A woman from Pen Llyn has been given the go-ahead to build a home on an old ruin site as she could not afford house prices in her local area. Catrin Williams was born and brought up in the Llyn Peninsula, where house prices have rocketed amid demand from second-home owners.
Catrin, 28, who is from the village of Llangwnnadl, bought the derelict building as she could not afford a home. Average house prices in nearby Abersoch have hit more than £400,000, according to ONS data. Planning permission was recommended for refusal due to the fact that the site was last lived in 50 years ago, which meant that it could not be legally designated as a house. However, Gwynedd Council's planning committee members have now given the proposal the green light.
This comes after many people in areas such as Pen Llyn called for better legislation on housing prices due to the influx of properties being bought as holiday or second home s in the region. Earlier this month, the Welsh Government announced an increase to the maximum level of council tax premiums for second homes, which could go up to 300% when it comes to power in April 2023.
Read more: 'It's too late' How the second homes crisis is affecting Welsh-language communities on Anglesey
Catrin plans to convert the site into a two-bedroom home. Since 2019, Catrin faced three application rejections. But unwilling to back down she continued with her plans which were presented before a Gwynedd Council committee in January of this year. After a period of deliberation, the committee informed Catrin of their decision on Monday.
Speaking to WalesOnline, she said: "My gut feeling was that they were going to reject the plans, so when they told me about their decision I was so happy. Every member of the committee supported the decision and went against the policy.
"It is so expensive but so important for me to stay and live in the place where I am from. This part of land is where my family farm, and when we bought the plot of land the derelict building came with it. We are keeping the originally building as it is - it has so much character and a lot of history. We will be building the house not far from it."
As part of the planning consent, Ms Williams will have to sign a 106 agreement, which means the house will be classed as "affordable housing". In other words, if Catrin wanted to sell, it would be worth half the market value. The 106 agreement is an agreement between a developer and a local planning authority about measures that the developer must take to reduce their impact on the community.
Catrin said: "This will make it harder for us to get a mortgage, we will have to make changes. It will cost a lot. But at the end of the day, we have got what we wanted, which is planning permission to build on the land. That house will stay in our family for years to come I hope."
During the process, Catrin garnered the support of local Councillor Gareth Williams of Botwnnog. According to Mr Williams, the decision was "good news" for campaigns that aimed to protect housing in communities and for communities in the area.
He said: "I am very pleased that the decision has been made. We wouldn't have had a chance otherwise. So many similar applications have been rejected, but Gwynedd Council decided that enough was enough. This is moving to the right direction and is very good news for campaigns such as Hawl i Fyw Adra."
Catrin has now called for better policy in order to help others that might be going through a similar situation. She said: "I hope the policy will change for the local community, for young people and places like Pen Llyn."
