A CONTROVERSIAL plan to build two houses on a Machynlleth street has been approved, with objectors claiming it was done so on the “thinnest of grounds”.

The application to build two detached houses on land between 14 and 15 Ffordd Mynydd Griffiths was approved at Powys County Council’s planning committee meeting on Thursday, despite a similar application for one house on the same land being refused in 2012.

And some objectors, which included Machynlleth Town Council, have cried foul after it emerged planning officers recommended approving the application because of a county-wide shortage of housing land.

A Powys County Council housing land availability study published in August found that there were only 2.2 years of housing land available across the county, despite the Welsh Government requiring all councils to maintain five years’ supply.

“My wife and I are very disappointed that having been refused once before, it has been put through purely on the basis of an excuse,” Terry Turner, who lives at 16 Ffordd Mynydd Griffiths with his wife Elizabeth, told the Cambrian News this week.

“A lack of housing land, to me, doesn’t outweigh the objections of local people or Machynlleth Town Council.”

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