Two new industrial units approved at Rhydymwyn estate where fire destroyed building in 2022
A planning officer at Flintshire County Council has approved two industrial units at Antelope Industrial Estate on Denbigh Road, Rhydymwyn, three years after a fire destroyed the site’s largest building.
The application was submitted by Whitley Estates Ltd, which owns the estate, and covers a replacement for the building lost to fire in 2022 and an entirely new unit on a plot that had not previously been built on.
The decision was made by a planning officer rather than by the elected planning committee, a route known as delegated powers, with local member Cllr Andrew Parkhurst agreeing to that approach.
The estate, off the A541 a few miles north-west of Mold, has operated since 1979 and sits adjacent to the Rhydymwyn Valley Nature Reserve on a 12-acre site.
The replacement building, known in the application as Unit 3, will sit on roughly the same footprint as the structure destroyed in 2022, which was gutted and subsequently demolished on safety grounds.
The new building, Unit 2, will be placed at the north-east corner of the site facing Denbigh Road, on a plot that the applicant said was always intended to hold a building.
Both units are approved for light industrial, general industrial, and storage and distribution uses.
Approval came with a series of conditions reflecting the site’s history and its surroundings.
Because the estate lies in an area with a long history of industrial activity, including former mining and chemical works, Flintshire County Council’s planning officer required the applicant to carry out contamination checks before any building work begins.
One condition specifically requires written confirmation from North Wales Fire and Rescue Service that firefighting foam containing PFAS compounds, a class of chemicals that can persist in soil and water, was not used when the 2022 fire was tackled.
The site also sits within a flood risk zone, with records of a flood event in November 2000 from the nearby Dolfechlas Brook.
Natural Resources Wales initially raised concerns about the flood assessment submitted with the application.
Those concerns were resolved after the applicant provided additional information, and NRW confirmed it was satisfied with conditions covering land contamination, lighting and ecological management.
The nature reserve next to the estate supports lesser horseshoe bats, great crested newts and reptiles, all species protected under British and European law.
A lighting scheme must be agreed with the council before any lights are installed, to limit the impact on bats.
A long-term plan for managing wildlife habitats on the site, covering at least 25 years, must also be submitted and approved before work starts.
The officer’s report noted that the application as submitted did not fully meet Welsh Government planning policy on biodiversity net gain, a requirement that development must leave wildlife habitats in a better condition than it found them.
That gap was addressed through conditions rather than treated as a reason to refuse the application.
No objections were received from neighbours or the public after they were formally notified and a site notice was posted.
Cilcain Community Council did not submit a response.
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