WHETHER you live in Barry or travel through Weycock Cross to the Vale on a regular basis, you are bound to, at some point, have sat in queuing traffic on the roundabout that is a key artery in the Vale.

The news announced this week that the major housing development proposed by Taylor Wimpey has been rejected by the Planning Inspectorate is a common sense decision that makes sense in a number of ways.

Weycock Cross is an important junction for school buses, the barely used T9 bus serving Cardiff Airport and for car journeys to and from the Vale. The plans to develop such a large number of houses so close to an already busy junction, understandably, caused a huge amount of concern for residents living locally and for commuters in Barry and the surrounding villages.

I am personally delighted that the excellent campaign co-ordinated by local residents Frank and Deb Cleland has achieved such a positive result.

I worked closely with the group for a number of years, and we all shared the view that the plan was excessive and would only exacerbate problems with no plan by the local authority to relieve congestion.

I welcome the news regarding proposed improvements to Five Mile Lane, however it will take several years to complete and doesn’t solve the problem of excessive housing developments in Barry and the rural Vale.

Housing is an important issue, and a level of housebuilding is required.

But it must be on a sustainable basis, and not transform communities in a way that local residents would consider excessive. This local group, Friends of Weycock Cross, were on the right side of the argument and for that I commend them.

The Vale Council has set an arbitrary target of 10,000 houses for the Vale but without the infrastructure and the vision to deliver it – communities will quite rightly oppose such major decisions.

We need a local authority that can improve the lives of local residents by creating better infrastructure around housing – schools, roads, drainage and all of the important factors need to be considered before such a major housing is built in Barry.