Flats approved at former Buckley police station despite parking concerns

Plans to convert a former police station in Buckley into flats have been approved despite concerns about a lack of parking provision.

A full application was submitted to Flintshire County Council’s planning committee to extend and convert Buckley police station on Mold Road. The proposal would create a pair of two-bedroom apartments and three 1-bedroom apartments with undercroft parking.

Debating the application, councillors on the committee raised concerns over the revised plans, which only provide three parking spaces for five apartments – approximately 0.4 spaces per apartment.

An earlier application in 2022 for 10 new dwellings on the site featured nine parking spaces.

The new application would not allocate spaces to each flat, with residents using them on on a first-come, first served basis.

“We have five apartments with three spaces for five apartments,” said Buckley Pentrobin Cllr Mike Peers. “I am wondering about the displacement of vehicles if the nearby car parks are full.

“Access onto the site also has to go across a bus lay-by. When the buses are parked there, as sometimes they wait, you have no visible access.”

Sue Thomas, Flintshire’s Highways Development Control Manager, assured the committee that her department had no concerns about the current application.

“From the Highways perspective we have no objections,” she said. “The maximum parking standards require one-and-a-half spaces per unit, which would equate to seven in total.

“However this is a T1 settlement area so we’d have no objection on the basis of the three spaces provided on the site. ”

A T1 settlement area is one – often close to an urban centre – which is much better served by public transport than more suburban or rural neighbourhoods. As a result parking provision can be reduced.

She also said the access point to the site would be used no more than when it operated as a police station, making it an acceptable use.

By Alec Doyle – Local Democracy Reporter