Development plan under annual review

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

The first Annual Monitoring Review (AMR) of Powys’ Local Development Plan, (LDP) will be prepared over the next few months so that it can be submitted to the Welsh Government in the autumn.

Councillors at a meeting of Powys County Council’s LDP working group on Monday were told that a draft version should be ready to be discussed by June.

The AMR needs to be approved by cabinet before it is sent to Cardiff by the end of October.

Planning policy officer, Claire Seddon, explained that an AMR is needed a full year after the adoption of an LDP.

PCC adopted the LDP in April 2018, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Welsh Government took away the requirement to send the AMR for 2019/20.

PCC retain a copy of last year’s work and data from 2020/21 will be used to form this AMR.

Data for all the planning permission granted in 2020/21, as well as finding out the number of houses that were built will be needed for the review.

It will also lead to a separate review of how well the LDP is working for the county, as well as kick start the process of collecting data for the next county-wide LDP.

Ms Seddon said: “It’s important as it’s a statutory requirement. We need it to trigger the review and it will provide the evidence base which feeds into the review report.”

In turn, that data will be used to form the even wider evidence base for the next LDP, explained Ms Seddon who added: “We must publish and submit an AMR which set out the objectives of the plan and whether they have been achieved or not.”

She explained that there are 59 indicators that provide targets for the key policies in the LDP such as housing growth.

“The work to date suggests that the LDP is performing well to most indicators, however the housing completions and the take up of allocated sites has been lower than anticipated,” she said.

“It’s proposed that our recommendation to review (the LDP) is published in the AMR, as the current LDP expires in March 2026. It should take three and a half to four years to prepare a new LDP.”

She added that the council would need to be in a position to start this process by July 2022.

The LDP sets out the strategy for meeting the future needs of the county’s communities. It makes provision for 4,500 new houses to be built by 2026 including 952 affordable homes.

It also provides 45 hectares of land for employment purposes and includes policies to meet the needs of the economy.

The LDP focusses development and economic opportunities on Powys’ market towns and larger villages.