In the first part I described the beginings of the plan to build a new stadium at Pemberton, Llanelli, moving the home of the Lanelli RFC / Scarlets to an out of town site and use the proceeds of the sale of the site of the club's existing stadium and surrounding grounds for a suitable developer to build a huge and profitable housing estate.
Much of the site was, according to the Welsh Government Development Advice Maps issued to planning authorities by Welsh Government was at the time of these plans, a C2 flood plain. C2 is an undefended flood plain and should only be used for vital infrastructure eg. a sewage pumping station . It should not, according to Planning Policy Wales. be used for vulnerable developments such as housing as people, their homes and safety would be at risk. Within a few years the entire site was C2 as sea levels rose.
However it may have been expected that fellow officers in the Planning department and their compliant elected councillors would overlook any planning guidance. A good price for the land to the Scarlets will take them out of debt and in personal correspondence between the Council's Chief executive and The Scarlet's major benefactor Huw Evans, it is confirmed that a generous 106 payment - usually used for local infrastructure related to the area of the development itself,- will be invested instead in the stadium
The County Council senior officers seek to fund the project by developing an old landfill site for a retail park and by selling part of this look to fund the stadium. This site is also on a flood plain, needs considerable preparation and has a large number of mine shafts running underneath it.
What could possibly go wrong?
Unfortunately, Planning Policy Wales, the rules laid down by the Welsh Government can be appealed by anyone asking the WG planning office to call in a planning application which is being recommended for approval but clearly breaches government guidelines. So the application was called in and initially the WAG minister complied and did so.
Help was needed to stop Welsh Government from preventing an estate being build on a dangerous flood plain. It materialised in the person of Peter Hain MP, the Right Honourable Secretary of State for Wales. He decided to write to the Welsh Assembly Minister for Environment,planning and Countryside pointing out how important this planning permission was for the Scarlets in no uncertain terms and is basically asking him to bend the rules in this case. The letter is below, .
After reading this plea from a politician who clearly outranks him, Carwyn obviously wanted to comply. He probably realised that it would look odd, even corrupt, if he just relaxed building regulations on just one flood plain for the convenience of a favoured rugby club. So he relaxed the regulations for the whole of Wales. Any planning authority could now use his letter of instruction to justify building on flood plains and the Environment Agency [now NRW] was told that they no longer had a duty to object to developments an flood plains. Instead they could mitigate the potential flood problems, even if the usual "mitigation" involved raising the land and took no consideration of where the flood water would be displaced to. In order to protect the future of a severely financially challenged rugby club and suck up to the Secretary of state for Wales, Carwyn Jones allowed any planning authority in Wales to build on any old flood plain. Technical advice note 15 can be disregarded as his letter to every local authority in Wales below shows.
.
The message is that he doesn't care about the environment or the safety of the existing local residents in these areas. The underhand actions of the political elites depend on escaping scrutiny and evading publicity. No wonder Tony Blair said that he regretted the Freedom of Information Act.
However, it takes time to find the right documents and a degree of expertise and understanding to put the story together. Many of these underhand actions probably remain hidden from the public.
How can we be happy to be citizens of a country where the rules are suddenly changed quietly without public consultation or any sort of vote by an elected representative under pressure from a more senior politician who acts as a representative of a private sporting club? How we trust Carwyn Jones now with this record of him as a minister changing the rules designed to protect the environment and assure the safety of the people of wales, I presume his motivation was to only to further his career but he has harmed his country without a thought to the protection of people and the environment he was supposed to defend. Selflessness,openness and honesty were obviously not on his personal list of Nolan Principles.
This policy change was only made public to a group of civil servants, tame Associations and industry organisations. Nor even individual AM.s or County Councillors. including elected members of Planning committees, are specifically informed. The copy list includes civil servants and private enterprise professional associations who can now harvest a development bonanza by building on all that cheap flat land next to rivers and the coast which was not previously thought safe to build on.. As far as I know this ministerial letter of instruction has never been rescinded.
Carwyn would of course, get his desired promotion to the post of First Minister.
Part 3 soon!
Siân Caiach,
Much of the site was, according to the Welsh Government Development Advice Maps issued to planning authorities by Welsh Government was at the time of these plans, a C2 flood plain. C2 is an undefended flood plain and should only be used for vital infrastructure eg. a sewage pumping station . It should not, according to Planning Policy Wales. be used for vulnerable developments such as housing as people, their homes and safety would be at risk. Within a few years the entire site was C2 as sea levels rose.
However it may have been expected that fellow officers in the Planning department and their compliant elected councillors would overlook any planning guidance. A good price for the land to the Scarlets will take them out of debt and in personal correspondence between the Council's Chief executive and The Scarlet's major benefactor Huw Evans, it is confirmed that a generous 106 payment - usually used for local infrastructure related to the area of the development itself,- will be invested instead in the stadium
The County Council senior officers seek to fund the project by developing an old landfill site for a retail park and by selling part of this look to fund the stadium. This site is also on a flood plain, needs considerable preparation and has a large number of mine shafts running underneath it.
What could possibly go wrong?
Unfortunately, Planning Policy Wales, the rules laid down by the Welsh Government can be appealed by anyone asking the WG planning office to call in a planning application which is being recommended for approval but clearly breaches government guidelines. So the application was called in and initially the WAG minister complied and did so.
Help was needed to stop Welsh Government from preventing an estate being build on a dangerous flood plain. It materialised in the person of Peter Hain MP, the Right Honourable Secretary of State for Wales. He decided to write to the Welsh Assembly Minister for Environment,planning and Countryside pointing out how important this planning permission was for the Scarlets in no uncertain terms and is basically asking him to bend the rules in this case. The letter is below, .
After reading this plea from a politician who clearly outranks him, Carwyn obviously wanted to comply. He probably realised that it would look odd, even corrupt, if he just relaxed building regulations on just one flood plain for the convenience of a favoured rugby club. So he relaxed the regulations for the whole of Wales. Any planning authority could now use his letter of instruction to justify building on flood plains and the Environment Agency [now NRW] was told that they no longer had a duty to object to developments an flood plains. Instead they could mitigate the potential flood problems, even if the usual "mitigation" involved raising the land and took no consideration of where the flood water would be displaced to. In order to protect the future of a severely financially challenged rugby club and suck up to the Secretary of state for Wales, Carwyn Jones allowed any planning authority in Wales to build on any old flood plain. Technical advice note 15 can be disregarded as his letter to every local authority in Wales below shows.
.
However, it takes time to find the right documents and a degree of expertise and understanding to put the story together. Many of these underhand actions probably remain hidden from the public.
How can we be happy to be citizens of a country where the rules are suddenly changed quietly without public consultation or any sort of vote by an elected representative under pressure from a more senior politician who acts as a representative of a private sporting club? How we trust Carwyn Jones now with this record of him as a minister changing the rules designed to protect the environment and assure the safety of the people of wales, I presume his motivation was to only to further his career but he has harmed his country without a thought to the protection of people and the environment he was supposed to defend. Selflessness,openness and honesty were obviously not on his personal list of Nolan Principles.
This policy change was only made public to a group of civil servants, tame Associations and industry organisations. Nor even individual AM.s or County Councillors. including elected members of Planning committees, are specifically informed. The copy list includes civil servants and private enterprise professional associations who can now harvest a development bonanza by building on all that cheap flat land next to rivers and the coast which was not previously thought safe to build on.. As far as I know this ministerial letter of instruction has never been rescinded.
Carwyn would of course, get his desired promotion to the post of First Minister.
Part 3 soon!
Siân Caiach,
How can anyone expect that Welsh Government would undertake to have a public enquiry into the "strange" behaviour of Carmarthen County Council when they are made aware of this behaviour at the heart of government?
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of a country is Wales where corruption is ignored by our Ministers, as to ignore is to condone. Do we now have to presume there is corruption within our Government?
ReplyDeleteIt is very sad that our national leaders, AMs and an MP think its OK to trash the environment to fund a private Rugby Club. As you will see in future episodes several other AMs decided to put the boot in to the residents of Llanelli to keep a few rich people comfortably funded, although they rationalised it as "saving the Scarlets", I'm sure. Our First Minister has a lot to explain to the people who live in Sandy and Stradey, but it only the ferocity and dedication of local activists that has exposed these letters after the fact. This may have happened in many areas of the Government of Wales and is still hidden from us behind the facade of integrity presented to us. Once you find something that looks like corruption, you begin to question everything.
ReplyDeleteAn extraordinary story, from beginning to end: on a technical point, are local authorities allowed to use Section 106 money on the development in question, rather than local infrastructure? If not, was this challenged?
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