Planning and the Environment

An article on the BBC website indicates that the Welsh Government is going to bring forward new planning rules "next month" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-19490475 .  John Griffiths the Minister for the "Environment" has a poor record on planning.  Over the last year he has been pushed repeatedly by me and others to permit small scale renewable installations, such as solar panels, and to include them in the permitted development rules.  He has dragged his feet and delayed, which meant that many people were not able to install when the more preferential rates were available.  One development in Deeside worth millions could not go ahead.  So you would think the news might be good news that new rules are coming out.  My concern is that the new rules will be used to drive through highly controversial onshore windfarm developments.  We will wait to see what the new rules say.  Housing developers have clearly indicated why they are not building at the moment, rules on the environmental standards are the toughest in the UK and that combined with new fire sprinkler requirements are what are holding back developments in North Wales at the moment. If Griffiths wants to kick start the housing sector, then it will be interesting to see if those issues are addressed. 

Local Post Offices

Local Post Offices are a vital link for communities to access services this is particularly true in Delyn which has a large rural community. Around 65% of rural communities have a Post Office, whereas only 10% have a bank branch. The large majority of rural branches are loss-making and it costs £3 million a week to sustain the rural network however, this does not take into account the additional cost of making sure that services are accessible to the vulnerable, elderly or those with young children who will have to get on a bus or into a car in order to access these services in the future. 85% of the rural population live within 2 kilometres of a Post Office - in urban areas this is 99%. Yet rural post offices are likely to be hardest hit.

The closure programe will not just affect rural communities, with the current price of petrol is it right that in order to access these services car use in rural communities will have to increase, at cost to those who tend to earn lower incomes? This is a clear example of the lack of joined up thinking across Government Departments and shows that delivery of local services and joined up thinking on the environment are not priorities for this Government.