Plaid's decision to abolish Local Development Plans welcomed

Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg members have welcomed Plaid Cymru's conference decision, held over the weekend in Llangollen, to scrap every Local Development Plan in Wales.

An action committee has been established by the language campaign group in Gwynedd and Ynys Môn because of fears about the counties' plans to build eight thousand houses. Speaking on behalf of the group, Ben Gregory commented:

“After a year of picketing, letter-writing, and protesting against Gwynedd-Môn's plan for thousands more houses, we as a committee welcome this important decision. In practice, Plaid Cymru run two local authorities in Wales - Gwynedd and Ceredigion. We therefore expect these two councils to acknowledge their annual conference's decision and to do everything possible in their power, to implement the decision in line with Plaid members' wishes.”

Tamsin Davies, Cymdeithas yr Iaith's sustainable communities' spokeswoman added:

“As a group which has been campaigning and highlighting the obvious dangers of local development plans to the state of the language and our communities for more than two years, we welcome Plaid Cymru's decisions, and see a genuine opportunity ahead of us now to begin a national conversation about these plans.”

Wording of motion passed at Plaid Cymru's conference: 

"Conference recognises the threat to Wales imposed by Local Development Plans, which in many cases undermine local communities, language and culture. 

"Conference also recognises the waste of time and money spent on producing these plans for each authority when it is likely that local government will be reorganised before the end of the lifetime of these plans. 

"Conference acknowledges the illogical nature of the LDPs when the Welsh Government is embracing regional development across the board. 

"Conference rejects the need for large scale green field release for development when many brown field sites exist and there are thousands of long term empty houses in Wales. 

"Conference calls upon Plaid Cymru AMs to press for the abolition of LDPs and the putting in place of emergency measures to protect green field sites and local communities from unwanted development"