Local Development Plan

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  • #196381

    wrexview
    Participant

    So the saga of the LDP continues , how many years has it been in the making now ? I remember it being on the to do list of Helen Paterson when she was appointed Chief Executive and here we are in 2020 and its still not accepted!

    #196407

    Captain C
    Participant

    When Planning Officers use false evidence to support their figures it’s bound to be picked up by the inspectors in charge. Until this work is undertaken by somebody with the knowledge to take it forward then it will fail.

    The inspectors kicked it back and stated why, then the same planning officers came up with the same arguments that had already failed.

    Wrexham Planning is not fit for purpose and the sooner they have a clear out the better.

    #196412

    Ioan y Ffin
    Participant

    What is fascinating in this story is why the Independent Bloc have withdrawn their support now. The LDP would not have been cooked up in secret. As the Independent Bloc are part of the Executive, they would have been kept informed on the plan’s development throughout the glacial process of its drafting, they would have been given and asked to comment on the provisional plan, they also presumably must have signed off and agreed for the final version of the plan to be sent down to Cardiff. Yet now they withdraw their support, which makes you wonder why they have now changed their view, when surely they could have demanded answers to their questions and ordered changes and corrections before it became a public document. Surely the plan also went before a scrutiny committee to be examined, with the officers present to answer questions. It is not just the planning department that have a lot of questions to answer, councillors and the Executive have some explaining to do as well. Local control of planning is really important and affects all our lives yet the system for delivery obviously has some serious faults.

    #196413

    JaneJ
    Participant

    Is there more behind this story – with the Leader of the Council making a statement distancing him and his Independent Group is effectively a vote of no confidence in the Chief Planning Officer and all those involved with producing the plan. BUT and it is a BIG BUT is the LDP submitted the one that Council Officers had put together but had to change because of Council Members not agreeing with the professionals information and all sorts of excuses had to be ‘created’.

    As the LDP was signed off by the Executive and effectively the last person to endorse this was the Leader of the Council- has he made his statement to blame shift and move the focus from him and his fellow Council Members..

    #196427

    clix1
    Participant

    There has been a lack of majority political support for the Local Development Plan from the start and those councillors and political groups of strength have consistently bowed to the minority. Strategic decision making by councilloors has been woeful. The failure of the Plan is fundamentally down to politicians’ unable to decide on the location of a gypsy site – a relatively minor, albeit politically controversial, issue in the context of all yhe other very important policies in the Plan. And yes, the Leader of the Council has failed miserably to lead on getting political consensus on the Plan and in his weasly way has now declared he has lost confidence in the two versions of the Plan that he has led the political decision making. Unbelievable situation and a change in leadership is long overdue.

    #196438

    DerekJackson
    Participant

    Jane has a one way view – perhaps the Planning Department should deliver a Vote of No Confidence in the Leader and the Executive on the Council as there is blame on both sides.
    Wrexham must be a laughing stock with other Councils and Welsh Government.

    #196450

    Captain C
    Participant

    So the Planning Dept’ used false data and when it was pointed out to them by the Planning Inspectors and they were told to redo their findings they kept the false data there and made so many mistakes the Inspectors kicked it back at them again. The Planning Dept’ is not fit for purpose and there should be a major cleansing carried out starting at the top. I can’t see how we can have a go at Councillors when they point out the facts. They are after all the people we voted in as opposed to the Planning Officers who are appointed and think they are all little Gods.

    #196451

    Ioan y Ffin
    Participant

    Surely the draft Local Development Plan would have only been submitted to the Welsh Government once it had been signed off by and with the permission of the Executive Board. That is why the whole situation is a mystery. It is like they are ripping up their own homework and telling the teacher it is rubbish. Anyone have an idea what the Councillors as a whole think and especially what the opposition councillors think?

    #196478

    Matt
    Participant

    The original LDP concept was doomed from the beginning – even when it was originally ‘signed off’ it was basically one layer of bureaucracy (the Then Assembly) trying to impose a certain set of rules on another layer of bureaucracy who didn’t agree with it from the get go.

    Ever since then the council who are absolute experts at decreasing progress of things they don’t agree with to a grinding halt effectively means the LDP was dead in its tracks before it even started. They were stupid to try and include things to do with placements of traveller sites in it for a start. Talk about trying to drive off with your handbrake still on!

    It is probably now a sport between different board members and councillors to cook up ever more creative reasons at a ward level why the Wrexham overall LDP can’t work.

    The Welsh Government are probably scratching their heads about why it’s not working but when people are actually paid a wage (handsome for the Executive and sufficient recompense for the average councillor) to sit in meetings and oppose things then it’s never going to go through.

    We have seen how housing development works in Wrexham – if you are a sufficiently large developer you can grease the wheels of the right members and make vague promises that you can take back later to make some affordable housing then you can get past planning and start building.

    The LDP itself means nothing and neither elected officials at Cardiff nor Wrexham should spend any additional ideas of resources pursuing it. It was a nice concept but in reality too fatally flawed to work at local level – at least in Wrexham anyway.

    The issues it was meant to address need to be addressed in a different way.

    #196481

    clix1
    Participant

    Matt, I agree with everything you say but what is the different way you would address the issues covered in the plan?..

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