HeritageWales
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Interested in the Local Development Plan discussion. I just logged on because Wrexham.com was praised by Welsh Government Deputy Minister Lee Waters in this evening’s NUJ Virtual Town Hall: A News Recovery Plan for Wales debate. He complimented your ‘sharp questioning’. But when I saw your article on planning inspectors not accepting council LDP proposals and questioning the basics of evidence I realised that I have a solution.
Here in Merthyr Tydfil – where Heritage Wales is based – we have just been through the LDP process with the inspector at public inquiry accepting virtually all the council evidence. On his own account he only had to spend a single day in Merthyr Tydfil visiting the most important sites! Population projections were questioned from the start – the council simply produced their own. Some playing fields and green spaces were simply omitted from a document claiming to be an ‘open space strategy’ (many ruled out as they were already ear-marked by council bureaucrats as being surplus to requirements and then put up for sale without public discussion). Maps and ‘masterplans’ contained errors and inaccuracies. There was no housing strategy – just a last minute projection (guestimate) that there was a need for 5,000 units of social or affordable housing. The 3,200 units of housing to be provided by developers are to include 320 units of affordable housing only. There is a 10 per cent minimum quota only on developers.
Suggest to the council that it asks the planning inspectorate to change inspectors – and commission consultants to write reports (paying them big fees) that say what they (the council) wants to see. There seems to be a school of thought in planning circles that if you pay consultants enough and ask them to revise their reports frequently their recommendations will actually be treated as ‘independent evidence’ – whereas questions and counter-arguments by local people and local organisations are not.
Wrexham CBC can’t get out of producing an LDP – at least not for a few years until Wales new planning laws and Welsh Government strategies start to have some bite (my opinion only). At the moment it’s a legal requirement on all local authorities to produce one!
Sorry for this rather tongue-in-cheek diatribe.
Keep up the good work at Wrexham.com! Cheers.Hey, well done on this work. It’s always been a mystery to me why so many local authorities want ‘Scrutiny’ to be a rubber-stamping exercise for officer and cabinet member pet projects – or, at best, a dry run before councillors to pick up any obvious snags.
Interesting legal advice – as you have noted.
I wonder how many other councils in Wales follow the same legal line? ie encouraging ‘back-bench’ councillors to come up with their own ideas and submit amendments to the ‘official line’.
