“Absurd proposition” – FM rejects claim Welsh Government could have stepped in on LDP to save council costs

The First Minister has said the people of Wrexham “will know where the responsibility lies” on legal costs surrounding the Local Development Plan adoption challenge in Wrexham.

Yesterday saw the legal issues surrounding the Local Development Plan get a mention in the Senedd, as well as the Guildhall.

Plaid Cymru’s Llyr Gruffydd MS asking First Minister Mark Drakeford, “You will be aware that I and a number of my colleagues have raised with you and relevant Ministers regularly issues around the whole LDP process in Wrexham, which came to a head recently. Now that we find that that has come to some sort of resolution, on reflecting on the situation, many of the councillors and residents there are asking me, given that the Welsh Government was aware that Wrexham residents would face large cost risks, impacting services potentially, why did the Government not use your legal powers under section 71 of the Planning of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 to impose the LDP plan? Because it would have limited the costs in the case, and, of course, it would have achieved the identical outcome of imposing a local plan against the democratically decided wishes of the local council”.

The First Minister batted the issue back to Wrexham councillors, “Well, I think that is a most absurd proposition. Here is a council, in Wrexham, that itself promotes an LDP, puts it through all the processes, has it endorsed by all the different groups that have to comment on an LDP, and, at the very last minute, it attempts not to implement the LDP that it itself has promoted.

“It’s not for the Welsh Government to impose on them their own plan, and it’s certainly not for the Welsh Government to bear the costs of doing so. That local authority was taken to the High Court. It said – the local authority said – in front of a High Court that it accepted that its actions had been illegal and had no rationality behind them, and then went on to deny the LDP a second time.

“People in Wrexham, looking at that very sad story, will know where the responsibility lies, and it doesn’t lie here; it lies with those members of the council, and Plaid Cymru members were all part of that, that acted so irresponsibly and admitted, as much admitted, as much directly in the High Court.”