a real indictment of the inadequacy of the process that it has been left to community councillors and local residents to have to run this sort of event.”

[The area shaded brown is the land currently part of Deiniol’s Ash Farm but proposed to be put into the Local Development Plan & used for housing.]

A petition objecting to a potential large scale housing development on the greenbelt land in Mancot has gained more than 900 signatures so far.

The petition lists a host of reasons why a large scale housing development should not be built on the land between Ash Lane and Park Avenue.

It states that local schools are already over-subscribed with pupils.

“There are already significant traffic and safety issues outside both Sandycroft Primary School and Hawarden Village Church School. Adding a further 250+ plus houses will significantly exacerbate these problems.”

The petition also claims GP surgeries and dentists in the area are “limited in number and are also over-subscribed and struggling to cope with demand locally.”

It says local transport services have already been cut substantially and “will struggle to cope with further demand.”