A COUNCILLOR has expressed concerns that changes proposed by the Welsh Government will make it more difficult for local councils to refuse planning permission.

Currently, a local council that has five years of available building land for housing is able to justify refusal of new developments because they have sufficient housing already being built.

The Welsh Government has proposed that in future this five-year rule should only apply to councils which have an adopted Local Development Plan (LDP) that sets out their 15-year housing plan.

The Vale of Glamorgan currently has 7.5 years of available housing land for around 2,200 houses but has an LDP that Plaid Cymru and campaigners say includes more housing than is needed in the Vale.

Under the Welsh Government’s proposed new rules, the Vale would be unable to reject proposals on this basis until the LDP was adopted.

Plaid Cymru councillor Ian Johnson, who has campaigned against the LDP, said: “It is clear that the Welsh Government is on the side of housing developers rather than those who want to protect our countryside from over-development.

“The Vale of Glamorgan has around 7.5 years’ worth of available land for housing – around 2,200 houses, based on the average number of houses built in each of the past ten years which is about 300 per year.

“This provides a useful safeguard against over-development because it gives a realistic indicator of the number of houses that can be built.

“This is especially important in the absence of an adopted Local Development Plan because it means that we have some form of protection against speculative developers if it is the sort of development that we don’t need.

“However, the Labour-run Welsh Government want to make this part of the LDP, totally missing the point that this ‘five-year plan’ is most needed when there isn’t an LDP in place.

“Without the five-year rule and an LDP, there would be nothing to stop developers bringing forward even more un-necessary plans for greenfield sites in the Vale – as we have already seen at Weycock Cross in Barry.

“Plaid Cymru has long opposed the Vale of Glamorgan’s LDP because it over-estimates the number of houses that we need, meaning that we would build 10,000 houses when we only need around 5,500.

“We need to make sure that we build the right number and type of houses in the right places – and that usually means smaller and affordable one and two bed properties for those affected by the bedroom tax, a first family home or older people looking to downsize.”