Record#
EV ID |
EV-0128 |
Title |
Planning file 92/00671 (1992): Great House Farm housing permission. Reserved matters 92/00671/RES, approved 3 September 1992, with GGAT’s letter of 27 July 1992 and the archaeology correspondence to December 1994 |
Date of document |
27 July 1992 (GGAT letter); 3 September 1992 (approval); file runs 1989–1994 |
Type |
planning file (12 documents) |
Evidence label |
PRIMARY DOCUMENT HELD |
Repository / reference |
Vale of Glamorgan Council planning file 92/00671 (reserved matters 92/00671/RES under outline 89/01396/OUT). Supplied by the family from the council’s planning file. |
Status |
HELD. Not in the file: page 2 of GGAT’s 27 July 1992 letter, and the 1992 committee report with its appendix A. The reserved-matters decision notice of 3 September 1992 is held from the council’s online register (WB-0801). |
Wayback |
WB-0800 (collection) · index and key facts (text) · WB-0801 (decision notice, 3 September 1992) · WB-0810 (the 1989 outline file 89/01396/OUT, read in full on EV-0114) |
Wiki catalogue page |
|
Relied on by |
GGAT — Forensic Assessment and Evidence Schedule v4.0.3 (full text) · EV-0900 Archaeology: 1990 GGAT evaluation and 1994 excavation |
About this page type → Read the Docs
Shows: The 1992 permission for the 20 houses on the Great House Farm site was an approval of reserved matters (92/00671/RES) given on 3 September 1992 under the outline permission 89/01396/OUT of 13 March 1990. The outline permission carried three archaeology conditions (16, 17 and 18). No further archaeology condition was added in 1992. GGAT, the council’s archaeological adviser, had written on 27 July 1992 that the site held human bone and urged mitigation before development, and in December 1993 advised that condition 18 had not been met and recommended a breach of condition notice.
The application#
Application 92/00671/RES was an application for approval of reserved matters, not a full planning application. Form D is ticked “Approval of reserved matters following the grant of outline permission” and names the outline permission as “Date 13 March 1990, Number 89/01396/OUT”. The applicant was Ideal Homes Wales; the agent was Wyn Thomas + Partners of Cardiff. The proposal: “Erection of 20 detached houses including garages, fences, sewers and all associated engineering works” at “Great House Farm, Leckwith Road, Llandough, Penarth”. The form is dated 14 May 1992. [EV-0127, pages 1–2]
The decision#
The council approved the reserved matters on 3 September 1992. The developer’s agent wrote on 4 February 1994 that the plans “were approved by your council under application no. 92/00671/RES dated 3 September 1992”, and the site location plan carries the stamp “Approved subject to compliance with conditions if any … 3 Sep 1992”. On 11 August 1994 the council’s Chief Planning and Development Officer wrote to the local MP that “The reserved matters application was approved (on behalf of Ideal Homes Wales) in September, 1992”. The decision notice itself (“Approval of Reserved Matters”, Application No. 92/00671/RES) is not among the family’s scans; the council publishes it on its online register as “92-00671.pdf” [WB-0801]. It grants approval of the detail plans received on 25 June 1992 “submitted for the purposes of conditions imposed on the grant of planning permission (Application No. 89/01396/OUT) on the 13th March, 1990 subject to compliance with the outstanding conditions imposed and the conditions specified hereunder”. It adds one new condition only: “Samples of the materials to be used in the construction of the proposed dwellings shall be submitted to and agreed in writing with the Local Planning Authority prior to the commencement of development”, for the reason “To safeguard local visual amenities”. It is signed over the title Chief Executive and dated 3rd September 1992. It does not list which outline conditions were outstanding and makes no mention of archaeology. [EV-0131 pages 24 and 29; EV-0129 page 1]
The council’s online register#
The Vale of Glamorgan Council’s online planning register records both permissions as committee decisions. The outline application 89/01396/OUT went to planning committee on 26 February 1990 and was decided on 13 March 1990. The reserved-matters application 92/00671/RES went to committee on 2 September 1992; the decision notice is dated the next day. The February 1994 discharge of condition 18 was an officer’s letter, reference TD/KH/92/00671/RES; nothing in the online file shows it going back to committee. The council uploaded the archaeology papers to the online register on 9–12 June 2026: the archaeology comments on the outline application on 9 June and the archaeology responses on the 1992 file on 12 June. The decision notice has been on the register since 18 May 2020. [Vale of Glamorgan planning register, 1992/00671/RES; 1989/01396/OUT]
Archaeology conditions#
The outline permission 89/01396/OUT of 13 March 1990 carried three archaeology conditions. Condition 16 gave access to an archaeologist nominated by the council (referred to in the file as the watching-brief condition). Condition 17 required that “no development shall take place until a field evaluation survey and archaeological assessment report has been carried out by a qualified archaeologist to the satisfaction of the Local Planning Authority”. Condition 18 required: “The detail plans to be submitted shall pay full regard to the results and findings of the archaeological investigations referred to in condition 17 above.” At reserved-matters stage, the agent recorded, “no additional archaeological conditions were imposed”. [EV-0201 page 3; EV-0126 page 3; EV-0131 pages 24–25, 38, 41]
The 1990 evaluation#
The Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust (GGAT) assessment of August 1990 was commissioned by the site owners, B P Properties Ltd, through their agents Debenham Tewson, after the demolition of Great House Farm in December 1988. GGAT stated that it “has throughout played a dual role; on the one hand it has advised the Local Planning Authority, and on the other provided comparable advice to the applicant”. Trench 4 “contained numerous human bones … Most of the bones appeared to be disarticulated … There was no evidence of associated graves.” The report identified “a zone of medium to high archaeological potential to the north of the churchyard”, and advised that the Disused Burial Grounds (Amendment) Act 1981 might apply and that “advice should be sought by BP Properties Ltd on any legal requirements which may pertain to the human skeletal remains”. A figure is captioned “St Dochdwy’s church and the former Ty-Mawr farm buildings”. [EV-0126 pages 3, 10, 12, 15, 17]
GGAT’s response to the 1992 application#
On 27 July 1992 GGAT, as the council’s archaeological adviser, wrote that the 1990 evaluation “demonstrated conclusively that significant archaeological deposits exist within the proposed development area … Deposits of medieval and possibly earlier date have been confirmed, including a quantity of human bone”, with the highest potential “adjacent to the Church of St Dochdwy”. It recommended: “we would urge most strongly that the applicant should consider mitigatory measures to protect the known archaeological interests. This could include excavation in order to ‘preserve by record’ the archaeological potential. Such work should be carried out in advance of development in the areas of high archaeological sensitivity.” The approval followed 38 days later. Page 2 of this letter is not in the file. [EV-0131 page 4]
After building started#
On 13 December 1993 GGAT’s Principal Archaeological Officer (Curatorial) wrote that “development has commenced on this site”, that he was not aware that conditions 16 and 18 had been fulfilled, and recommended “that a Breach of Condition notice is issued immediately on this development to protect the known fragile archaeological resource”. On 15 December 1993 he wrote that “condition 18 has not been fulfilled and cannot be discharged by your Authority” and that “should the development proceed unchecked, significant and rare Early Medieval archaeology, including human skeletal remains … will be needlessly or thoughtlessly destroyed”. [EV-0131 pages 1–2]
The developer’s position and the council’s#
On 4 February 1994 the agent wrote that leading counsel had advised “that condition 18 has been discharged and that the approval of the detailed plans and the notice issued by your council are decisive as to that”. The agent’s note of a meeting on 4 May 1994 records that conditions 17 and 18 “have been discharged, as confirmed in your letters of 15 October 1990 … and 15 February 1994”, that “it is not your council’s intention that our client should stop work on site”, and that the excavation by Cotswold Archaeological Trust was being carried out “on a voluntary basis”. GGAT replied on 18 May 1994 that “because the site is a ‘Dark Age’ cemetery, no development can take place until the site has been archaeologically cleared to the highest professional standards”. [EV-0131 pages 25, 41–42, 39]
The 1994 excavation#
Cotswold Archaeological Trust’s preliminary report for Ideal Homes Wales (December 1994) states: “In March 1992 full planning permission was granted for residential development, with no conditions requiring further archaeological work” and “At an early stage in the excavation it became clear that the site contained numerous burials which continued beyond the bounds of the excavation area into the zone defined, as a result of the evaluation, as being of non-existent to low archaeological potential. Many of the burials lay only a few centimetres below the topsoil.” Work ceased on site in September 1994. [EV-0209 pages 4–5]
How this sits with the 2005 publication#
Holbrook and Thomas (Medieval Archaeology 49, 2005) repeat the preliminary report’s wording that full permission was granted in March 1992 “with no condition requiring further archaeological work”. The council file shows the permission was a reserved-matters approval of 3 September 1992 under the 1990 outline consent; no new archaeology condition was added at that stage, but outline conditions 16 to 18 applied, and GGAT advised in July 1992 and December 1993 that the archaeology required mitigation. The drawings submitted with the application are dated March 1992. [EV-0127, EV-0129, EV-0131, EV-0209]
Names and places in the file#
Great House Farm appears throughout; the site was later named Church View Close (Ideal Homes, 22 June 1994). B P Properties Ltd and Debenham Tewson appear in the 1990 assessment and the agent’s 1994 letter. The file does not mention Western Ground Rents, title numbers WA231076 or WA240304, or the 1987 court case.
Documents in the file#
EV |
File |
Pages |
Date |
Document |
Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
APPLIVATION_FORM-_PLAN.pdf |
3 |
14 May 1992 |
Application form (Form D, approval of reserved matters) and site plan: Ideal Homes Wales, agent Wyn Thomas + Partners; 20 detached houses at Great House Farm, Leckwith Road |
||
920067101.PDF |
10 |
March 1992; survey May 1989 |
Application drawings: site layout TP 100 (March 1992), planting schedule, drainage and road sections, house cross-sections, and a 1989 site survey |
||
9200671A4.pdf |
3 |
3 September 1992 (approval stamp) |
Approved drawings: screen wall detail and site location plan, stamped approved by the Chief Planning and Development Officer |
||
S9200671A3.pdf |
13 |
1992–1994 |
Location plan, landscaping and village-green planting, house-type elevations, Llandough Hill verge fill sections, and the provisional register map of village green VG 41 |
||
9200671__.pdf |
1 |
March 1992; revised April 1994 |
Site layout / setting-out drawing, revision B |
||
9200671ext.pdf |
7 |
August 1993 |
Ideal Homes Wales external finishes schedule for the 20 dwellings, with rendering specification |
||
9200671brick.pdf |
3 |
undated |
Butterley Brick brochure (annotated) |
||
9200671ideal.pdf |
6 |
undated |
Ideal Homes sales brochure |
||
REPORT.pdf |
3 |
1989–1990; notice dated 13 March 1990 |
Planning officer’s handwritten report on the outline application, and the last page of the outline decision notice 89/01396/OUT (conditions 16–18 and reasons) |
||
9200671arch.pdf |
17 |
August 1990 |
Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust, “Land at Great House Farm, Llandough: An Archaeological Assessment” (field evaluation, 8 trenches) |
||
ARCHAEOLOGY_RESPONSES.pdf |
43 |
27 July 1992 – 15 December 1994 |
Archaeology correspondence on the file: GGAT consultation response, GGAT letters on conditions 16 and 18, developer’s agent letters, the excavation brief and project designs, and the council’s reply to the local MP (43 pages) |
||
9200671prelim.pdf |
30 |
December 1994 |
Cotswold Archaeological Trust, “Excavations at Great House Farm, Llandough: A Preliminary Report”, by Alan Thomas and Neil Holbrook for Ideal Homes Wales |
||
92-00671.pdf (council register) |
1 |
3 September 1992 |
Decision notice, Approval of Reserved Matters 92/00671/RES: approval “subject to compliance with the outstanding conditions imposed” on outline 89/01396/OUT; one new condition (samples of materials); signed over the title Chief Executive; no mention of archaeology |
Related: EV-0124 Outline permission 89/01396/OUT · EV-0114 Planning report and 1990 outline permission · EV-0900 Archaeology timeline · Evidence Register