We have listened (From Barry And District News)

We have listened

9:15am Thursday 18th October 2012 in Letters

THE draft Local Development Plan (LDP) that was consulted on earlier this year has been scrapped. It will not be submitted to Welsh Government. It will be pulped. It is an ex-LDP.

I am one of the Labour candidates who campaigned on this issue in the elections in May. I want to reassure residents of Illtyd that the promise made has been kept and that their views have been listened to about the unwanted housing developments as proposed by the Tories.

Having scrapped the draft LDP there is now the question of replacing it with a new LDP which will guide development in the Vale of Glamorgan for the next 15 years. We said we would go back to the drawing board and we have. A new LDP will put right what was wrong with the scrapped LDP. The new LDP will not be different from the scrapped one in every respect but it will be significantly different on the issues that matter to you. Most importantly, it will address issues of sustainability and ensure consultation with residents and communities will be comprehensive and with easy ways to respond over a long enough time.

The development of new housing was the most contentious issue in the scrapped LDP. However, the question is not whether to build new homes but how many and where? The new LDP will aim to 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.

Some articles and letters in local newspapers are claiming we have gone back on our election pledges because of discussions with Welsh Government about procedures. The council has to get a new LDP agreed with the Welsh Government, one reason why we need to have ongoing discussion with them. Whether these articles and letters are deliberately misleading or just mistaken, they are wrong about Labour’s commitment to scrap the Tories’ LDP and replace it with a new one that addresses the concerns that residents expressed in the consultation earlier this year. The proof will be in what is actually contained within the new LDP which will be very different from that proposed by the Tories.

John Drysdale Elected Member Democratic Services Vale of Glamorgan Council