Wrexham council leader asked to apologise as area’s Local Development Plan in jeopardy for second time

The leader of Wrexham Council has been asked to apologise after a surprise U-turn saw his group pull their support for the area’s Local Development Plan (LDP).

The major housing blueprint sets out where around 8,000 new homes could be built in the county borough, along with preferred locations for employment and Gypsy and Traveller sites.

The local authority’s first attempt to gain approval for its LDP failed in 2012 after the Planning Inspectorate said housing numbers should be raised to 11,700.

Cllr Mark Pritchard’s independent group dramatically withdrew its political backing for the most recent version of the document last week, despite it being in the latter stages of consideration.

It follows inspectors raising “very serious reservations” over the way land for a Gypsy and Traveller site was allocated within Alyn Waters Country Park in Llay.

The Plaid Cymru group of councillors on the local authority has now called for Cllr Pritchard to apologise to the public for approving the submission of the LDP back in 2018.

Cllr Carrie Harper, who along with her colleagues has consistently opposed the plan due to the high level of housing proposed, said: “It’s embarrassing, frankly, that Wrexham is the only council in Wales to have its LDP refused once and now faces having it refused again.

“The buck has to stop with someone and that should be the council leader, who has been a strong advocate of this plan from the outset.

“He should now apologise to the people of Wrexham for allowing this LDP to go as far as it has done.

“Wrexham deserves better than this – we need a change of council leadership and the sooner that happens, the better.”
Plaid Cymru has long argued that the premise of the plan is flawed after claiming the housing numbers were largely being driven by demand from the north-west of England rather than from Wrexham itself.

A notice of motion was submitted by the group in September, calling for the LDP to be withdrawn.

The attempt to have it scrapped, which is due to be considered next month, was made in light of the latest population estimates, which predict the amount of people living in the area will drop by 1.5 per cent by 2028.
Cllr Pritchard said he did not wish to comment on Cllr Harper’s request for an apology when contacted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

However, in a statement released on Friday, the leader of the ruling independent and Conservative coalition, said: “At a meeting yesterday, the Independent Group discussed the recent letter from the LDP inspectors, dated 13 November 2020 regarding the re-run Gypsy and Traveller site assessment and selection process in general, and the proposed site allocation near Llay in particular.

“The letter expressed very serious reservations regarding the inclusion of a site which is in a country park and green wedge, particularly that its inclusion conflicts with national planning policy.

“The Independent Group on Wrexham County Borough Council has lost confidence in the process and unanimously decided that it will no longer support the LDP.”

The council has attracted major criticism after the inspectors overseeing the LDP process highlighted a series of errors in the way it selected land for a Gypsy and Traveller site in Llay.

Writing earlier this month, lead inspectors Sian Worden and Melissa Hall said they had not yet found the plan to be “unsound”, but asked for a meeting to be held next month to discuss their concerns.

But Cllr Harper questioned why the council leader’s group supported the blueprint in the first place.
She added: “The LDP allocated huge swathes of greenfield sites for development of large commuter estates and we thought that was unacceptable for so many reasons.

“From the outset we as a group have argued that we should be building and planning for people’s needs rather than what developers want. We have been consistent in opposing it.

“The same can’t be said for the ruling coalition, which two years ago put a lot of pressure on councillors to allow this plan to go forward for inspection.”

By Liam Randall – Local Democracy Reporter