Welsh Government take over application after six-year council deferral

Richard Youle, Local Democracy Reporter

The Welsh Government will step in over a planning application submitted in 2020 after countless council deferrals.

The planned rural enterprise dwelling at Pumpsaint, near Llandovery, was on the agenda at a Carmarthenshire Council planning meeting this week with a recommendation for refusal but couldn’t be determined because not enough councillors were present to make it quorate.

Planning officer John Thomas said the application had been deferred on a number of occasions and that the applicants, who submitted their initial application in November 2020, had now appealed to Wales planning body Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (Pedw) on the grounds of non-determination.

Mr Thomas said Pedw had written to the council to advise it needed to decide the application within four weeks – by September 11 – but he said this wasn’t possible.

“As it stands we can’t determine it and it will go to Pedw,” said Mr Thomas.

Cllr Edward Skinner asked if standing orders could potentially be suspended to allow a decision to be made despite one too few councillors being present.

The council’s legal officer said the difficulty was that newer members of the committee might not have all the information relating to the case. He added that if the most recent deferral in 2024 had involved a site visit, then another site visit may be needed.

Cllr Elwyn Williams asked if the quorate threshold of 11 councillors could be reduced to nine. The legal officer said it would a require a report and change to the council constitution.

Cllr Russell Sparks said there had been other occasions when the committee hadn’t been quorate and drew attention to the number of vacancies on it.

The cross-party committee should have 21 councillors and there are currently five vacancies, including four from the Independent group which along with Plaid Cymru run the council. The other vacancy is a Plaid one.

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