Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:34 pm on 18 June 2019.
I thank Nick Ramsay, Llywydd, for that important point. I'm familiar, as it happens, with Troy House and I understand the point that he makes about the need to take into account in planning decisions the listed status of buildings of that sort. As he says, in this instance, the Planning Inspectorate made their ruling on the grounds that it was not a suitable building for conversion into flats, because of flooding risk. And, to be clear with Members, Llywydd, the Planning Inspectorate is entirely independent of the Welsh Government. It operates through a set of rules that we lay down, but no Minister ever interferes in a decision that a planning inspector makes. The Minister with planning responsibilities has heard the points that Nick Ramsay has made, and we will look again to make sure that the rules within which the Planning Inspectorate operate take into account the points that have been made about the need to have due regard to the listed status of buildings when making those determinations.FootnoteLink