Neighbours are lining up against plans for 38 council homes on the fenced-off field behind Carmarthen Leisure Centre in Johnstown.
Comments close on Thursday. Carmarthenshire Council is the one applying, and every home would be let at social rent.
Objections from Llansteffan Road so far cover traffic, the steep new entrance, the sewers and what is buried under the field.
Three Plaid councillors want every home on Llansteffan Road told about the council homes plan
Three Plaid Cymru county councillors have written to planners, asking for every household along Llansteffan Road to be formally told about the application.
Cllr Gareth John, one of the three councillors for Carmarthen Town North and South, said there had been “limited awareness” of the plans and “minimal public engagement” when the council first consulted on them last autumn.
He asked for notices outside the site, along Llansteffan Road and by the Spar. On 11 October, he said, “there were no official notices anywhere to be seen”.
Cllr Peter Hughes-Griffiths, who shares the ward, backed the request within minutes.
So did Cllr Alun Lenny, the council’s own cabinet member for resources. Their emails ask for neighbours to be told, and do not object to the homes.
What’s planned for the field beside Carmarthen Leisure Centre
The plans show six one-bedroom houses, four one-bedroom flats, ten two-bedroom houses, two bungalows, ten three-bedroom houses and six with four bedrooms.
About 126 people would live there, JMS Planning, the council’s agent, estimates. Each home gets its own parking, with eight visitor spaces and a new entrance off Llansteffan Road.
The field is protected as open space in the council’s current Local Development Plan, but the agent says it is fenced off and closed to the public. The council’s draft next plan, not yet adopted, would switch it to housing.
Carmarthenshire Council says the homes meet ‘high demand’
Responding to the application, the council’s housing team says the homes are “key to help meet the high demand for affordable housing in this area”.
In September the council finished 16 social rent homes at Parc Pendre in Kidwelly.
Work started this month on its latest scheme, on Cilycwm Road in Llandovery. The council says those homes should be ready from late summer or autumn 2027.
Cllr Emlyn Schiavone, the council’s cabinet member for homes, said the Llandovery homes were “much-needed” and would “help meet local housing demand”.
Some neighbours want a mix of tenures rather than all social rent. The agent says the council brings forward 100% social housing where there is “clear evidence of need”, as it says there is here.
Johnstown neighbours fear longer queues on Llansteffan Road, and a steep way out
Stewart Lewis, who lives opposite the site, said the traffic was already “horrific enough”, with queues from the Ystrad Farm lane to the lights on Johnstown bridge. Several objectors add that the bus into town runs only every two hours.
The new entrance would come down a slope from the raised field straight onto Llansteffan Road. One objection says older drivers, wheelchair users and parents with prams could struggle to stop at the bottom.
Residents asked last autumn why the leisure centre’s own entrance could not be used. That was the first choice, JMS Planning says, but the lie of the land ruled it out.
John and Amanda Whitworth, who live on Llansteffan Road, said that while “there is a need for Affordable Social Housing”, the site was “totally unsuitable” for tenants who need easy access to services such as medical care. They would rather see an outdoor gym there, linked to the leisure centre.
Welsh Water’s warning on the sewers, and what’s under the field
Welsh Water objected when the plans were first consulted on. It said the local sewers were unlikely to have room for the homes, and that it had no upgrade planned.
It called any building before that work was done “premature”. A neighbour’s objection says Welsh Water has objected to the current application too, with no upgrade due until at least 2030.
The homes would drain to the Parc y Splott treatment works. Welsh Water objected over the same works when 84 homes at Carmarthen West were approved in August.
Neighbours say the raised field was built up with rubble from demolished schools. A land contamination survey found it suitable for development, according to the agent.
Yet the council’s own contaminated land team says an earlier ground investigation “identified potential land contamination considerations”. It wants a full set of conditions on any approval.
How to comment on PL/11394 before Thursday’s deadline
The application, reference PL/11394, is on the council’s planning website. One neighbour says the notices only went up on 16 October, leaving less time than residents should have had.
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