VILLAGERS that successfully opposed a large housing development are now preparing for another battle.

In 2022 a planning inspector rejected an appeal by Penrhyn Homes against Denbighshire County Council’s refusal of an application for 137 dwellings at Mindale Farm, Meliden.

It was the second time for the company’s scheme to be refused, the main difference that a new access road to the site was proposed.

One of the principle reasons for the latest refusal was the concern about possible flooding some distance away from the site at what is known as the Prestatyn Cut.

Now villagers are objecting on the same grounds to another application for 35 properties adjacent to the Mindale Farm site off Maes Meurig.

The two-acre site, which is currently overgrown, is owned by Kingscrown Land and Commercial Ltd and is earmarked for housing in the Local Development Plan.

But local residents say the development will exacerbate already serious flooding problems.

Jacqueline Thorpe, who lives in Pwll-y-Bont, a cul-de-sac close to the site, said that in January last year their house was flooded to a depth of two feet and in October four out of nine residents were forced to leave their homes. Three of them are still unable to return.

“The devastation this causes the residents and their families is unbearable,” she said.

Five months on there is still standing water in her garden and she said it was “scary” every time it rained.

Another resident of Pwll-y-Bont, Michelle Lewis, said her property had been in the family for over 90 years but the flooding had occurred only over the last three years, and that the water did not come from the brook which runs past their home but from the application site, which is wetland.

Following a pre-application consultation Natural Resources Wales called for a Flood Consequences Assessment (FCA) and warned that unless it could be demonstrated that unless the risk of flooding could be acceptably managed they would be objecting to the scheme.

Kingscrown , who say there is a great need for such affordable houses in the area, have now submitted a report by consultants Westwood which states: “The risk of flooding to the application site and development area from all identified sources is assessed as very low.”

Other objections from local residents refer to the impact on wildlife and the dangerous access from the site via The Grove onto the busy A547 Rhuddlan – Prestatyn road.