THE building of holiday homes in Hay-on-Wye could be restricted as the town council looks to house more permanent residents.

The border town has seen a rise in visitors buying second properties leading to housing prices increasing and local residents being forced to move away.

Twelve per cent (114) of the properties in the town are now empty or being owned by non-permanent residents, a 30 per cent increase on 10 years ago.

To combat this the town council has proposed, as part of its new Draft Town Plan, that any new housing development built should ensure that at least 50 per cent of the houses are bought by people who want to primarily live in Hay-on-Wye.

Deputy Mayor Trudy Steadman said that a balance was needed to stop the housing problem deteriorating further.

She said: "Hay is a lovely place and people come here to visit and want to come back.

"For those people living in London, house prices in Hay-on-Wye are more expensive than other places in Powys but cheaper than those in the South East.

"I think we want to get a balance as people with second homes are still good for the town's tourism which is our primary industry.

"We also need housing available which is affordable and not just for social housing or rented. This is an opportunity to get developers to build the type of housing needed including one and two bedroom houses and flats.

"This is an opportunity for residents to have a say on the development of the town.

"It gives the town council a blue print for how work is going to look over the next few years."

Figures for the social housing register in the town has shown that there are currently 20 applications for housing elderly people while 16 applicants compete for every one bed flat or two bed house.

The draft town council plan is based on the results from 254 questionnaires in which residents were asked for their views on the main issues in the town.

The plan will be forwarded to Brecon Beacons National Park for adoption in October and will then be used as a supplementary planning guide.

Other projects which have been highlighted for improvement in the town plan include the safeguarding of library services and a dedicated place for younger people to meet in the evening and weekends.

Parking facilities in the town and a residents parking schemes also form part of the plan along with road safety and pedestrian crossings.

Cllr Steadman urged younger people to give their feedback on the survey after 60 per cent of those who replied were over 60-years-old.

She added: "We didn't have a lot of younger people so we're going to try and address that by adding the plan to the town council's website.

"The youth club is something that we need to push as part of the town plan as from the end of this month Powys County Council are stopping their funding of it so we need to get potentially another site and we would need volunteers.

"It is something that we need to push in our own town plan and need to develop."

A copy on the Draft Town Plan is available on the Hay-on-Wye Town Council website.