MS says “consortium of developers” behind Local Development Plan legal challenge
An unidentified ‘consortium of developers’ is behind the legal challenge to Wrexham Council over the Local Development Plan, a MS has claimed.
The topic of Wrexham’s LDP mess was raised in the Senedd yesterday, with a Minister detailing how future strategic development plans will affect the local development plan process in North Wales, with adoption of a strategic development plan by the North Wales Corporate Joint Committee (CJC), “local planning authorities within that region will be required to prepare a lighter touch LDP”.
North Wales MS Llyr Gruffydd then asked the question to Minister for Climate Change Julie James MS, “You will know about the current impasse in Wrexham, where Wrexham council now finds itself in a position where a consortium of developers, actually, have issued a legal challenge against the council for voting not to adopt its LDP. Now, the council will be voting again next week on whether to reverse that earlier decision because, now, of the threat that a judge could force the LDP on them against the wishes of democratically elected representatives, and what that says about the concept of local democracy, I’m not sure.
“Will you accept that this mess has been a long time in the making? I raised it back in 2012, of course, when the Welsh Government and the planning inspectorate first refused, or insisted that the council submit a second LDP.
“I’m coming back again to a point that was touched upon earlier in relation to numbers of houses; they were forced to inflate the numbers of housing in the LDP. Now, those have turned out to be totally at odds with reality. Wrexham’s population is decreasing, not increasing, and to many local people, in the current circumstances, they feel that the Welsh Government, the planning inspectorate, are working hand in glove with large property developers to force this housing on a community that clearly doesn’t want it.
“So, will you accept some responsibility for this mess? And, more importantly, in light of what’s coming down the line with a lighter touch LDP, et cetera, will you work with the council to try and resolve this situation, rather than what feels like just allowing developers to have their way?”
The Minister replied that ‘the Welsh Government is a party to’ the judicial review, “I would very much like to have a discussion with you about where we are on the Wrexham LDP, but I fear, Llywydd, that we are right in the middle of a series of judicial review processes, which the Welsh Government is a party to.
“Therefore, I fear that I cannot discuss it on the floor of the Senedd. But, if the Member wants to request a private conversation with me, I am more than happy to do that. I will say this, though, Llyr: I don’t think that your characterisation of what’s happened in Wrexham is entirely fair, and I would very much like the opportunity to have a proper discussion with you about it.”
As we have been documenting, an extraordinary council meeting has been called for next Wednesday where all 56 councillors could be asked to vote again on the LDP, something a majority refused to adopt several weeks ago, and look set to do the same again.
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