Plans submitted for controversial amenity site (From Western Telegraph)

Plans submitted for controversial amenity site

2:38pm Thursday 7th March 2013 in News

The fight to stop Pembrokeshire County Council siting a £2.5million civic amenity site next door to a nursing home has been re-kindled with the authority’s announcement that they have eventually submitted plans for the development.

A storm of protest broke out last July when it was revealed that the council had earmarked land for the site alongside the A478 road and adjacent to Brooklands Nursing Home, Saundersfoot, which has 40 elderly, mentally-ill residents. A 4,000-signature petition against the proposal has already been presented to the Welsh Assembly.

The council has now put in its amended plans to the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority for the state-ofthe- art civic amenity and recycling centre, which is intended to serve south-east Pembrokeshire and is needed to replace the current ‘unsustainable’ civic amenity site at The Salterns, Tenby.

This project is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh government.

Brooklands has been run by Mike and Jay Umanee for the past 27 years and their son Darren, who manages the home, said: “We are extremely disappointed that Pembrokeshire County Council has chosen to ignore the huge public outcry against this proposal, and continued with this application.”

Council spokesman Len Mullins said: “The application has taken a long time to develop and a significant amount of review and assessment work has been undertaken surrounding the potential impacts that the proposal could have on neighbouring properties.

“These include noise, air quality, visual impact and traffic – particularly taking into account the residents at Brooklands Nursing Home on the Narberth Road.

“Following consultation on the initial plans, changes including the introduction of a landscaping bund; additional planting between Brooklands and the operational area of the site; acoustic screening to surround the glass skips; the removal of the gas bottle storage compound, as well as alterations and improvements to site lighting and signage, have been made.

“The council believes that the assessment work which has been undertaken demonstrates that any potential impacts arising as a consequence of the development would be so limited as to not have any material impact upon any neighbouring residents.”

The National Park Authority will now undertake a consultation exercise for the proposal as part of the planning process.

Responded Mr Umanee: “Despite the claims of Pembrokeshire County Council, the fact remains that no amount of screening can negate the smell, noise, pollution and increased traffic that this development will bring.

“We believe this proves beyond doubt that our local authority do not listen to the opinions of the local people.

They have completed disregarded the views of the public, valuing statistics for waste targets over the well-being of our elderly.

“We will continue to fight for the protection and well-being of our residents. We only hope that the Pembropkeshire Coast National Park Authority will recognise this whilst undertaking their consultation exercise.”

The application and its support documentation is now a public document available to view through the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.