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.
A new feature called Strategic Development Plans (SDPs) is going to be implemented. SDPs will be drafted by the four regional Corporate Joint Committees (above). The SDPs will address planning concerns that impact more than one council area, such as transportation, employment, and commuting patterns.
SDPs would take on more of the burden when it comes to fact-finding and evidence-gathering.
So in the future, Local Development Plans will be more carefully focused on land use – where things should be built – rather than all of the detailed evidence. So LDPs would be easier to prepare.
However, given that Corporate Joint Committees are hardly the most transparent feature of local government in Wales, we could end up with developments being “forced” on one area over another because they meet regional demands, not local demands.
