UP TO 2,500 new homes could be built in one of Flintshire’s main towns by the year 2030.

A special meeting of Mold Town Council was held this week, specifically to discuss their preferred strategy for Flintshire Council’s Local Development Plan 2015-2030.

The development plan will set out where new developments go in the future as well as planning policies which define how development should happen, covering the 15 year period 2015 to 2030.

Members scrutinised a map of Mold, with potential development sites ringed by colour – green for sites which can be developed, amber for sites with potential but which may have issues, and red for sites that cannot have any development on them.

Councillors were broadly in agreement with the colour-coding of the sites, having produced their own town plan two years ago.

Mold East county councillor Chris Bithell said: “We’ve stated what our position should be, any extension to the town should be to the west, towards Gwernaffield and Rhydymwyn. Anything else and we’re close to coalescence.

”Beyond the bypass into the green barrier, on the other side of Bryn Coch and The Haven would take us towards Gwernymynydd and should be opposed.

”In the town, between the church and Love Lane, it is a wonderful vista coming into the town and it woulde be outrageous to see that built upon.

””Green meadow along the River Alyn, I can’t see how on earth that could be developed. The Eisteddfod site is not to be considered and Mold Alex FC (Alyn Park ground) only if they can find another site to relocate to, otherwise that should be opposed.”

Fellow Mold East Cllr Andrea Mearns said they should be wary of the town taking on the brunt of the county’s development,

She said: “In the Mold town plan we’ve identified sites and given indication of the size of those sites which is significantly less than Flintshire Council have indicated.

“Mold east equates to 359 new houses, Mold west 1,551 new houses and Mold south 653 houses.

“If you look at Flintshire Council’s numbers for the 15 years, you wonder why Mold has 2,500 houses potentially, and six other towns could be left with 500 houses each.

“The number across the county is not excessive but expecting Mold to have 2,500 houses is.”

Mold South Cllr Robin Guest said: “Other towns could also have inflated figures.

“The majority of building in the last 40 years has been in the south ward and have been ill-thought through developments tacked on and tacked on.

“The junction by The Dolphin is dangerous, there should not be any more traffic put on the Parc Hendy.

“We need to be careful any developments should not be in the catchment area of Ysgol Bryn Coch, exacerbating the problems there.”

He added: “Maes Gwern will be a ghetto as far as I’m concerned with no connection with the rest of the town.

“There is merit in expanding the population of a town if it brings in businesses and services but Flintshire Council need to grasp the option of building a new town somewhere else, because there is a limit to small towns growing to become medium towns.

“Buckley and Connah’s Quay have become dormer towns, you lose that sense of community and I would not like to see that happen in Mold.”

Members unanimously decided to put forward a proposal that they support the preferred settlement plan – providing developments are evenly distributed across the county, but to refer to the Mold town plan for which sites should be developed.