A PLANNING committee has approved the development of nearly 200 homes in a Flintshire village after a lengthy battle between residents and developers.

Flintshire council gave the green light on Wednesday to housing company Redrow to build 186 homes and an ancillary development on the land at Chester Road, Penyffordd.

The full application was initially denied by Flintshire Council's planning committee in April. The committee's decision was based on the chief officer for planning and environment's finding that the weight attached to "increasing housing land supply is not considered to outweigh the harm that would arise from the detrimental impact of such a scale of development would have upon the cohesiveness of the community."

The chief officer also found that the then proposed development is contrary to policies GEN1 and EWP17 of the Adopted Flintshire

Unitary Development Plan (UDP) and Technical Advice Note of the 'Development and Flood Risk July 2004 due to "insufficient surface water drainage details submitted" and the site is located outside the settlement boundary for Penyffordd and Penymynydd and within open countryside as defined by the adopted UDP.

Redrow's decision to launch an appeal to Welsh Government's planning inspectorate was backed by Flintshire council's planning committee, who concluded that there is "nothing to say that services cannot accommodate extra people who live here."

In a report contributing to the approval of Redrow's appeal in April by planning inspector Joanne Burston said: ''In the particular circumstances of this case I find the contribution to the supply of housing, including affordable housing, in a sustainable location to be material considerations that outweigh the conflict with the development plan and localised landscape harm."

The case officer on Tuesday however told the council that there is now "no evidence it would harm the community, and that the inspector for the site concluded there was a clear benefit of providing a choice when the council are "in a clear deficit of our five year supply plan."

The officer added that they are trying to link the planning policy behind this decision with the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014.

They said: "This application was recommended for refusal on the argument on the impact of the development on community cohesion. The settlement would take a large amount of growth and (we assessed) what that would mean to community cohesion.

"The inspector identified there was a number of landscape harm issues here, but took the view that there was no evidence on the impact of social cohesion."

They added that there was "no need" to demonstrate over-saturation of the village."

The council heard how extensive work has gone into the decision, the case officer saying: "The inspector's decision is based on community cohesion, and I cannot tell you the length of details that have been put forward. We have had a list of every doctor's appointment, how much the price of coffee is - there is no confusion as to what is on offer here.

"I can't emphasise enough the amount of blood, sweat and tears put into defending a public inquiry.

Cllr Patrick Heesom told the planning committee: "There is nothing really to say about (this development) other than it is a disappointment to say the least. I am not happy with the way it has been handled."

Cllr Cindy Hinds, of Penyffordd said she feels the needs of local people have been "totally and utterly ignored" following the decision to go ahead with building the 186 homes.

Cllr David Williams, also of Penyffordd, added that the village has been "let down" by county officials and said he fears too many new houses have been built "in such a short space of time." His objections also include a detriment to education with "full schools," a negative impact on community wellbeing due to

increase in population, an over dominance of dwellings in the open countryside, and the loss of privacy and potential loss of light.

The planning committee's decision was welcomed by Cllr Derek Butler, who commended the work put into the planning report. Cllr Butler said: "I'm happy with the way it was handled, and the case officer has described how hard it was."

He added how the development of 186 homes would not "undermine future growth."