Unless you watch the proceedings of the National Assembly very closely, the passage of the regulations on “Developments of National Significance” last Tuesday may have gone under the radar.
On the face of it, these regulations seem arcane but on closer inspection, the Welsh Government has unleashed an unprecedented assault on local democracy without adequate consultation or scrutiny.
When the Planning Act was on its legislative journey through this Assembly last year, I warned of the temptation for Welsh Government Ministers to employ mission creep and my prediction seems to have been remarkably prescient as the Welsh Government has now brought forward subordinate legislation to push through significant legislative changes. Using this mechanism denies Assembly Members the opportunity to scrutinise much of the Government’s underlying thinking on how the legislation is to be fully implemented and I don’t believe that an approach which seeks to steam-roll subordinate legislation through the Assembly by the back door is an acceptable way to make laws.
In practice, the Welsh Government, with support from both Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats, has radically restricted the power of Local Planning Authorities with regards to energy projects, undermining local democracy. It will therefore be no surprise to you that I spoke in the debate against these proposals.
Under the new law, a definition of a “Development of National Significance” has been set to include all energy generating stations of between 10-50 Megawatts. As such, the Welsh Government would assume the power to consider any onshore energy generation station within this range. This is at odds with earlier proposals which would only have included energy generating stations of between 25-50 Megawatts. In my view, it is absolutely nonsense that a cluster of around 5 wind turbines, for example, can be considered “developments of national importance”.
In reality, as a result of this ill-conceived legislation, local opinion will become completely irrelevant because, by definition, any proposal lodged with and determined by the Welsh Government will automatically be of so-called “national significance” and therefore assume a status of importance which, it will be argued, is in the national interest and therefore override any other local considerations. This is a charter to ensure that major developments can take place anywhere across Wales, regardless of local opposition.
This new provision also means that the Welsh Government would be responsible for the determination of schemes within, and in immediate proximity to National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and on all areas of nature conservation and heritage interest. Again this is democratically perverse and undermines the role of National Parks as independent planning authorities.
For me, you don’t improve consistency and capacity by simply taking the decision making process out of the hands of elected planning authorities; all you are doing is eroding local democracy and it is regrettable that all other Assembly Members representing Powys saw fit to support the Welsh Government on this legislation, denying local people a voice.
Whilst Local Planning Authorities in England are being empowered through the principle of localism and the devolution of decision-making powers from central government control to individuals and communities, in Wales communities are being denied a say by a Government wedded to top-down command and control.
I have always passionately believed that efforts should be made to ensure that important planning decisions are made closer to the people they represent, not further away, but the Welsh Government wants to centralise these important powers.
In contrast, my Party would deliver true devolution to local communities, shifting power away from central government, bringing transparency and local power to the heart of local decision-making, and restoring public confidence. This will be a key plank of a future Welsh Conservative Government.