Labour's Development Plan isn't fit for purpose

The Labour Government's Local Development Plan for Wrexham isn't fit for purpose.

That's the view of Plaid Cymru councillors who have offered to publicly debate the issue with Labour locally.

Cllr Becca Martin, who represents Acton and Maesydre, said: 

"Local residents and the majority of Wrexham councillors have made it clear that they don't want more enormous housing estates built on open countryside. The Local Development Plan is based on flawed population figures from the Welsh Government that claimed Wrexham's population would rise dramatically by 10% when, in fact, we have a declining population. That led to the original LDP being refused back in 2012 and the Welsh Government insisted on a new plan - LDP2 - at a cost of £200,000 to council taxpayers. 

"Labour has forced this plan on Wrexham communities and it's disappointing to see them working hand in hand with large housing developers to undermine Wrexham's green wedge, which is good agricultural land as well as an amenity space for local residents to enjoy."

She added that Labour locally was trying to defend the indefensible by sticking up for the Welsh Government's failings: 

"Labour councillors were whipped to vote for the LDP. That's no surprise because it's the Labour Government's LDP not Wrexham's plan. It does not offer protection, as has been mistakenly claimed, from speculative developers because it's those very developers who are trying to get the LDP imposed through the courts. 

"Voting for this plan is a vote to enable 1500 new houses on the Ruthin Road site and a further 1600 on the Cefn Road site. Local infrastructure, including GPs and our hospital, as well as our roads are not going to be able to cope with the extra demand and it will not deliver the affordable homes that Wrexham desperately needs.

"The Labour Government should face up to its own mistakes and accept that the plan does not meet the needs of Wrexham's communities. We've had a lost decade while LDP2 has been in the pipeline and this plan, if imposed, would come to an end in 2028. Rather than continue this farce of imposing a plan on a council that has twice made a democratic decision, Labour really need to decide whether they believe in local democracy or whether they will bend to their masters in Cardiff Bay and their allies, the big corporate housing developers."

Plaid Cymru was the only group that was united and consistent in its opposition to the plan with Labour united for (despite u-turns by one of its councillors) and Independents and Tory being split on the matter. Cllr Martin added: 

"Labour are happy to attack those of us who stood up for our communities and the environment on this matter. Will they come to a public meeting to debate this more fully? We've offered the local Labour candidate for Westminster a platform and have yet to hear back from him."

* IMAGE: Redrow has already begun to consult on the 1500-home estate it has planned off Ruthin Road, a site that's twice the size of Rhostyllen and will gobble up the green wedge around the town, linking Bersham to Wrexham.