Proposal for Second Storey Extension to Combat Flooding Refused, Family Facing Continued Displacement

A PROPOSAL to build a second storey extension so a family could remain in their home after repeated flooding has been refused. 
Gareth Griffiths and his wife Amy, who are both civil engineers, had applied for planning permission to build the nine-metre-long contemporary cladded extension which would expand from their Victorian home on the edge of the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. 
They planned to abandon the existing ground floor of their three storey detached home in Pandy, near Abergavenny and move their kitchen, lounge and utility room into the new extension that would be on stilts with an external staircase. 
But Monmouthshire County Council planners dismissed it as an “incongruous feature” which would cause “detrimental harm to the character and appearance” of the house and the surrounding countryside. 
Mr Griffiths pleaded with councillors at the August planning committee to allow the extension which he said was a response to repeated flooding rather than ambition for a larger home. 
He said: “It is not optional for us as a family but a necessity to continue living in our home that has been flooded three times in the last 15 months and four times in the last five years. 
“This has a severe and ongoing impact on family life. For our three young children flooding is not an abstract risk, or one off event, it has become part of their childhood.” 
His voice breaking Mr Griffiths told the meeting: “During weather warnings they become anxious, unable to sleep, whether their toys will be damaged, will they have to leave the house again at short notice? On multiple occasions we’ve had to evacuate carrying the children through four foot of water, not knowing what we’re coming back to.” 
The applicant said the family has already spent more than £60,000 of its own money on measures to limit flooding, such as flood gates, while its plan would be use the existing ground floor for storage. 
He said the extension would “allow us to remain in our home during flooding and provide a safe secondary means of escape.” 
Mr Griffiths also said the extension was only two metres longer than one approved in 2023, but which hasn’t been built, and said without the planned staircase the new living space is still within two per cent of the existing ground floor. 
Independent councillor for Crucorney David Jones supported the application and asked that the planning committee take the final decision after officers recommended refusal while the local community council also said it supported the plan and there were 40 letters in support from the local community. 
But head of planning Andrew Jones said planning officers and the council’s landscape officer considered the extension to be a “confused design” that would be “out of context” while the “large amount of cladding” would “emphasise the mass of the extension”. 
Committee members expressed sympathy for the family but most said they couldn’t support the application. 
Devauden Conservative Rachel Buckler said: “I’m sure there is a solution but I don’t think this is the solution.” 
Committee chairman, Conservative Phil Murphy, confirmed Mr Griffiths could still make a further application without having to pay an additional fee after Cllr Fay Bromfield suggested the application be deferred.
The application was refused permission with nine councillors voting in support of the officers’ recommendation while three voted against it and one abstained. ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​

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