Brymbo estate open space hill soil plan 'deferred'
Plans for an open space on a former steelworks site have been deferred following concerns over the amount of soil that would need to be trucked in.
Developers want to improve a nine-acre (3.8 hectare) space at Brymbo, Wrexham, where almost 600 homes have been built.
Council officers feared the 21,500 metric tonnes of material needed would amount to a large construction project.
Wrexham council has decided to defer a decision and allow developers to return with a scaled-down scheme.
The proposal was to create three flat areas, including a mound the size of a two-storey house, along a scrubby hillside on the former steelworks site.
The two-year project would have meant bringing in 4,000 cubic metres of topsoil, twice that amount of free-draining subsoil, and 9,500 cubic metres of other subsoil plus 100 cubic metres of drainage material.
Council officers had recommended that the plan be rejected by councillors at Monday evening's planning committee.
Their report to the committee said little information had been put forward to justify the scale of the works, while a level playing field could be created using much less material and causing less disturbance.
It said: "The scale and angular form of the proposed earthworks at the both ends of the site are a particular concern.
"The mound at the southern end would be up to 6m taller than existing ground level - equivalent in height to a two-storey house.
"The mound at the northern end is not illustrated by a cross section, but would be up to 4m higher than existing ground level."
It added that the proposal was acceptable in principle but the amount of material to be imported was "excessive".