A BUILDING company which was the subject of an investigation by Y Byd Y Bedwar bought three building plots from the local authority in November 2015, the Herald can reveal.
NBA Developments Ltd, owned by Neal Atkins, was the subject of the Welsh-language current affairs programme after the company left owners of homes bought from the builder with unfinished pavements and without street lighting.
NBA Developments Ltd was sold three plots of land at Teras Ty Newydd Cross Hands for £105,000. The plots came with outline planning permission for the construction of houses.
In the course of the Byd y Bedwar investigation into NBA Developments, programme makers interviewed then head of the council’s planning department, Eifion Bowen.
When asked by Byd y Bedwar reporter Gwynne Loader whether he would be happy to buy a house without street lighting, Mr Bowen replied: “No.”
He also excused the Council’s conduct in continuing to grant NBA planning permission despite its failures on previous developments, saying ‘different systems’ were involved. In the programme, the County Council claimed that they were powerless to stop the company from doing the same again.
Mr Bowen also told Byd y Bedwar that: ‘There is nothing the council can do to influence a developer who doesn’t finish the work so the estate is adopted by the County Council. As the law stands they are not required to offer the work for adoption under the Highways Act.”
The programme revealed that the developer had received public money in the forms of loans totalling almost half a million pounds, which it repaid, but uncovered a series of bad debts owed to subcontractors.
An internal Council email suggested sanctions through the planning department refusing to issue further planning permissions to NBA until his developments were made good. However, the authority took the view at that time that the issues that arose were between the unfortunate purchasers and the company.
The Welsh Government say that planning authorities have the power that is needed to ensure work is completed.
Nia Griffith MP said: “I know residents who are still having to pick their way carefully over an unmade road often without street lighting in order to take their rubbish to the end of the road because the council will not send their vehicles down an unmade, unadopted road.
“If a programme like Y Byd Y Bedwar can’t encourage NBA to behave better and to put things right for these residents I see little hope of it doing a better job in the future.
“It worries me that the County Council knowing the enormous hassle they have had from residents about the fact these estates have not been brought up to standard with lighting and surfacing and then to the same company go and purchase more land is absolutely shocking. All that I can see now happening is that NBA has the outline planning and another estate will be there with residents fighting for work to be completed. It seems to me that the County should be looking into this more carefully.
“It is an obvious name. It is not Mr. Jones is it. They should have known they have officers spending an enormous amount of time and public money chasing NBA and trying to get the work done. It seems a complete waste of public money allowing the company to buy land from the council with planning meaning that we will have same problems in the future. I would like to see the company putting things right for the residents that have problems at the moment.”
The Herald asked the Council for a detailed statement as to the process that led to NBA Developments’ acquisition of the plots from the authority and what sureties the Council has received from him both in relation to the satisfactory completion of works at Ty Newydd Terrace and the other sites it has ‘developed’ around Carmarthenshire.
A Council spokesperson told us: “Outline planning permission (application number W/28982) was granted in December 2013 for land off Ty Newydd Terrace.
“In November 2015 the Council sold that same area of land with outline planning permission (application number W/28982) to NBA Developments Ltd at Cross Hands. The access to the site was already constructed as part of the adjoining Redrow Development. For small sites of this nature, it is not usual to include conditions relating to the timing of development, and this will be a matter for the purchaser to determine.
“The Council is currently in receipt of a Reserved Matters application (W/33078) for three dwellings at land off Ty Newydd Terrace and Mr Neil Atkins is the applicant/developer. This application covers the same site as the outline permission referred to above and therefore the land sold by the Council.
“The reserved matters application is not subject to any S106 contributions or affordable housing provisions; the outline consent pre-dated the Caeau Mynydd Mawr SPG contribution requirements.”
In response we asked the Council, whether it had any comment on past problems with NBA Developments’ projects.
At the time of going to press we had received no reply.
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