Completed petition Fix our planning system

We call on the National Assembly of Wales to urge the Welsh Government to fix our planning system; new developments need to be sustainable.

Planning Policy Wales paragraph 4.2.15 states that 'planning authorities must ensure that land is genuinely available or will become available to provide a five year supply of land for housing...' For land to be regarded as genuinely available it must be a site included in a Joint Housing Land Availability Study.

The five year housing supply is putting undue pressure on local authorities at the cost of building unsuitable developments. The JHLAS is flawed: it does not take into account empty houses or the amount of second homes in the area. As a result of the shortage of land, councils feel the need to allow planning permission even if they are aware of infrastructure issues. If councils reject planning permission, the Welsh Planning Inspectorate overrules their decisions at appeal.

Developers are aware of the loopholes in the system and can flaunt a community's vulnerability through large speculative developments outside the Local Development Plan. As these developments are outside the LDP, the sustainability of the area in terms of well-being of the economy, health, transport, and environment are not scrutinised in detail. Even if residents highlight local and national studies/ statistics of an area, their voices are not being heard at appeal level. The Welsh Government need to define 'robust' evidence.

The Well-Being of Future Generations Act 2015 was brought in place to prevent unsustainable development in order to ensure that our future generations would have a chance of a reasonable future. Communities feel that policy and practice does not reflect this.