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17 January 2018 / Club News

Decision Day for Councillors @ Carmarthenshire County Council

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PROPOSED RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT INCLUDING 42 NO. DWELLINGS AT LAND ADJACENT TO LAUGHARNE PRIMARY SCHOOL, LAUGHARNE, SA33 4SQ 

SITE VISIT DATE: 23 January 2018 - SITE VISIT TIME: 10:00 pm 

CHAMBER ADDRESS: Chamber, County Hall, Carmarthen - CHAMBER TIME: 1:30 pm 

1. EXTRACT FROM PLANNING OFFICERS CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION TO COMMITTEE

After careful consideration of the scheme as submitted, and having regard to the site’s planning history and the current planning policy and legislative position, on balance the proposal is considered acceptable.  The objections referring to the lack of a Community Benefits Package, as previously agreed, have been considered, however, it is not considered that such a package would meet with the required statutory tests now in place and such requirements were not a definitive pre-requisite for the site’s allocation for residential development within the LDP. 

RECOMMENDATION – APPROVAL

2. Extracts from Legal Advice Report to Laugharne Athletic dated 13th November 2017

15.     Hence, when the Council applied the policy tests in relation to the proffered section 106 agreement in 2008, they were applying the same tests as now obtain in 2017.   The only difference is that the former was in policy and the latter in statute.   There is no material difference.

18.     It does not seem to me to be correct to suggest that the issues in 2008 were simply ‘land ownership’ issues.   They were not;  they were about providing appropriate benefits for the town.   The transfer of ownership was a way, and an important way, of securing those benefits (see para. 10, above).   There may well have been other ways of doing so but that does not make the method used illegitimate.   It should not be forgotten that this is a housing development which will put further pressure on facilities in the town and will accentuate the need for recreational opportunities, as was recognised in 2008.   The development will be made ‘more sustainable' as a result of the benefits.

20.     I suppose I should say finally, and at the risk of stating the obvious, that section 38(6) Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 provides that decisions must be made in accordance with the development plan (here, the LDP) “unless material considerations indicate otherwise.”   It might be said that the LDP allocates the site and hence the decision should be that permission will be granted without more ado and certainly not subject to the benefits sought.

21.     In my view that approach would be wrong because ‘material considerations’  –  here the history of the site  –  do ‘indicate otherwise’ and show exactly why the benefits sought should be taken into account and should result in permission being refused unless these benefits, or other acceptable benefits, are proffered.

3. Message from Laugharne Athletic Club Committee

I think you all would agree now that this application has a long complex history and that the Athletic Club and the Community of Laugharne are in a special position and we would like to promise the community that it is the club’s intention to do everything in its power to secure the benefits Mr and Mrs Thomas signed up to previously. 

Remember This:  BBC News Report on Community Benefits

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