Community Interests and the Planning Process

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:25 pm on 24 May 2022.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:25, 24 May 2022

(Translated)

Well, Llywydd, just to say, I've received advice from our officials in the Government, and what they've told me about the specific example that the Member is talking about, what they've said to me is that the original planning consent was granted specifically for holiday homes. So, they can't sell them to people who want to live there throughout the year because it is only as holiday homes that the permission was granted in the first instance. If the application had been made for permanent residential homes on that site, perhaps they wouldn't have been permitted, in terms of that development. That's what I've heard.

Now, Anglesey and Gwynedd have a local development plan, a joint plan, and they're about to undertake a full review of that joint plan. I look forward to discussing all of the relevant issues in a meeting that I'll be holding with the leaders of local authorities across north Wales tomorrow. I am content to work with the local authorities if there's more that we can do to help them, particularly in the context of Anglesey now, when the United Kingdom Government once again has raised the possibility of the future of Wylfa Newydd. I remember the last time when we talked about the impact on housing on the island if that development were to go ahead.

So, the points that Rhun ap Iorwerth has made this afternoon, Llywydd, they are going to be even more pertinent and important in future if that scheme were to go ahead, and I am willing to discuss how we as a Government, in collaboration with local authorities, can do more to help in the context that Rhun ap Iorwerth has spoken about this afternoon.