LDP is flawed (From Barry And District News)

LDP is flawed

10:08am Thursday 1st November 2012 in Letters

I refer to the vast number of letters that have appeared in recent editions of the Barry & District News relating to the future of the LDP and the uncertainty over what is actually going to happen.

Despite repeated statements by Vale Council leader Neil Moore and other Labour members that the LDP has been scrapped and will be replaced by a new plan, other letters have stated that council officers have not been given any alternative instructions by the new administration and that they continue working on the existing LDP.

Reference has also been made to the recent meeting with Welsh Government officials when it was stated that there was no desire to start the LDP process again.

Cabinet is due to make the decision on the future of the LDP when they consider the council officer’s report on November 5. If the report states that it is not possible to scrap the LDP and carry out a full review then I would urge cabinet members to throw the report out. The Labour party was elected into power on the basis of an election pledge that they would scrap the current LDP and replace it with a new one.

Recent statements by Cllrs Lis Burnett and John Drysdale expressed concerns that the consultation carried out on the LDP was not satisfactory and far too complicated and confirmed that there will be a new LDP which will provide a fair balance of development across the Vale based on a sound estimate of what is needed and consider factors such as congestion and infrastructure needs and be sustainable in the long term.

The only way that this can be achieved is by changing the LDP strategy and allocating sites in a revised LDP which would then be put out to consultation.

There is no doubt that the strategy of the current LDP is unpopular with the vast majority of the residents of the Vale as demonstrated by thousands of people who have objected to the deposit LDP.

Unfortunately it was not until the LDP was placed on deposit that it became obvious how unpopular the strategy is as when the Draft Strategy was subject to consultation in 2008 only 210 comments were received and less than 100 of these actually supported the strategy.

The Labour party is perfectly entitled to honour its election pledge and should not accept the advice of council/Welsh Government officers whose main priority is to get the LDP adopted as soon as possible even though the location of a lot of the allocated development sites are totally inappropriate, against the wishes of those who voted for the Labour party and the majority of people in the Vale.

The Labour party must be strong and not let down the thousands of people who supported them and honour their election pledge to scrap and replace the flawed LDP.

Dr Robert Stamatakis Cowbridge