Residents who are angry about the approval of plans for a supermarket near their village said they will look to take action against the decision.
Vale Council’s planning committee recently voted to approve plans made by Lidl for a supermarket on land at Bridge House Farm in between Llantwit Major and the village of Llanmaes.
This was despite the recommendations of planning officials to refuse the plans.
Many of the planning committee members argued that services were needed for the growing town of Llantwit Major and said there weren’t any alternative locations to build the supermarket.
However, residents in Llanmaes raised concerns about the impact it would have on traffic and the Llanmaes conservation area.
The local community council said recently that villagers were “dismayed and angry” about the planning decision.
Cllr Graeme Smith, chair of Llanmaes Community Council, said: “We understand the wider community is growing and may need more shopping opportunities but that doesn’t mean supermarkets should be built wherever a large corporation wants to, driving a coach and horses through established planning rules.”
The community council said it will closely review the process and procedures used at the planning committee meeting which took place on 12th December 2024.
They also said that they will scrutinise the “focus of the discussion on topics other than those concerning material planning considerations” and evaluate the impact on the current and forthcoming local development plans.
Cllr Smith added: “It is especially unfair that the proposal apparently hinged on the support of people from larger settlements and not those within our community. We are considering all our options and reserve the right to take further steps.”
If built according to the current plans, the new supermarket would be within the settlement boundary of Llanmaes, which was designated as a conservation area in 1978.
The village has won the Vale of Glamorgan's Best-Kept Village competition numerous times.
Once built, the supermarket will also be on the edge of Llantwit Major, where a number of town residents are in support of the plans.
One resident who spoke to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) before the planning committee meeting, described Llantwit Major as “woefully underserviced”.
Father-of-two Rhodri Hewitt said: “When I can I will still like now and then to go and use the local butchers. I know the people who run it and you want to support them as much as you can and it is good-quality stuff."
“I have got a professional job, my wife works full-time…[but] at the end of the day, three weeks into a month, we are skint."
“Times are very hard at the moment and the bottom line is…you have to use that as your priority for where you shop, don’t you?”
Llantwit First Independents councillor Gwyn John was one of the people at the planning committee meeting to raise concerns about the plans in relation to traffic.
He pointed out that there was a riding school opposite the proposed site for the Lidl, adding: “It is an accident waiting to happen and it is totally out of context with the area that this site should be considered for a supermarket.”
One Llanmaes resident, Jackie Wright, said: “I love Lidl, and I’d like to see something new in the area, but I shudder to think of the accidents there will be on that narrow corner by the traffic lights.”
Vale Council’s highways team had no objection to the supermarket subject to a number of conditions being implemented.
Planning officers recommended the supermarket plans be refused because of the negative impact they argued it would have on the appearance of the countryside.
Another Llanmaes resident, Darren Green, told the planning committee the development would “significantly harm the rural character of the area” and said the glow from its 122-capacity car park would be “impossible to ignore”.
He said: “The introduction of a large-scale supermarket along with associated parking and lighting would create a visually intrusive urban feature, blurring the distinct identities of Llanmaes and Llantwit Major, contrary to Welsh Government policy.”
Vale Council was approached for a comment but said it would not add anything further to what was said at the planning committee meeting in December.
The planning application for the supermarket was approved subject to conditions that will be drafted and confirmed at a future planning committee meeting.
The date of this planning committee meeting has not yet been decided.
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