Are Labour still sticking to LDP pledge? (From Barry And District News)

Are Labour still sticking to LDP pledge?

9:11am Thursday 18th October 2012 in Letters

 

WELL done Alun Cairns for getting the notes of a Welsh Government meeting with the Vale of Glamorgan Council leader, a cabinet member and Jane Hutt AM. They discussed the Council’s draft Local Development Plan and Labour’s election promise and the notes make interesting reading.

They reveal that the new Labour-led council have concerns over specific sites, the airport rail spur, air quality and transport corridors, but that hardly amounts to the their Party’s manifesto commitment, “Labour will scrap the Local Development Plan”.

The way forward (some may think escape route) outlined by WG officials at the meeting was ‘Focused changes’ which apparently require robust evidence but could not go to the heart of the plan. However, there was no mention that the council could consider another option, described in a Welsh Assembly letter CL-01-2009, by making ‘fundamental changes’.

The circular also advised that “changes after deposit should be avoided wherever possible through careful deposit plan preparation involving stakeholders and the community, grounded on robust evidence.” I suspect not many members of the community felt involved in the preparation of the plan but thousands did vote at the council election in May when frustration with the LDP was a significant issue.

However, we now have an October Labour leaflet saying they “will shortly scrap” the LDP.

We shall have to wait and see.

Dennis Harkus FocusBARRY supporter