Plas Farm, Bwthyn Y Saer Lane From Church Road To Plas Farm Rhos Pontardawe SA8 3JQ Data via plota.co.uk

P2025/0802 - Full Plans Approved

Proposal

Micro hydroelectric installation (25kw) including intake structure, underground and overground pipeline, turbine, electrical control system and buried electrical cable (existing outfall and detached turbine house serving existing adjacent hydro scheme to be used by the proposed scheme) Data via plota.co.uk

View original council record ↗Last checked

Application progress

✓
Received
14 Nov 2025
✓
Validated
1 Dec 2025
✓
Consultation
2 Dec 2025
✓
Approved
20 Jan 2026

Approved on 20 Jan 2026 · Delegated Decision · Last checked 4 Oct 2026

Site constraints 5

1 listed building within 150 m of the postcode pin
Nearest: Concrete Outbuilding at Plas Farm, Grade II, about 23 m from the postcode pin
The site itself is not listed. Listed building consent is needed for work that affects the special interest of a listed building, inside or out, on top of planning permission. Setting can be a consideration for buildings nearby; there is no fixed radius.
Historic England ↗
Flood zone 3, rivers and sea
High chance: a 1 in 100 or greater annual chance from rivers, or 1 in 200 from the sea. Any development here needs a flood risk assessment. Defences are not counted.
The Environment Agency flood map for planning. Homes in zone 3 must also pass the sequential test. Surface water flooding is a separate map.
Flood map ↗
Agricultural land, grade 4
Poor quality farmland, not best and most versatile. Source: the Predictive Agricultural Land Classification Map (Defra and Natural England, 2025; the Welsh Government's Predictive ALC Map 2 in Wales), a model rather than a site survey. A site survey can differ.
Where development of farmland is needed, policy prefers poorer land over the best and most versatile (grades 1, 2 and 3a). Three sources: Natural England's post-1988 field surveys, which are definitive where they exist; the Defra predictive map for England (2025) and the Welsh Government predictive map, modelled from the soil map with 3a and 3b split; and the 1970s provisional map, which planners and other services still show, coarser and with grade 3 undivided. Where the provisional and predicted grades disagree, treat the predicted grade as the current estimate and expect an application to carry its own survey.
Also on the record
Radon affected area, class 4; Coalfield, development low risk area.
Not affected
No scheduled monument at the site

Checked on 6 October 2026. The pin for this application is the centre of its postcode rather than the building, so distances to nearby designations are measured from the postcode and can be out by the width of the postcode area. Historic England, the Environment Agency, Natural England, the Mining Remediation Authority, the British Geological Survey and UK Health Security Agency (radon, contains BGS materials © UKRI) and council datasets, Open Government Licence. A boundary can run through a site and the council holds the definitive record: confirm with the council before relying on this.

Work with planning data?

Every application in Neath - and every UK council - as a live feed, an API, or a bulk CSV export.

About Plota's data service

Important details

Council
Neath
Application type
Full Plans
Postcode
SA8 3JQ
Received
14 Nov 2025
Validated
1 Dec 2025
Ward
Rhos
Parish
Cilybebyll Community Council
Case officer
Show
Target decision
25 Jan 2026
Decision
Approved
Decision date
20 Jan 2026
Decision level
Delegated Decision
Applicant
Show
Agent
Elements Energy Ltd

How this decision compares

Decided in 50 days from validation, about the council's usual 51 days. Approved, as 97% of full applications here are.

68%decided within 8 weeks
97%approved
205decided in the last year

Plota live figures for full applications decided by Neath in the last twelve months, from validation. Neath decision record →

Public comments

No public comments yet.

Last counted 4 Oct 2026

Read the comments on the council site ↗

Consultation & key dates

Alt. reference
PP-14235203
Planning Portal ref
PP-14235203
Consultation
2 Dec 2025
Comments by
25 Dec 2025
Site or press notice
4 Dec 2025
Statutory expiry
25 Jan 2026
Env. assessment
No