Traffic warning as housing scheme for Meliden is backed

Image source, Google

Image caption, Councillor Peter Evans fears the development will add to traffic on the A547 to Prestatyn

Roads around a Denbighshire village where 41 houses are to be built should be upgraded "before we brick ourselves into a corner", a councillor has said.

Peter Evans said he supported the affordable housing scheme at the former Deva Caravan site in his Meliden ward.

But he warned it would add to traffic on the A547 to Prestatyn, and called for an upgrade of the A548 to Rhyl.

Denbighshire's planning committee backed the scheme subject to landscaping and bat protection.

The development of energy-efficient homes will include eight one-bed flats, 19 two-bed homes, 12 three-bed homes and two four-bed homes, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Councillor Evans welcomed the project as "a good use" of a brownfield site, in a scheme which gave people the option of renting a property and then buying it at a later date.

However, he added: "My main concern is the traffic generated on the A547, knowing how congested this road is in the morning and afternoon because of the flow of traffic in and out of Prestatyn,

"It will only get worse. Perhaps we should look at the alternatives, like improving the A548 towards Rhyl then over to Bryn Cwnin in Rhuddlan, before we brick ourselves into a corner."

The development, to be known as Parc Talargoch, was approved on the conditions that there is a site-wide landscape scheme, and聽protection for soprano pipistrelle and lesser horseshoe bats.