North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has raised concerns with the Cabinet Secretary for Planning, Lesley Griffith AM, regarding planning applications for housing developments and the fact that some local authorities are still without a Local Development Plan.
Questioning the Secretary in the Assembly Chamber yesterday, Mr Isherwood referred to the recent Public Inquiry in Penyffordd that he attended following Flintshire’s refusal of a planning application for 190 homes in open countryside and outside the settlement boundary. Flintshire is one of the few Welsh local authorities still without a Local Development Plan.
Speaking in the Chamber, he said:
“Commenting in June in our mutual local paper, after the First Minister had approved a planning application in Llay on the basis of a recommendation by an Independent Inspector, you said that controversial issues such as this will continue until a council adopts a Local Development Plan.
“I recently, at the request of residents, attended a public inquiry in Penyffordd, Flintshire. I know you can't comment on that, but the concern was expressed to me that, because their Local Development Plan had not been concluded, quote, ‘developers were taking advantage of the situation by citing five year supply and loopholes in Technical Advice Note (TAN) 1 (*) to get the planning through’.
“In October the Leader of Conwy County Borough Council wrote to you saying that the calculation methodology of 5 Year Land Supply within TAN 1, revised by the Welsh Government in January 2015, is undermining Local Development Plans across Wales. And in your response, which was actually quite helpful, you said that ‘the lack of a five-year housing land supply may be one of the considerations in determining a planning application; however, applications that do not meet the relevant policy requirements may be refused by the Authority and Planning Inspector’. Could you expand on that? How should a local authority, an applicant, and particularly a planning inspector, interpret that statement in this context?”
The Cabinet Secretary replied: “The first example Mark Isherwood gave was in my constituency, but obviously this decision was taken by the First Minister, not by me. In relation to the general point you raise about TAN 1, it is a very difficult situation if the five-year land supply isn't demonstrated, and certainly it's happening not just in north-east Wales, and north Wales, as you referred to, it's happening in other local authorities too.
“Unfortunately, if a local planning authority hasn't got a five-year housing land supply, they are open to speculative planning applications for housing development. However, all such applications should be assessed against all relevant policy considerations, including the need to increase housing land supply, and the principle of sustainable development.”