5. How will Cardiff’s local development plan improve the local environment? OAQ(5)0006(ERA)

Thank you. Cardiff’s local development plan will have a central role in shaping place and enhancing quality of life through the provision of well-designed, high-quality buildings and public space. Well-planned public transport, cycling and walking routes delivered through the LDP enable sustainable access to jobs, schools and shops.

Okay. I think the reality is that the plan forecasts huge increases in traffic, there is mass building on greenfield sites, and most people consider it to be an environmental disaster. The question to you is: how do you think that the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 could be used to improve the local environment in relation to the local development plan?

Well, obviously, Cardiff have brought forward their LDP. I know it is a very fine balance for local authorities to make arrangements for housing and services for a growing population, and protecting the points that you’ve just raised. I think the future generations Act is there, and we can very clearly see the goals, and it’s up to my officials to make sure that they monitor all the LDPs that are coming in. We’re still awaiting, I think, six across Wales, to make sure that they do fit in with the goals of the Act.

Cabinet Secretary, the LDP process obviously causes great controversy in many areas and is also the plank that is used to develop, stimulate and regenerate large areas as well. But, one of the biggest bones of contention in my own electoral region of South Wales Central is around the housing projections that councils use to arrive at their LDP allocations. Those projections come from the Welsh Government. In your initial view of these projections that are provided on behalf of the Welsh Government to the local authorities, what is your feeling about taking this process forward? Are you happy that those projections are robust, or do they need to be revisited and, ultimately, re-evaluated in the light of some of the representations that have been made by councils in my own electoral region of South Wales Central?

Well, the LDP is a matter for each individual local authority. I want them to have adopted LDPs in place and I think it’s six local authorities that haven’t. I’ve asked them to get on with it. If we don’t have those LDPs in place, as I know from my own constituency, you have these developers coming in with plans that really don’t fit in with what the local population wants or needs. So, I think it’s really important that the local development plan is in place. As I say, it’s not for me to set it out, or for any of my Cabinet colleagues; it’s for the local authority to do it themselves. What the LDP does is provide that policy framework to ensure that the local authority delivers the community infrastructure that’s required.