Extra hearings to be held into Wrexham’s housing blueprint following inspectors’ concerns

Extra hearings will be held into a major housing blueprint for Wrexham in the new year after inspectors previously raised concerns over its integrity.

A public examination was carried out into Wrexham Council’s Local Development Plan (LDP) in the autumn.

The document outlines areas where up to 8,000 houses could be built in the county and inspectors appointed by the Welsh Government have sent a letter to the authority regarding several outstanding matters this week.

The council has now announced further hearings will be held in February, despite hopes the plan would be adopted by the end of this year.

While it has not disclosed the reasons, the inspectors previously said they had remaining questions on housing figures and the selection of Gypsy and Traveller sites.

A council spokesman said: “We have been made aware of matters raised by the inspectors in their post-hearing letter.

“The council will continue to cooperate fully with them to ensure that all the evidence and information required is provided within the timescales stated, so that the Local Development Plan can be taken forward to adoption.

“Information on the council’s statement and the further hearings will be publicised via the council’s Local Development Plan website.”

The inspectors’ letter was originally meant to be sent to the authority last month, but was delayed because of the general election.

The council said it could not share the contents of the document until January as it had not been translated into Welsh, while the Planning Inspectorate also declined to provide a copy when approached by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

However, when the inspectors shared their initial findings in September they revealed they had concerns about the plan’s validity.

They said: “The combination of these factors leads us to consider that the LDP’s housing requirement and distribution of allocations may be flawed.

“As a result, the LDP’s commitment to a growth agenda is unconvincing.

“The scantly-reasoned weakening of some objectives between the stakeholder consultation and preferred strategy supports this conclusion.

“In these respects, therefore, there is a threat to the soundness of the LDP.”

The council will be required to provide a statement in response to the issues by the end of January. The additional hearings will begin on 24 February 2020.

By Liam Randall – BBC Local Democracy Reporter (more here on the LDR scheme)