Controversial plans for more than 200 homes in Monmouthshire will go before councillors again after incorrect figures were used to support their approval.
Outline applications to build up to 130 homes near Church Road in Caldicot, and 111 homes south of Monmouth Road in Raglan, were backed by councillors on November 6 last year.
Both decisions were informed by Monmouthshire council opting to give ‘appropriate’ weight to granting housing developments on land outside its local development plan (LDP).
This change in policy, based on a lack of a five-year housing land supply, was pushed through on September 22 – but it has emerged that planning chiefs supplied councillors with incorrect data.
Councillors were told that by the LDP’s expiry in 2021, the council was projected to be 961 houses short of its targets when it was 504.
Similarly, the report said the authority was 337 affordable homes behind its targets when the actual figure was 38.
Mark Hand, head of planning at Monmouthshire council, apologised for the error at a special council meeting on February 22.
The move to give appropriate weight to developments, so long as they meet 11 ground rules, was again supported by councillors.
This means the Caldicot and Raglan applications, which were given appropriate weight as they are outside the LDP, must go back to the planning committee.
The Church Farm scheme, which was fiercely opposed by a resident’s group in Caldicot, will go before councillors on March 5 with officers recommending the committee’s original approval is maintained.
But the Raglan scheme is not currently in the council’s hands having been called in by the Welsh Government, though it will return to the planning committee in the coming months.
A planning inspector will consider claims that the application is contrary to national policy as it lacked consideration for sustainable transport.
Hundreds of people objected to the development, with local campaigners also staging protest marches and debates at public meetings.
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