Tens of thousands have their say on planning blueprint

THOUSANDS of residents, businesses and communities have been having their say on the future shape of our city in one of the council’s longest-running consultation exercises.

The Local Development Plan will provide a blueprint for the future uses of land right across the city for the next decade, including opportunities for new housing, industrial, retail, leisure and green space developments.

The council has been determined to make sure residents play a full part in reaching the final proposals and over the last five years more than 50,000 responses to the consultation have been received.

Last year the Council agreed the preferred strategy for the LDP which proposed  that in the next decade the city will need land for more than 17,000 new homes and provide for 14,000 new jobs.

Next spring the council intends to publish a final draft version of the LDP for another round of consultation and Robert Francis-Davies, Cabinet Member for Enterprise, Development & Regeneration, said it would be vital that all communities continue to have their say.

He said: “The LDP has been a work in progress since late 2009 and is scheduled to receive final endorsement by the Welsh Government in 2017. Projects like these are designed to take a long time because the implications are wide-ranging and will have an impact for many years to come.

“The LDP is designed to allocate land for specific purposes such as industrial development, schools, housing and green space. It’s vital we get the mix right. If there’s not enough space allocated for industrial development then we risk stifling economic prosperity.

“At the same time if we don’t allocate enough space for housing, then the risk is that too many families can’t find or afford a decent place to live. At the same time we also need to make sure there’s enough green space for people to enjoy.

“The Council has gone the extra mile to engage with local business, communities, site promoters and individual residents in the process and I’m delighted they have responded in kind.”

Over the summer the council’s planning committee staged special meetings to look at potential candidate sites, formally consider the petitions received from objectors and listen to the views of site promoters.

The results of those meetings were reported to Council last month and have now been endorsed to be incorporated into the draft deposit LDP which is due for a period of public consultation next spring.

Find out more at www.swansea.gov.uk/ldp