Penybanc row set to continue

The decision by the planning committee of Carmarthenshire County Council to give the go-ahead to a Guernsey-based developer to build 289 houses at Penybanc near Ammanford is controversial even by Carmarthenshire's standards.

A rally is being organised in Penybanc by local residents and Cymdeithas yr Iaith for Saturday, 20 April at 11.30 a.m.

The organisers point out that Penybanc is just one of a number of proposed massive housing developments in the county, and that this is something which should be of concern to people from across Carmarthenshire.

A request to have the plans called in has now gone to Carl Sargeant. The main issue is that the site had an allocation of just 150 houses under the current Unitary Development Plan, whereas the council's planning officers were happy to use an allocation of 250 houses from the as yet unadopted Local Development Plan, plus 39 more for good measure.

It wasn't just the officers who performed somersaults to get this plan pushed through, but also some of the local Labour councillors who switched sides after initially rejecting the plan in December.

To be fair, some of the local Labour members were in favour of the development from the word go, including it seems Cllr Anthony Jones, who also happens to be the chair of the planning committee. Questions are now being asked as to whether Cllr Jones was in breach of the code of conduct because he allegedly spoke in favour of the plan previously.

The South Wales Guardian reported during the week that the approval on 28 March took local residents and objectors completely by surprise because they had been assured by planning officers that no decision would be taken at the planning meeting.

If you can, please come along next Saturday to send a message back to County Hall that the people of Carmarthenshire have had enough of greedy developers and cynical manipulation of the planning system.