Agenda item

The Committee were provided with an update regarding the development of the Strategic Development Plan (SDP).

Reference was made to the letter that was sent to Welsh Government, indicating Officers concerns regarding the requirements to deliver the SDP in the absence of appropriate financial resources; in the letter, it was requested that funding be made available to enable Offices to make progress in terms of delivering the SDP.

Members were informed that the response from Welsh Government referred to the funding that they had provided to assist in delivering the Regional Transport Plan, and that there was opportunity to use any leftover resources from that piece of work, in order to progress the SDP; the Minister had confirmed, at that point in time, that no further funding was going to be forthcoming for the development of the SDP. Officers explained that the Regional Transport Plan had progressed significantly, and that there weren’t any resources available from that budget to assist in developing the SDP.

Officers explained their intention to send another letter to Welsh Government in order to reiterate their concerns and express the importance of funding in order to appropriately resource and deliver the SDP. It was noted that Officers from the South West Wales region had been in discussions with the other Corporate Joint Committees in Wales to establish whether to send the letter on behalf of all regions in Wales. It was stated that early indications showed that Mid Wales and North Wales were content and prepared to sign up to the letter; however, South East Wales had confirmed that they had prepared their delivery agreement and therefore would not be in a position to sign up to the letter. Further discussions had since taken place, and it was realised that North Wales had also made progress with their delivery agreement; it was therefore concluded that Mid Wales and South West Wales regions were in a different position to North Wales and South East Wales.

It was mentioned that Officers had calculated the estimated cost of preparing the SDP, which was in the region of between £3.5million and £4.5million; this would be developed over five to six years and would require around six dedicated Officers.

Officers had established that there weren’t any resources within existing structures to re-deploy to develop the SDP; staff in existing teams, within the four Local Authorities, were in the process of developing their Replacement Local Development Plans or undertaking monitoring and evaluation work. It was noted that the National Park Authorities were in a similar position in terms of their staff resource.

Since these discussions had taken place, Officers had identified money within the South West Wales Corporate Joint Committee’s (SWWCJC) limited level of reserves; and had also received a letter from Welsh Government, indicating that they were providing funding of up to £200k this year, to contribute towards capacity and governance. It was explained that with the reserves and funding from Welsh Government, there was now opportunity to progress with the preparation of the delivery agreement; however, this did not mean that the region would be able progress with the development of the SDP itself.

As previously mentioned, Officers were going to progress with sending another letter to Welsh Government; however, it had since been determined that two options should be put forward for Members consideration in terms of next steps. It was highlighted that option one was to use the reserves to recruit an experienced planning officer and start preparations on the delivery agreement for the SDP; work wouldn’t be progressed further than this as it would require significant additional funds and resources. Officers stated that option two was to continue to hold the current position and not progress with the delivery agreement until there were funds in place to prepare the document and the SDP.

The Regional Finance Manager reiterated the points raised regarding the reserves and confirmed that the SWWCJC had agreed, when setting the budget in January 2025, that £500k be used over the next three years. However, it was noted that this total wasn’t set for Strategic Planning; the other workstreams within the SWWCJC also needed to be considered.

The Committee provided their views in terms of the option that they would prefer to endorse to the SWWCJC for decision. It was expressed that option one would provide direction and indicate the desire to progress with the development of the SDP; whilst still acknowledging that the appropriate funding was required to be able to deliver on this workstream fully. However, not all Members agreed with option one and stated a preference for option two, due to the current financial pressures and the potential for additional funding to be awarded to undertake this work.

A discussion took place in regard to the potential to unlock other, creative ways of working to deliver the SDP; with a focus on the region, rather than six separate plans from each planning authority. It was explained that the six planning authorities within the region were required to prepare a Replacement Local Development Plan; five out of six were in the process of preparing those plans, with Pembrokeshire Coast National Park having had their plan adopted and were currently undertaking monitoring and evaluation. Officers explained that there was still a requirement to have individual plans for each planning authority; however, the SDP would form one plan to cover the whole region.

Further to the above, it was noted that once the SDP had been adopted, Officers would be able to undertake a Local Development Plan Lite which was a smaller and more concise version of what was being undertaken in each local planning authority area; in the long term this would reduce pressures on each local planning authority and the work that was required to go into the development of Local Development Plans.

In the meantime, it was explained that Officers across each of the local planning authorities had been working collaboratively to share processes and collect and share evidence and methodologies for undertaking studies.

Officers confirmed that they were still waiting on guidance to be issued from Welsh Government in terms of the formation of the SDP. The importance of receiving the guidance was emphasised, particularly as it would make considerable difference as to the scope of the plan; whether or not planning authorities could be more creative in approach, would depend on the expectations set out in the guidance and what areas of work needed to be addressed. It was noted that the fact that the guidance manual hadn’t been published, was another reason why Officers hadn’t already progressed with the delivery agreement stage. Members were informed that without the guidance Officers wouldn’t be able to make significant progress, past the delivery agreement stage, as they would be unaware of what process Welsh Government wanted authorities to follow. 

Following the discussion, the majority of Members expressed preference for option one to be considered by the SWWCJC.

RESOLVED:

That Option One, as detailed within the circulated report, be determined as the preferred option on the commencement of work to deliver a Strategic Development Plan pursuant to the Town and Country Planning (Strategic Development Plan) (Wales) Regulations 2021, and be endorsed for consideration by the South West Wales Corporate Joint Committee (SWWCJC).