5. What criteria does the Minister apply when deciding whether to overturn a local authority’s decision to refuse planning permission? OQ59082

If a local planning authority refuses an application for planning permission, the applicant can appeal to the Welsh Ministers. Planning law requires planning appeals to be determined in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise.

Minister, in 2017, the Welsh Government overturned Caerphilly council’s decision to reject an application to build 260 homes in Hendredenny. The application was opposed by residents, ward representatives, the local MS and MP, yet the Welsh Government overruled the local consensus. In the decision letter, the Minister at the time recommended a condition that the plan should include strategic drainage features and a scheme for disposal of surface water and land drainage flows, placing responsibility for approving the plans on the council. But six years later, we have NRW investigating reports of water run-off polluting a local resident’s land, with fears this may have also affected a nearby river, Nant yr Aber. In addition, fears about traffic chaos have been realised, and concerns about the ability of local services to cater for hundreds of new residents continue. I know you won’t be able to comment on an individual case, Minister, but could I ask if you understand the frustrations of local people when schemes like this are imposed against their wishes? What changes do you believe could be made to the planning system to give communities the power to make decisions that affect them without fears of being overruled by Cardiff?

Thank you, Delyth. I absolutely do understand the frustration of that, and it’s deeply felt in a number of communities. The difficulty is that this is—as I know you know—a quasi-judicial process. This isn’t about your best judgment; this is about following a quasi-judicial process. I’m not going to talk about an individual application; I don’t have the details in front of me. But in general, the frustrations are usually around that people haven’t understood that the local development plan allows a development of that sort and didn’t object at an early enough stage in the development plan, or that the development plan is now out of date to the point where it isn’t able to bite and speculative planning consents can come forward, or that there haven’t been sufficient objections of a number of statutory consultees in order to take it forward; there are a range of things of that sort. I’m not familiar with the one, off the top my head, I’m afraid, that you’re talking about, but Caerphilly would not be the only council that had had trouble getting its new LDP in place. So, it may well be that a range of those factors were in place.

The solution to it is to make sure—and we are making enormous efforts in this regard—that communities have a real opportunity to comment at LDP stage, so that they understand what kind of development could come forward in their community if they don’t make their wishes and views known at that stage. So, I think that’s the point: because it’s a plan-led system, if it’s not in the plan, it’s very much harder for an appeal to come forward. If it is in the plan, then obviously, the developer can be—. The whole point of the plan is to allow the developers to have some level of certainty about what might be permissible. So, that’s the point: to make sure that we make huge efforts at the early point of the planning process. We do fund Planning Aid Wales to help communities do that, and I’m more than happy to have a conversation—I’m sure a number of Members will have this problem—with you about how we can make sure that communities are engaged at that early stage.

Question 6, Cefin Campbell.

Thank you very much, Llywydd. Minister, I welcome very much the Welsh Government's commitment to ensure—

You will need to ask the question on the paper.

Sorry, sorry.

Jumping the gun, Cefin Campbell.

After a year and a half, I forget.