POOR WEST BRITONS?

I was wondering the other day whether or not there is a plan for Wales or no doubt West Britain as its called in the darkest reaches of Whitehall. I wonder this because we have two tier planning system within Wales, by this I mean local (county borough) level and UK national level. Planned large scale housing developments in the north east are designed to deal with housing shortages in Merseyside, while those in the south east around Newport appear to exist largely to fill the projected housing gap in the Bristol area.

The planning appeal system, appears to favour the developers (at local people's expense). The planning process in Wales is confusing and designed to work, as far as I can see in a non-devolved planning environment. There appears to be no specific holistic joined up housing plan for Wales, other than to carry on approving housing developments that bring scant benefit to local people and local communities - certainly not cheap affordable housing.

Local democracy on a county borough level has been undermined, as developers (and here we are not just talking about housing) simply appear to me to carry on appealing until they get their way or get their development retrospectively approved at a higher level. Local government officers will (and do)advise local councillors not to turn down developments (whatever the grounds) because the developers will appeal until the cows come home and that local government just does not have.

We appear as far as I can see to be short of plans for Wales for housing, energy and economic development and many other areas. The last national assembly coalition government at least attempted to try and do so something different, when it came to housing, economic development and our infrastructure. The current New Labour government appear to be content to do nothing (as Labour at many levels of government in Wales have done for years) until new Labour is back in power in Westminster and are (as far as I can see) quite happy to remain poor West Britons.