State of Wales returns in 2024 with a look at an often debated element of the planning system – Local Development Plans.
It was an easy topic to pick given a recent row in Wrexham. After voting down an LDP twice during 2023, councillors were threatened with prison. The LDP was eventually approved in December 2023, though Wrexham Council’s Plaid Cymru group walked out of the meeting.
The aspects of LDPs that often generate the most opposition are large housing developments/strategic development sites and developments on greenfield land.
While public consultations are undertaken on LDPs, decisions are based on planning grounds and the available evidence – including that of Welsh Government-appointed planning inspectors.
The views of the public and councillors often carry little weight unless they are backed by evidence. This evidence will often only be accessible to, or understood by, experienced planning officers, academics and other professionals involved in the planning system.
As demonstrated with the Wrexham example earlier, councillors can effectively be forced to approve an LDP against their wishes if planning inspectors and courts believe an LDP is “sound”.
The quality of the evidence used – and whether it’s up-to-date – is often questioned as well.
While the Welsh population grew over the last census period, it wasn’t significant growth and the longer-term trend is likely to see a fall in populations. Despite this, many LDPs require planning officers to allocate land for thousands of new homes more recent local population trends suggest might not be needed.
In certain parts of Wales, there will be concerns about the over-supply of housing and its impact on the Welsh language and environment.
Additionally, one of the main complaints around bigger “strategic development sites” is that they’re often car-dependent and eat into greenfield land.
One alternative to building on greenfield land is building on brownfield land. Brownfield land is land that previously had a different use (i.e. building housing at a former factory or school).
While there’s a presumption in favour of developing brownfield sites as they bring empty land back into use, they might have contamination issues that might only surface after a development has been built.
Other concerns might arise around a poor mix of housing – such as providing too many large family homes when local demand is led by smaller one and two-bedroom homes.
There’s a long-standing problem too of housing developers negotiating their way out of affordable housing requirements because providing affordable and social housing “makes a development less viable” (i.e. cuts into their profits).
