Plan for 1,000 Porthcawl homes ‘will put off tourists’, campaign fears

Rebecca Pacifici, from the campaign group Porthcawl SOS Save Our Seaside which has set up to fight the scale of the plans, said: “Regeneration is something this town has been waiting decades for.

“But what people did not realise is that this is a housing-led regeneration and not a seaside regeneration.

“If they do not get the housing numbers right then there will not be enough room in this area to provide a place for the tourists and the visitors on a regular basis.

“We have a new pavilion on its way which will bring in thousands of people all year round. Where are they going to park?

“We have not said we do not want some housing. We think housing is great but it has to be the right balance otherwise the housing will overtake the ability for this to be a destination seaside resort.”

The aim is to set aside 50% of the new homes for affordable housing.

Bridgend council it’s part of a plan to build more than 7,500 new homes over the next seven years across the county to cope with what is one of the fastest growing populations in Wales.

The final decision set to be made by the council is said to be on a knife-edge with Labour members expected to support it and independents voting against.

A recent proposal to build a five-story apartment block for affordable flats at the site of a former restaurant in the town was rejected.

But the leader of the council, John Spanswick, said the £250m investment would make it the biggest regeneration scheme ever undertaken by the council.

While he accepted there are concerns among some, he believed the silent majority had accepted the benefits it would bring to the area.

“We are listening to the public but we need local homes for local people,” he said.

“The problem now is people who grow up in this area cannot stay in this area and bring up their own families, they have to move out of Porthcawl.

“This is not about building houses to make money, this is about building a complete waterfront scheme for the future of Porthcawl.”