Dispute over plans to withdraw LDP

Alec Doyle, local democracy reporter

An extraordinary meeting of Wrexham Council has been called next week to consider whether the Welsh Government should urgently withdraw the authority’s Local Development Plan.

The LDP has been the subject of a long legal battle between Wrexham Council officers and the Welsh Government supporting adoption of the LDP and a coalition of councillors – Plaid Cymru group leader Cllr Marc Jones, council leader Cllr Mark Pritchard and executive board member Cllr Hugh Jones – opposing it.

After the UK Supreme Court ruled that Wrexham Council did not have to adopt the LDP it left the county borough’s planning function in limbo.

Clarity

According to Cllr Marc Jones, his notice of motion next week will bring clarity and put decision-making back into Wrexham councillors’ hands.

“As it stands the unadopted LDP is still a consideration for members of the planning committee when deciding on applications,” he said.

“The notice of motion asks Welsh Government to withdraw the LDP and in the interim, for planning committee to decide on matters using the adopted plans – Wrexham’s Unitary Development Plan (UDP), the Future Wales national plan, Planning Policy Wales, Technical Advice Notes and Welsh Government Circulars.

“That will prevent developers getting decisions in ‘through the back door’ on appeal and give decision-making control back to local councillors.”

But not all councillors agree. Labour group leader Cllr Dana Davies says she is concerned that the local planning authority may no longer be able to function.

‘Widespread consequences’

“What needs to be carefully considered now is the pending motion to council with the withdrawal instruction to Welsh Government and the removal of the LDP2 as a future material planning consideration,” she said. ” That political decision could have widespread consequences and potentially result in a non-functioning Local Planning Authority.”

She said the unadopted LDP should remain a consideration while the council looks at developing a new LDP – a process which could take up to five years.

“As of now and currently in its unadopted state, the LDP would only have two-and-a-half years left of its lifespan,” said Cllr Davies. “A new 15-year LDP3 is required from 2029. When an LDP is adopted you then develop your supplementary planning guidance and your infrastructure plan – something Wrexham has been unable to pursue due to the legal challenges.

“These crucial parts of the jigsaw cannot be completed without an adopted strategic development plan. Wrexham’s current supplementary planning guidance was developed with our last strategic development plan, the UDP, which expired in 2011 so is almost 15 years out of date.

“Due to the lack of a strategic development plan, Wrexham has been subjected to uncontrolled development. It would appear that Wrexham could be subjected to further uncontrolled development if we are heading into the next five years of creating a brand new LDP3, no doubt with local planning decisions determined once again by appeal and at a cost to local taxpayers, with significantly outdated supplementary local planning guidance and zero infrastructure planning.

“That, in my view, is not in the best interests of Wrexham or its people given we need to seize all the opportunities, such as the Flintshire and Wrexham Investment Zone.”

Cllr Jones however said removing the LDP would, in his view, reflect the will of the people of Wrexham.

‘Boost’

“Ultimately local elected councillors should have the right to make decisions,” he said. “That’s what we established through the court process. Otherwise there’s no point in having us.

“In practice this gives our council but also councillors throughout Wales a little bit of a boost in saying we should have the right to make decisions in the interests of our own communities.

“Our communities were very clear, they didn’t want very large-scale development on greenfield sites and good agricultural land.

“The LDP was out of step with local opinion and local need. Housing need in Wrexham is very specific – one and two bedroom houses at the lower end of affordability. That’s the fundamental issue we had with it. It was not going to solve the housing waiting list crisis, it would make things worse if anything.”

Wrexham Council’s planning committee is due to meet on Monday, July 28 where interim measures are expected to be put in place to allow the committee to make decisions on recent applications.

The extraordinary meeting to discuss the notice of motion will take place at 4pm on Wednesday, July 30.