LDP Inquiry Update
A message from Councillor David Williams on the progress of the Local Development Plan:
The Inquiry is now in its third week, and so far we have been able to put our concerns to the Inspector that seem to have been well received.
On week one we discussed sustainability, and Flintshire have us down as a ‘sustainable village’ in the hierarchy of settlements. I have long been contesting this given our shortage of amenities and poor infrastructure and been fighting to be identified as a ‘defined village’ where we would not be obliged to accept as much growth. The inspector was very fair and allowed me my say, where I explained about our inadequate public transport service, no doctors, inadequate shops or business premises, a 5ha shortfall in adult and youth free space plus several other points. She seemed to take this on board and I think our planners were not impressed about somebody so high profile being told how FCC, land owners and developers have consistently let us down for so many years!
A discussion was also had on Education provision, and the Education official from Flintshire gave a presentation where he stated there is an 11% surplus of places in the County, and Counties LDP would not impact on Education provision!? As with the Redrow inquiry, they failed to acknowledge that our local schools are oversubscribed! I was therefore given the opportunity to state our case for the village and contradict the claims by letting the inspector know that our junior school, that only opened in 2019, is already oversubscribed, especially for nursery and reception classes. I was also able to explain that Castell Alun, our traditional high school, is also heavily oversubscribed with all the new houses being built, especially in Pen-y-ffordd and Kinnerton, and that certain parts of our village are now being forced to go to the Elfed! I do not think the LA liked hearing this but the Inspector certainly seemed to take the points on board!
The other discussion that involves us was on Warren Hall, where County and Welsh Government want to build 300 houses and have certain forms of business premises. This is something that has been in the pipeline for over 30 years, and Flintshire officials are very keen to see this come to fruition. They unexpectedly got a great deal of opposition from all sorts of quarters, including the former head of planning who was in post when the initiative was originally put forward. We did not need to engage in this debate, but it was an interesting and detailed debate between some very highly qualified professional people, and the to me, the prospect of developing Warren Hall are not as much of a done deal that we though it was!
I have attached some plans for you to view, plus my response that was amended four times between the first submission in 2014 and the current one I put in in November 2019. This is virtually the same as the Community Council one that Alan and I put together around the same time. Please note that Dobshill and Little mountain was not included in this latest response, but was in my earlier ones. The reason for not being included in the final response was taken on Flintshires' assurance that they would be opposing the application sites, and the need to focus on the excessive amount of applications for Pen-y-ffordd. I will though, be putting the concerns over Dobshill and Little Mountain to the Inspector in the next sessions.
I hope this enlightens you, but please get back to me if you want any more info. We are not involved again for a few weeks when we will be discussing potential growth and green belt, so I am currently reviewing and building our case to put to the Inspector, but any comments or observations will be appreciated. I have also attached some documents to view if you have time and desire to learn more on what has been done. I also have many others that I will forward if I think they will help and if you want to view them?
Cllr David Williams