FIGHTING THE PLAN!

The news that the the South Sebastopol plan, which has faced strong local opposition, with concern over traffic, wildlife and the loss of green space has been rejected is to be welcomed. Torfaen Councillors voted to refuse the plans at an extraordinary and somewhat heated meeting on Thursday. Torfaen council had originally agreed to grant planning permission in 2004, subject to a legal agreement on environmental safeguards.

The vote to refuse the development will hopefully be duly ratified by a meeting of the full council in September. The desire to build on the last remaining 'green space' between Cwmbran and Pontypool is not new,  original proposals to build the large housing estate provoked significant outcry when originally unveiled in the mid 1990s.

The pressure group “Fight the Plan” was formed in 1996 with the aim of stopping the development. No doubt the council officers will be unhappy, no doubt the developer will appeal, but lets hope that Torfaen council actually supports the decision to throw out this planning application.

In the south east, along the coastal belt around Newport and in and around Torfaen, the last twenty years has seen a spectacular growth in the amount of housing, a significant percentage of which has never been aimed at fulfilling local housing needs.

As a result the infrastructure along the coastal belt between Chepstow, Caldicot, Rogiet and Magor is struggling to cope with existing developments and this is well before the projected expansion of housing on and around the former Llanwern site. The north of Newport has now been linked effectively to the south Cwmbran - something that has brought little material benefit to either urban area.

As I have said before, we need to take the long view and to create Welsh Green belt land with the legal and planning protections then, we might go some way to calming things down when it comes to development planning. This would also enable us to introduce a more longer term element into the process by which our elected officials (and council officers) plan and view development and redevelopment within and around our urban and not so urban communities.

This is something that could be accomplished by creating Welsh Green belt land, as part of the process we also need an urgent and open debate into the planning process in Wales - something that has been long overdue. It is worth noting that Wales only has one notional green belt, and that lies between Cardiff and Newport, Scotland has seven and Northern Ireland has 30 - each has its own policy guidance. it is important to note that once the Green belt or Green wedge is gone it is gone for ever, we cannot restore it.