Opposition parties in the Assembly have made a joint plea for the Welsh language to be at the heart of the Planning Bill, in an effort to put pressure on the Welsh Government.
The statement of opinion, which has been tabled by the Assembly Members Russell George, Llyr Huws Gruffydd and William Powell, calling for a number of changes to the Bill such as making the Welsh language a statutory material consideration in the planning system and basing housing targets on local needs.
Russell George, Conservative Assembly Member for Montgomeryshire, said:
“Today, Llyr Huws Gruffydd, William Powell and I have jointly tabled a statement of opinion calling for the status of the Welsh Language to be strengthened in the Planning Bill. We believe that the Welsh Government has a golden opportunity to enshrine the importance of the Welsh Language in the Planning system by giving local councillors the power to permit or refuse developments on the basis of their impact on the Welsh language and establishing a statutory system of Welsh language impact assessments for major planning applications.”
In addition to a cross-party statement of opinion, a number of party leaders from county councils across Wales have signed a letter to Carl Sargent to the same effect, and thousands of cards have been presented by Cymdeithas yr Iaith calling for the language to have a central place in the Planning Bill so that housing developments correspond to local demand.
The calls come after the Assembly environment committee recommended that the Government make a number of amendments to the Bill in order to strengthen the state of the language at a community level.
Welcoming the statement of opinion, Tamsin Davies, Chair of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg's Sustainable Communities Group, said: "There is growing pressure on the Minister to act. Hopefully this will be the wake-up call the civil servants in Cardiff need. The Welsh language deserves more than crumbs from the table, as the committee's report demonstrates. The language needs to be at the very heart of this Bill; it isn't a matter of yielding the minimum to keep people quiet. We are very pleased that a large number of AMs now support the fundamental changes we're calling for, in terms of changing housing targets, giving the Welsh language status, and creating a system of language impact assessments. The Assembly's view is becoming clear. The Minister has a duty to respond properly to this growing consensus. If there is no significant movement from the Government, we are still preparing for a legal challenge in order to force them to change the Bill."
The Planning Bill will be debated on the floor of the Assembly next week (Tuesday, 10th February).