Cymdeithas yr Iaith has called on Carmarthenshire County Council to make public the correspondence between Leader of the Council, Kevin Madge and Carl Sargent, Welsh Government Minister with responsibility for planning.

According to the timetable published in the Eisteddfod to implement the county council's Welsh language strategy, Kevin Madge was to send letter to Carl Sargent in September urging the re-examination of the impact of developments and planning regulations on the Welsh language. Among the specific calls are:

• To include the Welsh language as a material consideration in the Planning Bill and the Housing Bill;
• To strengthening TAN20 advice note to include measuring the impact of planning on the language;
• That there is further guidance for Planning Authorities on measures to alleviate the impact of developments on the Welsh language
• That the government reconsider the process of predicting the number of dwellings required, taking into account the needs of communities

Sioned Elin, chair of Cymdeithas yr Iaith in Carmarthenshire said:

"It is good that the council recognises the effect planning regulations and developments have on the Welsh language, and is calling on the Welsh Government to do certain things but the public should be able to see the correspondence between the two bodies – including the letter from Kevin Madge and the response from Carl Sargent. The contents may well affect other localities. Cymdeithas has been pressing the Government to create a planning system that works in favour of communities so it will be interesting to see what response the county council has had.
"In addition there are several things the council itself can do. We have already called on the council to direct the committee that has taken over from the Census Working Group to do specific research on the impact of new housing estates on local communities and the Welsh language."