The decision of Powys County Council’s Cabinet to approve the Council’s response to the public representations on its Local Development Plan (LDP) without allowing for full debate at a meeting of the Full Council has been criticised by Montgomeryshire Assembly Member, Russell George.
In April 2015, Powys County Council previously resolved to approve the Draft LDP for public consultation and delegate power to the Cabinet to agree the Council’s responses to comments received during consultation periods. However, as a result of what Mr George has consistently considered to be significant changes to the LDP, he has argued that all Councillors should have had a full and proper opportunity to make their views known in a debate of the Full Council.
Following submission of the LDP to the Welsh Government and the Planning Inspectorate for them to assess the soundness of the LDP, the Council proposed Further Focussed Changes which was subject to a short public consultation which closed on 21st November. On Tuesday (17th January), Powys County Council’s Cabinet met to consider the Council’s responses to the 741 public representations on these Further Focussed Changes.
One of these proposed Further Focussed Changes anticipated an additional 600 MW being generated from the County’s onshore wind and solar energy resources by designating geographically defined Local Search Areas (LSAs). Within these designated LSAs, over a 100,000 hectares, the LDP policy would provide support in principle for either the development of local-authority scale onshore renewable energy wind schemes or the use of land for the development of large scale solar array schemes, whichever created the greatest renewable energy benefit.
These proposed new LSAs are not only geographically in addition to and beyond the existing extensive Strategic Search areas as introduced by Planning Policy Wales and its associated TAN 8, but also have energy generation targets which would increase the renewable energy targets already required to be achieved across the Powys area by TAN 8.
Following the Cabinet meeting, Mr George said:
“Given the sweeping changes which have been proposed by Powys County Council, all Councillors should have an opportunity to debate the merits of these further major changes to Powys’ Local Development Plan, before the final Examination of the Plan proceeds any further.
“The Council’s tacit admission that more work is required to make this part of the Plan sound and hence this policy fit for purpose, should have been enough to require the Cabinet to recognise the seriousness of this issue and prompt it to trigger a call for a full Council debate and a consensus direction on this matter.
“I have grave concerns at the top down nature of these significant policy revisions at the LDP’s refinement stage. It not only serves to undermine local democracy and adversely affect community engagement but severely undermine the credibility of the whole planning process in Powys.
“In reality, and despite massive local opposition to this policy , local opinion has not only been ignored but become totally irrelevant. The Cabinet’s decision to roll over and allow the Welsh Government to hold the Council to ransom represents a charter to encourage major developments of this kind anywhere across Powys, possibly even across any part of Wales at the whim of the Welsh Government, regardless of local circumstances or opinion.
“This is in direct contrast to the approach taken by the UK Government where an agenda of localism is being adopted, and could now put Powys and neighbouring English authorities in direct conflict with one another over such schemes which have impacts across the common national boundaries.
“I passionately believe that important planning decisions are best made closest to the people they affect. These recent interventions by Welsh Government, reflect their desire to further centralise the important powers of elected representatives, thereby denying local people a voice and most importantly eroding the principles of local democracy.”
The Leader of the Welsh Conservative Group on Powys County Council, Cllr. Aled Davies added:
“I attended the Cabinet meeting to urge the Council’s leadership to grant all Powys Councillors the opportunity to fully debate this hugely significant change to Powys’ planning policies towards renewable energy development in the County.
“While the Leader of the Council has confirmed that the new Council after May’s elections will have to adopt the final LDP, Councillors should have had an opportunity to debate these major changes to the LDP before it is too late instead of simply rubber-stamping what would effectively be a fait accompli.
“In 2011, Powys County Council called for an immediate moratorium on all wind farm applications and this resolution has never been repealed. As a result, the full Council, as Powys’ democratically elected body, has not been able to understand and properly consider whether the introduction of these new geographically defined Local Search Areas contravenes and indeed contradicts previous resolutions of the Council which clearly state that there is no further scope in Powys for renewable energy schemes of the type which the Welsh Government is now pressurising the Authority to sanction.
“Powys County Council should have been true to its public promise, stood up for its principles and resisted any undue interference by the Welsh Government.
“Submission to such pressures will only serve to erode local democracy and more worryingly further strip Powys’ elected representatives of their decision making powers.”