Refugee homes seems like prison : UK

A new housing development in a seaside town has been compared to a prison by locals who say it has also been built too close to their homes. A total of 90 temporary homes have been constructed on the site of a former school in Llantwit Major, Vale of Glamorgan. The Vale council says it is for Ukrainian refugees and the site was allocated for housing in the local development plan (LDP), but residents with gardens backing on to it call it “overbearing”. The council used permitted development rights in January 2023, meaning it did not have to seek further planning permission on the former Eagleswell Primary School site.

"It looks like I'm living next door to a storage container yard," said Steve McGranaghan, a retired RAF engineer. "My biggest concern is that they are too close to me. They should be 21 meters (69ft) away under planning guidelines and they're less than 10 meters (33ft) away. “If they'd built 72 houses which is in the LDP, I'd have no issue. "I'm not someone who says 'not in my back yard'." He claimed they would no longer be used for Ukrainian refugees. "Nobody has been able to challenge this," he said. "I volunteered to host a Ukrainian family, so we didn't have an issue at first.

“Now our concern is this won't be for housing Ukrainians, and it'll become housing stock and won't be temporary. "If there was a bad way to do something the Vale of Glamorgan council have chosen the worst possible way to do it." The council's planning committee was expected to consider the application for the site next month, but it was delayed until July due to 9 the general election. Residents opposing the development set up an action group and raised more than £7,000 in days to secure legal support. "It looks like a prison, and it feels like a prison," said Dave Thomas, 61, from the action group.

Mr Thomas, who has lived on Pembroke Place, next to the site, for 29 years with his family, said: “How can planning make a fair decision now, it feels pre-determined as they've already spent £25m on this. "They are not going to take them away after spending that much money on them.""We thought it was going to help people fleeing their country and would be temporary." “It looks like a prison, and it feels like a prison. And yet it was meant to be a welcoming place for refugees.” "It's the least welcoming place."