Plaid Cymru stands up for Wrexham on Local Development Plan

An unholy Labour-Tory-independent alliance has voted to back a Local Development Plan that would permit thousands of extra homes on greenfield sites. 
The 30-17 vote was only pushed through with the support of the Labour group, who were whipped to back this flawed plan. It appears they were more interested in defending the Labour Welsh Government than Wrexham communities.

 The reason is clear: This is a Local development plan in name only as it’s based on population projections from the Welsh Government.
 This is how councillors voted [click to enlarge]

Plaid Cymru was the only group to vote in a clear and united way to protect our communities.

Councillor Marc Jones, who leads the Plaid Cymru group on Wrexham council, explained why the group was voting against the Local Development Plan at a special meeting:

There are two choices before us today - to approve this plan going out for Examination by Planning Inspectors or to refuse to approve it. If we refuse, the Welsh Government will put it out to examination. 

So however we vote, this plan will have its detail examined over the coming year.
This will be our last chance as democratic representatives to have our say. So how we vote matters. Regardless of concerns you might have about individual sites, I would urge you to look at the bigger picture. 

This LDP has been developed on the basis that Wrexham’s population will grow substantially in the next 20 years - five times as much as neighbouring Flintshire for example. That is not a proposal based in fact or based on the emerging evidence from latest mid-year stats. It is a population projection by the WG that is based on previous unique circumstances.

So we have to be clear this is not a 'Local' Development Plan is the sense that it's based on what we want. Allocating land to build two huge new housing estates and many other smaller ones along the A483 will suit developers. But it will reduce the quality of life for Wrexham residents. 

Our already stretched public services - GPs, schools, hospitals, roads and other key infrastructure - are already at breaking point in some aspects. How will those services manage with that extra demand?  

And to be clear, extra houses will not mean extra income - it just means the way Wrexham Council is funded under the Standard Spending Assessment from the Welsh Government is rejigged. 

As a group, Plaid Cymru councillors are not opposed to allocating land to building homes to meet need. But we are opposed to building houses that are not needed. 

Our contention is that the allocation of land for housing is flawed. This plan is, to use a Biblical analogy, a house built on sand. If we want to build better communities that are not a faceless urban sprawl extending into our countryside, then we need sturdier foundations. That's why we have to stand up and say no, we are not going to approve this plan. The Welsh Government should re-think its attempt to impose this plan on the people of Wrexham.

Councillor Carrie Harper, a long-time campaigner against speculative development in Wrexham also made an impassioned contribution that earned shouts of support from the public gallery:

8,500 houses, a population increase of 20,000 people, and tens of thousands more cars on our roads. 

The impact is huge so let’s just consider what it means. How is the Maelor hospital going to cope with an additional 20,000 people? Have you been to A and E lately? Where are the extra GP surgeries and extra doctors coming from? We can't recruit enough doctors as it is. 

How are council services going to cope with a 20% population increase? We’ll be dealing with the next council budget in this chamber in just a few weeks time and we’ll be talking about the impact of austerity and the reduced settlement from Welsh Government which makes up 3 quarters of this councils funding. We’ll be talking  about how this council has to cut millions more from its budget and how that means services have reached tipping point, how pressure is continuing to increase on services such as children and adult social care. How is increasing the population by 20% going to help that situation? Can anyone explain that to me? 

There will also be increased pressure on schools and on a myriad of other services too. Then there’s the road network, an extra 20,000 cars potentially, it’s bad enough trying to around the town now but if this goes ahead we’ll be spending half our lives in traffic jams. 

I could go on about the loss of green fields, the increase in pollution, in the production waste but you get the gist, you already know these things. The damage this plan will do is obvious but I’m yet to hear anyone outline even one benefit that even remotely offsets these detrimental impacts. 

So now we have to ask why this is even in front of us? The latest statistics tell us the local population is static so why are we even entertaining such high levels of overdevelopment? It’s here because the Labour Welsh Government are insisting on it, they want these houses built. But these houses don’t meet any local need, they’re not going to provide affordable starter homes for young families, or the bungalows for our elderly population to downsize to. This plan isn’t about providing the right type of houses in the right place to meet our local needs. These houses are for commuters, this plan is about speculative development, it’s about developers making money and it’s about turning Wrexham into a dormitory commuter town and we should fight tooth and nail against it. 

I’ve heard councillors here say that the market will dictate whether or not these houses are built. Our planning system is not there to facilitate the market or the wants of developers! We’re not here to bolster their profit margins. The planning system is supposed to be a filter, to ensure development levels are sustainable, it’s supposed to protect our local communities from unsustainable development not enable it! This plan is an abuse of our planning system. 

We’ve already had 20 years of overdevelopment in this town. Local people have told us time after time, they don’t wants this level of development to continue, they don’t want villages to merge, they don’t want us to lose our identity, they don’t want see their quality of life reduce because of increasing pressure on services and infrastructure. 

So if the Welsh Government want this plan then let them enforce it and let them be accountable for it but don’t endorse it. The planning Minister is Wrexham’s AM Lesley Griffiths, let her argue the case for concreting over our town and explain her rationale to local people. This plan is the their obsession not ours.
This council has a disconnect with local people and so many people tell me the root of that mistrust lies in so many of the bad planning decisions that have been made over the years. Decisions that have meant people feel Wrexham has been developed in spite of them, not for them. 

So how about just for once, this council makes a planning decision that local people can be proud of. That we represent what they want and turn down this disaster of a plan which has so many negative consequences and no benefits.
Don’t give the Welsh Government and developers the green light turn this town into Cheshire on the cheap, we deserve better than that, vote against this plan.