Local development plans: Caerphilly

The overall plan

• The plan says housing will be steered towards places with good rail and bus services, and towards former mining villages that need more homes to stay viable places to live. Page 44
• The plan says that where it is suitable, previously used (brownfield) land will be chosen before green fields for new homes. Page 44

Homes

• The plan says that in this area, new sites may include up to 25% affordable homes, provided by registered social landlords (housing associations). Page 200
• The plan says that sites in this area with planning permission would accommodate 992 homes. Page 200
• The plan says the former YGC Cwm Rhymni school site in Bargoed has planning permission for 28 homes, and all of them are affordable (a 100% affordable housing development). Policy HG1.20, page 78
• The plan identifies land south west of Carn Y Tyla Terrace in Abertysswg, a large greenfield site (land not built on before), where 133 homes could be built. Policy HG1.10, page 75

Jobs and the economy

• The plan allocates Oakdale Business Park's four plateaux as the largest area of potential employment development in the County Borough. Policy EM1.3 - 1.6, page 99
• The plan allocates the Ty Du site in Nelson as a business park, which it says will bring local jobs to a village with few employment opportunities. Policy EM1.2, page 99
• The plan sets aside an area next to Parc Bryn Bach country park in Rhymney and Tredegar for further tourism development. Policy TM1.1, page 125
• The plan allocates 101.9 hectares of land for new employment development across the county borough, to provide jobs for residents. Page 45
• The plan says the Oakdale Business Park is critical to the economic prosperity of residents, and it is allocated for employment uses. Policy EM1, page 82
• The plan allocates the Ty Du site at Nelson for employment, as a major employment site on the edge of the village. Page 84
• The plan allocates Llancaiach Fawr and its surroundings in Nelson as a site for tourism-related activities. Policy TM1, page 96

Town centres and shops

• The plan allocates the Bargoed Retail Plateau for a new anchor foodstore, in line with the retail strategy that began in the old plan and continues in this one. Policy CM4.2, page 102
• The plan says Gallagher Retail Park is for retail warehouses that cannot be located within the town centres themselves, and that they were chosen to complement the two largest retail centres. Policy CM4.10, page 104
• The plan says that developing the rest of the Lidl site in Risca would improve the mix of shops in the town and strengthen it as a shopping location. Policy CM4.8, page 104
• At Cardiff Road, Caerphilly, the plan says the new development will provide approximately 6,000 sq m of new high quality shop floorspace. Policy CM4.13, page 105
• The plan sets strict tests for new shops outside the main town centres. Such proposals are only allowed if they meet the conditions listed in the policy, such as not harming the health of nearby Principal Town Centres. Policy CW16, page 58
• The plan says new retail warehouses outside the designated Retail Warehouse Parks will only be allowed if there are no suitable sites or units available inside those Parks or in the main town centres. Policy CW17, page 59
• The plan does not allow the ground floors of shops in Primary Retail Areas to be changed into homes. A Primary Retail Area is the core shopping street where shops are protected most strongly. Policy CW14, page 57

Countryside, nature and heritage

• The plan says the most open upland areas, such as the Upper Rhymney Valley near the Brecon Beacons, are protected as Special Landscape Areas, where development must not see the loss of any historic environment or geological features. Page 5
• The plan says stonewalls and hedgerows in the Special Landscape Areas should be kept, maintained and improved, and that development proposals should not remove them. Page 11
• The plan says green wedges stop neighbouring settlements from merging together, and that land in them should be protected from development so each town or village keeps its own identity. Policy SI1.3, page 19
• The plan protects the Aberbargoed Grasslands, the County Borough's one European designated Special Area of Conservation, which is important for Molinea Meadows and the Marsh Fritillary Butterfly. Page 20
• The plan says that nearly 80% of the County Borough is countryside, and that it is a valuable visual and recreational resource for residents and visitors. Page 20

Climate, energy and flooding

• The plan says the Gateway Site in Newbridge lies in flood zone C2, so any new planning application must include a Flood Consequences Assessment, a study of flood risk. This applies even where planning consent already exists. Policy CM4.5, page 103
• The plan says most of the Waterloo Works site, a former paint works, lies within zone C of the flood plain. A Flood Consequences Assessment was submitted with the planning application and the plan finds its conclusions acceptable. Page 88
• The plan says the Venosa Trading Estate site in Caerphilly lies in a C2 flood risk area. However, a flood study accepted by the Environment Agency shows the flood risk can be acceptably managed. Policy HG1.62, page 89
• The plan says the Dyffryn Business Park and nearby land is among the sites where renewable energy proposals could put considerable development pressure on the green wedge at Fochriw and Pontlottyn. The green wedge is land kept open to stop the two villages merging. Policy SI1.2, page 19
• The plan generally aims to locate new development away from the floodplain. Page 34
• Where development is proposed in vulnerable areas, the council will require a flood consequences assessment, prepared with the Environment Agency, as part of any planning application on allocated sites. Page 34
• The plan says the benefits of renewable energy schemes must be balanced against their potential impact on the landscape and on sites of ecological interest.

Transport

• The plan proposes extending the Pengam park and ride car park by 100 spaces, as an addition to the existing site. Policy TR4.3, page 137
• The plan proposes a new park and ride site at Bargoed with about 80 spaces, so people can leave their car and continue by train or bus. Policy TR4.2, page 136
• The plan proposes extending the park and ride at Rhymney to provide about 50 car parking spaces in total. Policy TR4.1, page 136
• The plan says the access to this Caerphilly housing site will come from the recently completed park and ride access road. Policy HG1.65, page 90
• The plan safeguards land south east of Caerphilly town for a possible future southern bypass, and stops development there that could block it. The Council will decide later whether to keep or drop the route after air quality work in the town centre. Policy TR9, page 117
• The plan says that a new access road will have to be built by the developer for the Bedwas Colliery site, because its existing access points are substandard. The site is identified for mixed-use development. Policy TR7, page 117
• The plan says that the road improvements needed in the Southern Connections Corridor to ease the extra traffic from new housing will be paid for through planning obligations on all new homes. These are payments or works agreed with the developer. Page 117

Where it stands

Preferred strategy Reached in January 2025.

The authority has published how much growth the new plan should allow and roughly where, and consulted on it.

What happens next

Consulting on the draft plan, expected 2026

The stages of a new plan

1. 1. Reviewing the current plan
2. 2. Setting a timetable
3. 3. Sites put forward
4. 4. Preferred strategy
5. 5. Draft plan published
6. 6. Sent for examination
7. 7. Being examined
8. 8. Adopted