CAMPAIGNERS fighting against the building of 362 new homes in their community hope a site visit will lead to the plans being re-examined.

Members of Wrexham Council's planning committee are set to visit land at Home Farm on Gresford Road in Llay on Friday, where Bellway Homes and Anwyl Construction are due to create a large housing development.

Permission to build on the site was granted by First Minister Carwyn Jones on appeal last year, however earlier this month councillors voted to defer reserved matters relating to the application pending a site visit.

It came after residents raised concerns over the stability of the land because of the presence of old railway mining tunnels underneath it, and also highlighted issues regarding traffic management and the removal of a historic wall and hedges.

Members of the Gresford Road Action Group are expected to turn out in their numbers to greet the committee and believe that seeing the land for themselves might lead councillors to call the plans into question.

Dennis Owen, who lives opposite the site, said: "We will have people here and the banners we had regarding the outline planning will be there.

"Our object at the first meeting was to get a site visit so that when they come to look they will be able to see the sinking fields.

"My attitude is I want them to at least defer it. There's a number of things they shouldn't be going ahead with, ignoring the subsidence they shouldn't be taking these hedges away. Those hedges are probably a couple of hundred years old.

"As far as I'm concerned at the moment our object is to at least get it deferred until we force them into doing something over this land stability.

"None of us would buy a house on it and everyone that overlooks that wall says exactly the same thing."

A briefing note has been circulated to councillors by planning consultants Lichfields in advance of the site visit, addressing a number of concerns raised by residents.

In it they state that the original plans to demolish the wall in its entirety have now been abandoned and that only part will be removed to allow homeowners access onto Gresford Road.

It also outlines proposals to build a pelican crossing on Gresford Road and references comments made during the planning appeal regarding the land being classed as 'low risk' by the Coal Authority.

It states: "We have looked at the proposed layout to see if it is possible to retain the stone wall.

"The layout has been amended to accommodate as much of the wall as possible.

"Whilst it comes at additional expense, my client understands the preference of members for a pelican crossing to serve the residential development, and has agreed to provide one.

"Land stability was considered at length as part of the outline application.

"Both your officers, the inspector and the Welsh Minister considered there were no grounds to refuse the application on land stability grounds.

"We trust the additional detail satisfies your concerns in order to support the officer’s recommendation to approve."

But Mr Owen said he had reservations about how traffic calming measures would impact on the new police station in Llay.

He added: "I've just spoken to someone from planning because Gresford Road and the Straight Mile with the new police station are designated as an emergency route, but they want to put traffic calming measures on it.

"In the original planning application going back to 2016 the ecologist said that all the hedges around the site should be preserved.

"They were trying to remove the wall opposite me and that's 200 years old, but yesterday they've agreed that they will now keep the wall but create an entrance for a footpath and make two other gaps to put in driveways."

He said that previous developments had not been able to build driveways opening directly onto Gresford Road because of safety concerns.

Planning committee members are expected to visit the Home Farm site at approximately 3.15pm before returning to the Guildhall to make a decision.