Opponents of a controversial housing scheme in Caersws are pinning their hopes on Welsh Government planning inspectors calling in the scheme to take over the process.

Last week councillors on Powys County Council’s Planning committee approved plans to build 29 homes at Pen-y-Borfa on the village outskirts.

This is despite strong objections from members of Caersws Residents Group that the field is prone to flooding.

Proposals to both refuse the application and postpone making a decision until a sustainable drainage scheme had been agreed for the site, were floated at the meeting.

They failed to get enough support to go to a vote.

Councillors were eventually swayed by an argument by Conservative Cllr Greth Pugh to approve the scheme.

He believed not doing so would leave the council vulnerable to an appeal against it by the applicants.

Following the meeting a spokesperson for the group said: “Of course we are disappointed, but we are now petitioning Welsh Government to take this application on board.

“We believe it is more than locally important as it has wrongly remained on the Local Development Plan (LDP) for far too long (12 years) when the effects of climate change and increased frequency and intensity of rainfall are taken into account.”

They pointed that at the meeting the council’s land drainage officer, Graham Astley had said that the scheme: “in its current form is unlikely to gain approval.”

A call in request by Welsh Government planning officers at PEDW (Planning and Environment Decisions Wales) has been hanging over the application since March last year.

Details of the committee discussions and the planning officer’s report will be sent to PEDW to be looked at by a planning inspector.

They will then decide to either take over the process or not.

If they do take it over, eventually a Welsh Government minister will decide the application based on a planning inspector’s recommendation.

Pen-y-Borfa is still officially listed as “undergoing consultation on the Welsh Government’s list of applications from all across the country waiting for a call in decision.

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “The call-in request is under active consideration.”