No further action by Ombudsman against councillor who challenged LDP

Alec Doyle, local democracy reporter

A councillor who led the challenge against Wrexham’s Local Development Plan is ‘relieved’ after the Public Service Ombudsman for Wales cleared him of breaching the members’ Code of Conduct.

The independent Ombudsman has ruled that Plaid Cymru group leader Cllr Marc Jones did not breach the Code of Conduct by jointly initiating legal proceedings in Wrexham Council’s name with two other members of the council.

As a result, it has ruled no further action should be taken.

“The overwhelming feeling is of relief after waiting for 20 months,” said Cllr Jones.

“This feels like the end of a chapter, even if it’s not the end of the entire saga surrounding the Local Development Plan (LDP). We stood up for what we believed was the right thing for Wrexham communities, and the right of councillors and local democracy to be heard.

“Others didn’t feel the same way and tried every way possible to silence us. Ultimately it didn’t work and the courts, police and now the Ombudsman have found in our favour.

“It’s time to move on and get the LDP withdrawn so that we can ensure we have a plan going forward that works for Wrexham and its communities.”

Extraordinary meeting

Next Wednesday, an extraordinary meeting of Wrexham Council has been called to debate a notice of motion asking Welsh Government to formally withdraw the LDP.

The LDP is the strategic plan that outlines where development is appropriate within Wrexham County Borough. It was considered a statutory duty for all Welsh Councils to adopt an LDP until Cllr Jones led a challenge against Wrexham’s plan.

The opposition to the plan stemmed from what Cllr Jones called the ‘excessive allocation of housing on greenfield sites’.

That challenge went all the way to the UK Supreme Court who ruled that the authority did not have to adopt the LDP.

Currently the planning committee can still use the LDP as a guide when deciding applications, but if withdrawn it will fall back to the outdated Unitary Development Plan.

During the legal battle, a complaint was made to the Ombudsman that Cllr Jones and his supporters had breached the code of conduct for councillors by beginning legal action on the council’s behalf.

However, the Ombudsman accepted the explanation that Cllr Jones had taken the action to ‘uphold and defend the democratic decisions of the council in April and June 2023 to reject the LDP’.

Mitigating factors

It also accepted that while acting outside the council’s usual legal framework could be considered bringing the council into disrepute, stating: “the factual context of the Member’s conduct and subsequent series of events provides strong mitigating factors which must be duly considered when deciding whether further action is required, in the public interest.

“I have considered that the council’s statutory officers were acting in good faith, and on the external legal advice received at the time, did not take steps to uphold the council/members’ decisions not to adopt the draft LDP.

“However, as confirmed by the more recent Court of Appeal decision instituted by the Member, it appears that the officers’ position, that the members were obliged to adopt the draft LDP, was based on an incorrect interpretation of the law.

“The crowdfunding campaign established to take further legal challenges against the adoption of the draft LDP received strong public support. Because of this, I have concluded that any impact on the public’s perception of the member’s conduct – and accordingly the public interest factors and considerations relevant to this complaint – significantly changed during the course of the investigation.

“For these reasons, I do not believe that any further action is required in the public interest.”

Cllr Jones said the decision drew a line under the debate and added he wanted to move beyond the legal argument.

“People don’t want urban sprawl,” said Cllr Jones. “They don’t want huge super-estates with no community facilities, they want improved public services, genuinely affordable homes, better transport links and the focus of any developments to be on derelict land and empty properties.

“That’s the focus for me now – looking forward to improve Wrexham rather than looking back in anger.”