Why we took a stand: councillor says failed LDP judicial review sought to “uphold the democratic decisions” by Full Council

Three Group Leaders on Wrexham Council “have been threatened with legal costs by both Wrexham Council and Welsh Government”, as they tried to ‘represent the majority’ of councillors in legal action.

Yesterday we reported how three councillors, all Group Leaders on Wrexham Council, had attempted to take a Judicial Review that “challenged the decision by the Welsh Government not to endorse the ‘no’ votes by Council” over the Local Development Plan.

The bid by Council Leader Mark Pritchard, Cllr Hugh Jones and Cllr Marc Jones appeared to fail as it was done under the name of ‘Wrexham Council’ – something the authority’s Legal Officer says lacked ‘lawful authority’. Councillors involved appear to believe they were acting as ‘the council’, rather than individuals, with wider support.

One of the three councillors, Cllr Marc Jones, has given a detailed statement to why the unusual legal action attempt took place, strongly rejecting a claim they acted unlawfully.

The statement is in full below… 

If this Local Development Plan is forced on Wrexham, it will mean two huge new villages – one off the Cefn Road, one off Ruthin Road – as well as several other large housing developments. These two Key Strategic Sites would be over 1500 houses on each site and would mean years of disruption for local people whilst they’re being built, traffic congestion, increased pressure on local services and the permanent loss of valuable green fields.

For these reasons, Wrexham councillors have twice voted against adopting this unsustainable Labour-backed plan.

The will of local people and their democratically elected representatives should not be disregarded and we have a duty to fight against both developers and the Welsh Government who want to see this plan adopted because it will damage Wrexham.

Background
It is 10 years since the Welsh Government’s planning inspectorate rejected Wrexham’s Local Development Plan. The plan was rejected principally on the grounds of housing allocation numbers. The council then set about producing a second LDP – at a cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds. This new plan was based on population projections of a 20% increase for the borough, later downgraded to 10% by the Welsh Government.

In reality the county’s population has been static for the past eight years and predicted to fall in the coming decade. The entire basis for the plan’s housing growth was flawed, as Plaid Cymru councillors have argued for the past decade.

This revised plan was due to run from 2013-28 and so has just five years to run before it expires. National Policy indicates that when a plan is adopted, there should be at least 10 years of the plan remaining so I would question the value of imposing a plan that has only five years to go.

More importantly, every local LDP should be in harmony with the Welsh Government’s Future Wales 2040 strategy. This is clear that 53% of all new housing in north Wales built to 2040 should be affordable housing. The proposed Wrexham LDP is in contravention to Future Wales 2040 because only 9% is allocated as affordable.

As a group, Plaid Cymru believes the Welsh Government should acknowledge the democratic votes by Wrexham Council not to adopt the LDP2. This was not done lightly – councillors were issued with threats about illegality but stood their ground to vote in April and June to reject the plan.

We want to work as Wrexham County Borough Councillors with the Welsh Government to ensure a plan that works for Wrexham rather than one imposed on Wrexham.

We therefore call on the current LDP to be withdrawn and amended to ensure that the draft local plan is in harmony with Future Wales 2040 and that can then gain the full support of Wrexham elected members.

Why we took a stand
Once the Welsh government refused to discuss the LDP further and it became clear that a consortium of developers were taking legal action to overturn the democratic decision, the three group leaders representing the majority vote felt they had no option but to seek their own legal advice.

The three group leaders have been threatened with legal costs by both Wrexham Council and Welsh Government. They do not accept that they have acted unlawfully. They have always sought to uphold the democratic decision, not to adopt Wrexham’s flawed LDP.

What happens next?
Unless there is intervention from the Senedd or a U-turn by the Welsh Government, then it is possible that a judge will impose the LDP on Wrexham on November 29th.

This will be unprecedented – Wrexham is the only local authority in the UK to reject its own LDP – and demonstrates that the LDP does not enjoy the support of local democratically elected members. It would be a disaster for the county borough and its impact would resonate for decades.

It is not an LDP for Wrexham. It’s an LDP imposed on Wrexham.