Councillors gagged over controversial housing plan

Councillors have been prevented from debating a crucial plan by Wrexham Council's chief legal officer.

Councillor Carrie Harper explains the background:

Wrexham Council's Local Development Plan has had a long and chequered history. The plan is meant to run from 2013-28 but has still not been accepted by Planning Inspectors. The first one was rejected back in 2012 and the council made to start again on LDP2. This went forward to examination in 2018 and is still with the Planning Inspectors, who have serious concerns about the process.

Plaid Cymru has opposed the LDP in its current form because it is allocating land for development based on flawed population projections. Because the Welsh Government insisted that Wrexham's population was going to increase by 20% - around 25,000 people - in the next 20 years, they also insisted that land for 13,000 houses were allocated initially.

This soon adjusted down as it became evident that the reality was very different. The LDP2 went forward with a housing allocation of 7,700 - including huge housing estates of 1600 homes planned for both the Holt Road and Ruthin Road. The council was split 30-17 in backing that plan but it went forward for inspection.

In the meantime, three issues emerged.

Firstly, Wrexham's population was not growing - it was static and in recent years has started to fall. The boom years of the 2000s have not been replicated, as Plaid Cymru predicted. The truth is that we do not need to trash our countryside to built commuter estates on this scale. A far more modest number of houses is needed

Secondly, the LDP2 planned for 1300 affordable homes in its allocations. This was slashed in half AFTER the vote in 2018 after developers said they couldn't build that many affordable homes. This was agreed by a small group of senior councillors and officers so that we now have only 600 affordable homes likely to emerge from the plan.

The ongoing problems with selecting a suitable location for a gipsy and traveller site has also caused problems with the Planning Inspectors, who have challenged the way the selection was made.

Because of this, Plaid Cymru's group on the Council decided to submit a motion for councillors to debate on December 16th. The full text is below but in essence it's calling for a withdrawal of political support for the LDP before it's too late.

This had been accepted by the council's senior legal officer, Sioned Wyn Davies, back in September but last night she informed Plaid Cymru that she was withdrawing the motion on the back of legal advice. We were not given sight of that advice and were given no notice that she had a problem with our motion.

The withdrawal was also done with just 8 days' notice - meaning it's too late to submit a new motion.

We await sight of the legal advice before we take further action.

For clarity, here is the exchange between the Chief Legal Officer and Plaid Cymru's group.

Dear Sioned

This is unprecedented. On September 25th you accepted our motion to council without reservation.

You have given no indication that there is a problem with the motion pre-determining any further decision nor raised concerns with us regarding the legality of the motion.

You have not shared the independent legal advice you have received. Please do that so that we can consider our next move. I would also be grateful for the paper trail regarding that decision to ask for independent legal advice.

We submitted a motion, as is our democratic right, on a matter that is of great concern to many people in the borough. That includes the council's own leader and his group of independents. He has recently indicated - you might say pre-determined - his position in advance by stating that he would not support the LDP in its present form.

What conversations have you had with the Leader regarding the LDP and this particular motion?

The Plaid Cymru group along with the rest of the council is being prevented from discussing a matter of the utmost importance to our borough's future. This smacks of censorship and you have failed to provide the basis for your decision.

We reserve the right to challenge your decision once we have had sight of the legal opinion.

From: Sioned Wyn Davies <Sioned.WynDavies@wrexham.gov.uk>

Date: Thursday, 03 Dec 2020, 4:05 pm

To: All Cllrs <AllCllrs@wrexham.gov.uk>

Cc: Ian Bancroft <Ian.Bancroft@wrexham.gov.uk>, Lawrence Isted <lawrence.isted@wrexham.gov.uk>, Mark Owen <Mark.Owen@wrexham.gov.uk>

Subject: Postponement of Motion to Council

Dear Councillor,

 

I write to inform you that I am in receipt a motion to Council as follows:

 

“In recent weeks significant new evidence and information has emerged that undermines the basis of Wrexham's Local Development Plan relating to:

- population projections that formed the basis of housing allocations

- drastic reductions in affordable housing

- the process of assessing highways impacts

- the process of allocating gypsy and traveller sites

 As a result, this Council resolves to:

- Withdraw its support for the deposit Local Development Plan (as passed on 22 November 2018 by Wrexham CBC) as it no longer meet the needs of Wrexham's communities in light of recent available data for the County Borough.

- Call on the appropriate Welsh Government minister to recognise that the Plan process and its content are fundamentally flawed and unsound and halt the examination by the local Plan inspector

- Call on the Welsh Government to ensure protection for greenfield sites by strengthening Technical Advice Note 1 to prevent speculative development.”

 

I have informed the members putting forward and supporting the motion that it cannot be included in the agenda for the Council meeting on 16 December. The proper time for consideration of the motion is when the independent examination of the LDP by Welsh Government inspectors is complete and the inspectors’ report and associated recommendations are reported to Council.

 

The reason for this is that if the motion were to be supported this could have the effect of committing the Council to acting unlawfully in the future by breaching its obligation to adopt the local development plan once the inspectors carrying out the examination have issued their recommendations and reasons. If the Council were to resolve now that it does not support the local development plan, there would be a risk that the Council might be regarded as having predetermined a future decision about adopting the plan.

 

As Monitoring Officer I have a responsibility to ensure that the Council acts lawfully and it would not be appropriate for me to allow the Council to take a decision on the motion at this time.

 

Whilst I previously indicated that the motion would be able to be included in the agenda at the December Council meeting, at that time there was a reasonable expectation that the inspectors’ report may be available in December. That is not now the position and in the circumstances it has been necessary to consider the motion put forward in the current context.

 

Please note that independent legal advice has been obtained on this matter.

 

Sioned

 

Sioned Wyn Davies

Prif Swyddog Llywodraethu a Chwsmeriaid / Chief Officer Governance & Customer