Responding to the outcome of the Independent Planning Inspector’s scrutiny of Cardiff Council’s Local Development Plan, Kevin Brennan MP and Mark Drakeford AM have released the following:
“We have always agreed that Cardiff needs a Local Development Plan and that Cardiff needs more housing. During the Inspector’s scrutiny of the draft Plan we argued for a series of additional protections to be offered to current citizens of Cardiff, particularly in relation to transport and other infrastructure.
“We continue to believe that the Plan must be implemented in a way which does not allow the construction of new houses to run ahead of the system’s ability to cope with the consequences – whether that be in the provision of new schools and health facilities, or in the transport facilities needed to respond to house building on the scale envisaged in the Plan.
“We are pleased that, as a result of the Inspector’s intervention, there are now some additional safeguards in the Plan to monitor the commitments it contains in this regard and to ensure that housing and infrastructure go hand in hand. We would like the requirements to have gone further, but it is now for everyone who has an interest in this aspect of the Plan to ensure that the safeguards secured are rigorously pursued and enforced.
“As to the Green Belt issue, we have consistently supported the Council’s preference for the Plan to include a Green Belt requirement and are disappointed that the Inspector has preferred the lower level of protection provided by a Green Wedge approach. Nevertheless, we are very pleased to see the assurances provided by the local authority that they will operate the policy to the maximum and that, for the duration of the LDP, the full protections of a Green Belt policy will, in practice, be delivered.”
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