8. Will the First Minister make a statement on local development plans in North Wales? OAQ51338

There are five local development plans that have been adopted in north Wales, and we expect two other authorities—namely Wrexham and Flintshire—to adopt their plans by the year 2020.

Well, it is five years since the Planning Inspectorate insisted, or rather rejected Wrexham’s LDP, and also told Denbighshire and Conwy that there wasn’t sufficient housing in their development plans. That decision was based on the population forecasts of the Government, but now, of course, the census has demonstrated that those projections were erroneous and that we didn’t need to increase the number of houses in those plans. Indeed, the original Wrexham LDP was quite close to the mark in terms of the numbers, but the cost of having to redo the LDP in Wrexham alone has been over £200,000. So, who, in your view, should be compensating Wrexham council for that process and for forcing them to return and rerun a process that was clearly unnecessary, was erroneous and was a complete waste of time?

Well, there is a process that, according to the law, has to be followed. If I remember rightly, it is possible for local authorities to bring their own figures forward as regards housing, if they believe that the target they have been set by the Welsh Government is inaccurate. That was true at one point and I believe that that is still true now. But, of course, Wrexham is now in a position—if I understand the situation properly—where they are targeting 2019 for the adoption of that plan, and it is important that they do adopt the plans.

Llyr is quite right to raise this, because we've got issues in Aberconwy now as a result of your Government's policy as regards technical advice note 1, where planning officers are actually interpreting that TAN 1 has much stronger weightings than any other of the TANs. We've got applications coming forward now on land that's not even in our LDP, making an absolute mockery of Conwy council having deposited its LDP with the Welsh Government. I would ask you, First Minister, will you look at this? Because it really is impacting on our few remaining greenfield sites, and frankly, developers are looking now to be able to land bank, to the detriment of our local communities. We haven't got the health services. We haven't got the education facilities, and there aren't places in the schools. The whole thing is a fiasco, and I would ask you, as your responsibility as the First Minister, to really look at this and perhaps provide this Chamber with some ways forward that you're going to change things as regard the weightings given to TAN 1.

Well, TAN 1 is being looked at at the moment, but, I have to say, these are matters largely for the council. If there are planning applications that are coming forward on land where that land is not allocated for that particular use in the LDP, the council isn't obliged to give planning permission. The councils do have to take responsibility themselves for the decisions that they take, but, however, she did mention TAN 1, and the Minister informs me that TAN 1 is being examined at the moment.