Anglesey - Island of Opportunity?

Anglesey "ENTERPRISE ZONE?"

Welsh AM Edwina Heart has announced five new Enterprise Zones in Wales responding to Tory plans announced earlier in 2011.

The first five enterprise zones will include Anglesey, Ebbw Vale, StAthan, Cardiff and Deeside.

This is a SIGNIFICANT step forward for Anglesey likely to reap huge benefits.

An earlier story HERE called for Anglesey to be awarded EZ status last year.

This is fantastic news for Anglesey and a step in the right direction. I predict an increase in the salaries of Anglesonians!

The item that does need urgent repealing is the new law that requires all homes in Wales to have sprinklers. This is an "on cost" of £3,500 per new home.....whatever happened to smoke detectors?

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Anglesey - latest Ombudsman report 200901501 (planning and highways)

Herewith problems encountered by Mr W and his complaint against Anglesey Council

Download Mr W

Post your comments here!!

 

Anglesey - Could Anglesey benefit if Wales had "EZ" status?

Herewith below a link to Conservatives Spring Conference held in Cardiff.....where it was announced that in England, EZ's or Enterprise Zones are likely to be set up in perhaps 10 locations.

The Thatcher Government is credited with setting up EZ's in the 1980's to assist bring back life "end on era one industry town areas" such as Swansea, Corby, Dearne Valley previously dominated by steel and coal industries.

London's Docklands also became one of the so called "Simplified Planning Areas" that stimulated activity particularly growth through investment.

See EZ proposals here: BBC Website 5th March 2011

But will the Con Lib Government have the power to impose EZ's in Wales?

I previously commented here that "Growth is the key to prosperity" and hence the latest progressive announcement by the Con Lib Government. However, can the Con Lib government introduce EZ's in Wales as these plus a raft of measures are necessary to return to prosperity for all.

Furthermore, Anglesey would benefit enormously if it became a Simplified Planning Zone "SPZ" which would unlock the current "planning lottery" of Anglesey which rather depends upon "who you are" to determine your chances of success would be swept aside for commercial property.

Let me explain, within an SPZ, the rules are just a loose framework, all that is required is "building regulations" hence allowing buildings to just be built - circumventing the entire charade of development control and planning committee approval process.

Although the SPZ in reality relates to a precise defined area and commercial uses only, if, for instance, Holyhead and Llangefni had this status, then it would result in a construction boom in an area held back by WAG, indecision and flawed forward planning for the past decade.

I shall be writing to IWJ (assuming he has woken up by the election) and Cheryl Gillan to establish whether EZ's and SPZ is possible for two areas in Anglesey.

EZ's, SPZ's and other "tools" such as business start up assistance are required to get Wales and particularly Anglesey on it's feet.

Deputy First Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones AM (IWJ) has been in power long enough, his "intray" is populated by many companies eager to locate in Wales, moreover Anglesey however IWJ seems to have just ignored perfectly good proposals, favouring to "keep things as they are" which would seem to be a deliberate Plaid Cymru policy......but is nevertheless denying everyone of future jobs, homes and prosperity as IWJ has contributed to putting Anglesey in the economic abyss.

Ieuan Wyn Jones AM not only ignores his intay of "companies wishing to locate in Anglesey", thereby denying the working population of employment be they of Welsh or English origin;but he also ensures THE PEOPLE OF ANGLESEY NEVER EVEN GET TO KNOW ABOUT IT...!!

How do we know which companies "wanted to locate in Anglesey" but were ignored - because the confidentiality aspect of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is used to prevent FOI requests yielding anything damaging.

As the Economic Minister, IWJ has contributed to ensuring companies are turned away from Anglesey.

The electorate always vote with their feet, its about time they did some walking!

Anglesey - ConLib to push housing but what about WAG?

The Sunday Times business section article (herewith) of 16/05/10 (page 5) regarding scarry planning policy cannot get any scarrier than Anglesey Council.

In 2005 Angleseys Corporate Director was talking about 2,400 homes for the plan period of the UDP from 2001 - 2016 however this was trimmed back to 1,800 by The Planning Inspector. The UDP was subsequently stopped (rather than preferably scrapped) in December 2005 but adopted for development control only.

The Corporate Director's stance in May 2005 was to seek expansion of housing in Anglesey so why in 2010 has the Council put a stop on new housing development?

Currently Anglesey Councils LDP is frozen at the point of pre-deposit draft in December 2008.

Jobs and homes remain the Councils priority so why is nothing happening?

3,000 people are registered as in need of accommodation in Anglesey so why is this point being totally ignored?

Shared equity schemes have been so successful that all new build housing stock has been sold. Developers have now returned to building market housing.

Returning to my previous point, if in 2005 The Corporate Director was pushing for 2,400 new homes in the UDP, why are The Council now restricting the building of new homes?

Anglesey is a great place spoilt by some terrible duplicitous decision making.

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Blog posted here.

Aglesey - Aldi given the rough end of the pineapple by Councils planning department

The German retail company is the latest outfit to find out just how hard it is to "do business in Anglesey." We are given to understand that whilst Aldi had pre-application discussions with The Corporate Director of Anglesey Council the retailer was led to believe that the road that you see now (between Lon y Felin and The Industrial Estate Road) stopped up would be extended and widened to replace Bridge Street as the principal route into the town centre from The Industrial Estate Road. Furthermore, it is said, some reliance was placed upon the matters discussed and agreed at that meeting viz; Aldi expected the proposed roadworks to be implemented. Aldi now find themselves cut off from public access unless this is via the Lidl store access - not a satisfactory solution for any retailer especially if promises were made. Again, I refer back to a previous posting here about recording meetings pre-application. Another retailer alienated from Anglesey!

Anglesey - Council Planning Department strangles "private investment and development"

Holyhead & Anglesey Mail edition of 21st April 2010 featured an article "Developer at end of tether" and the article can be seen here.

The Council spokesman's response to criticism from businesses, builders and developers is contained in the article however part of it has been quoted (below) for your convenience:

 "However council members and officers must always be careful in their dealings with developers, given the significant financial benefits to developers which can arise from a successful planning application."

In case anyone had not realised, property development is about risk and reward, so the Council spokesman is either insinuating that "financial benefits" means in this context "turning a profit" or read the other way insinuates that council officers or members are opening themselves up to a bribe"

Profit seems to be a dirty word.....surely they realise that profit leads to re-investment, jobs, prosperity?

The Council spokesman ought to be careful as their statement is deliberately double-edged and could be misconstrued.

Moreover readers need to be aware of this "beware of the developer" nonsense put out by Anglesey Council's spokesman because it serves to confirm details here of how senior officers within Anglesey Council are attempting to usurp the authority of elected politicians.

As previously pointed out, some senior officers are strangling investment and development by trying to prevent legitimate and reasonable discussions between those wanting to invest in Anglesey and the politicians they wish to meet. Justification of refusing such contact is to cite the danger of council members meeting without officers as this could put members at risk of suspicion of working with developers for (possible financial) advantage. Clearly senior officers feel they are the "gatekeepers" to members and this leaves members inaccessible thereby potentially spoiling legitimate discussion. Does this mean that non-developers such as businesses, hoteliers and entrepreneurs are tarred with the same brush? Are they not allowed to meet with Councillors for fear that their businesses as a consequence benefit or perform better? Clearly there is an undercurrent of anti-business and anti-private investment.

The other statement made by The Council spokesman was:

 "Whilst always wishing to work positively with the private sector, this will not be achieved at the expense of the local and national planning guidance and we must always guard against those who would seek to bring inappropriate influence to bear on the authority"

What can we draw from this statement?

1. Timing is everything (as they say)

The Planning Inspector takes a dim view of LPA's being unable to deliver a timely planning framework. Inspectors may allow planning appeals because developers cannot be reasonably be expected to wait for LPA's to deliver their planning framework years behind schedule.

2. Inappropriate influence to bear on the authority!

The Council are seemingly quite happy to amble along at their own speed of doing things but are unwilling to be rushed? Failure to deliver in the private sector equates to loss of business and corporate failure so why can't these guys perform? With 3,400 Council employees, one would expect savings could be made, staff hired and fired and the LDP (Anglesey's Priority) delivered within the timetable dates agreed with WAG.

The Council's Planning Department is in denial of it's bad attitude and poor performace....critics face twisted words possibly defamation.

Readers should be aware that a national supermarket chain have said that after getting the "rough end of the pineapple" from the LPA they would not open another store in Anglesey.

Remember, officers are there as politically neutral paid public servants to execute orders of politicians but as ever Anglesey Council is experiencing a power struggle at even this level.

Stay tuned.

Why pre-planning application submission confidential discussion records need to be thorough

Recent experience has taught us that Ynys Mon Estates' planning application for the regional shopping centre proposal at Llanfairpwll was less than straightforward. In particular, when the application was announced, it also came to light via a newspaper report that "Anglesey Council had been in confidential discussions with the developer for over 12 months prior to the application being registered with The Council. Nothing wrong there. However upon FOI Act 2000 requests it emerged that there were irregularities. For instance, meeting minutes refer to "another" as the person whose name is not recorded in a meeting between developers, WAG and Anglesey Council. How could this be allowed to happen in a democracy? There is an opportunity to change this covert mentality by having a red and green information system. Red refers to private and confidential, green is "open." Hence, pre-planning application private and confidential discussions cease to be confidential at the point where the planning application is registered with the Council viz; the green light. Therefore any confidential discussion is fully recorded in minutes but released when red turns to green. This makes the whole system more transparent. Furthermore, planning officers could not renege on points agreed because they would be fully recorded in minutes. This is the way forward for Anglesey Planning. End

Blog posted here.

Anglesey Council "machine" stifles Parc Cybi investment and development

Readers will be alarmed but not altogether surprised that Anglesey Council is failing to deliver key projects that provide significant jobs.

On Tuesday of last week Welsh Country Foods (Gaerwen) confirmed another 180 job losses as it's key partner, ASDA reports a slump in demand for lamb.

On the flip side, a detailed planning application for 140,000 sq ft of B1 Office and mainly B8 Distribution was deferred with the reason citing "technical advice." The application should have been heard before the Council's full committee because applications that create in excess of 200 jobs are normally heard by the Council Full Comittee. Why was this matter of "being referred to Full Council" not cited rather than "technical advice?"

Again this is the Anglesey Council "machine" working at it's best; machine meaning the combination of officer and member efforts.

Anyone who attended the actual planning committee meeting would have had a completely different impression from what was said.

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Wind turbine plant proposed for Anglesey - but where?

Readers will have read about the "Strategic Mess" that WAG and Anglesey Council have got themselves into regarding:

1. Securing permission for B1/B2/B8 at Parc Cybi

2. Proposing "housing" at Parc Cybi and ignoring the Planning Inspectors' UDP advice

3. Inviting "The Ministry of Justice" to include Parc Cybi as a potential prison site.

Therefore were does the "potential wind turbine manufacturing plant" get built? Where is this site? I'm pointing out the obvious but so many uses and only one site in Holyhead......!

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Wylfa and Rhosgoch - would both lead to traffic chaos?

Readers will be aware that after twelve years of Government we are no wiser in knowing if Wylfa B, C and D NPP's are proceeding.

Although the Horizon consortia have purchased land, no decision will be made by the government until after the election - why?

Imagine a prison also being located on the former Shell site at Rhosgoch which has a 1in 7chance of happening. These are long build projects and Wylfa alone will at it's peak generate 10,000 jobs. The prison build contract could take 3 years and 500 men.

Has Anglesey Council examined the highways issues and traffic generation, particularly the conflict between local residents and workers getting to and from both sites?

Traffic generation and traffic chaos is a factor that ought to be considered as part of a prison site selection process.

Rhosgoch is unsuitable because of .the above and poor quality infrastructure to the locality from the A55.

The foregoing problems rule out the Council owned former Shell Rhosgoch site.

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Blog posted here.