Welsh Ministers order council not to grant planning permission for school on Nine Acre until decision over ‘call in’ is assessed

Plans to build a primary school on the 9 Acre Field have effectively been paused after Welsh Government have intervened at the last minute.

Wrexham Council’s planning committee was due to discuss and decide the matter on Monday, however Wrexham.com understands a last minute intervention took place late yesterday.

The development would result in St Mary’s Catholic Primary School relocating to the site from its current base in the town centre, however there has been opposition to the plan from people living in the Maesydre area over a claimed shortage of green space.

The move yesterday came under the The Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (Wales) Order 2012, with a section that allows Welsh Ministers to intervene with granting of planning permission on a local level.

Welsh Government have instructed Wrexham Council to not grant planning permission on the 9 Acre field as per the application that was due to be heard on Monday, or any similar plans – presumably to avoid a secondary identical application to be made.

No permission can now be granted without ‘authorisation’ from Welsh Ministers, with the council obligated to “deal with applications for planning permission for development to which a direction given under this article applies in such manner as to give effect to the direction”.

Wrexham.com understands the matter could subsequently be ‘called in’ by Welsh Ministers for their own determination, with the effective pause on any planning decision being used to decide if that is a course of action to be taken.

The direction from Welsh Government does allow the council to refuse the permission, just not approve it.

Wrexham Council confirmed to us they had received such a notice, and the planning committee will be recommended to defer the application.

The council said, “The Council has received a holding direction from the Planning Division of Welsh Government. As a result, the Chief Officer Planning and Regulatory will be recommending to the Planning Committee that the application be deferred.”

The legislation also allows Welsh Ministers to cancel the directive or amend it at a future date.

The council added, “It is anticipated that it will take a week or two for Welsh Government to decide whether it intends to call-in the application for decision or leave it to the Council. If it is the latter, it will withdraw its holding direction and the Planning Committee will consider the application at the next available meeting, in February or March.”

The area is becoming a hot spot for intervention, with the old Groves school building just 350 metres away from the Nine Acre itself being subject to Welsh Ministers listing – a move which Wrexham Council has previously claimed impacts the education budget, and had been a site where historically they had hoped to place two new schools on.

Update – the letter has now been made public…