The Welsh Government has decided to revoke Technical Advice Note (TAN) 1: Joint Housing Land Availability Studies (January 2015) in its entirety. The decision, which Janet Finch-Saunders, Assembly Member for Aberconwy, has long campaign for, has been welcomed by her as a “common sense move”.
It is TAN 1 which included the controversial point at paragraph 6.2, which meant that where there is a land supply below the 5 year requirement or where the local planning authority has been unable to undertake a study, the need to increase supply is given ‘considerable weight’ when dealing with planning applications.
Following the Welsh Government’s decision, Janet said:
“I welcome the scrapping of TAN 1 and that we can finally close the door on all the trouble it has caused.
“This Welsh Government document and its toxic policy at 6.2 has helped see controversial planning applications driven through in Aberconwy.
“Due to the fact that according to Welsh Government methodology, which I oppose, Conwy has less than a five year housing land supply, TAN 1 was enabling developers to successfully appeal rejected planning applications on the basis that considerable weight needed to be given to the alleged housing land supply shortage.
“In objecting to developments in the Conwy area, this Welsh Labour policy was our communities’ Achilles heel, so I am delighted that it has been revoked.
“It is just a shame that this common sense move has taken so long to be implemented.
“Just imagine, if it had been implemented sooner, we could potentially have saved a number of green fields for urbanisation”.
ENDS
[Photo by Sandy Millar.]
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