Welsh Government asked to review planning decisions

* County Hall in Ruthin where the decisions were taken.

The Welsh Government has been asked to “call in” Denbighshire planning committee’s controversial decisions of yesterday (Wednesday) to approve schemes to build a Sainsbury’s supermarket on land currently occupied by the Dobson & Crowther envelope factory in Berwyn Street and create a replacement factory on open land at nearby Cilmedw Farm.

The request has come from the Keep Llangollen Special (KLS) community group, which is strongly opposed to both schemes.

As revealed by llanblogger within hours of the meeting, committee members backed the supermarket plan by 21 votes to four with a list of conditions attached which were proposed by Llangollen county councillor Rhys Hughes.

The green light was given despite pleas for its refusal from Friends of the Earth, whose representative said it would ruin Llangollen’s vitality and viability, and from the Co-op whose agent claimed it would cut its trade by over 40%.  

The Cilmedw scheme won the unanimous (25-0) backing of the committee, again in the face of objections from local groups.

Backers of the twin schemes argued Llangollen would welcome a “prestigious” Sainsbury’s store and spoke of the importance of the jobs they would create and preserve.

But in a statement issued after the meeting, KLS says: 

“The Keep Llangollen Special community group, alongside the Llangollen Civic Society and the Llangollen Friends of the Earth, were present at this morning’s Planning Committee meeting  when two major planning applications were approved by the Planning Committee. All three groups spoke against these proposals, but to no avail.

“Keep Llangollen Special deplores this decision. We believe councillors never discussed nor appreciated the scale of the risk involved. There is no example anywhere of an edge-of-town supermarket of the proposed scale ever benefitting a town centre, and we face a bleak future – and with it, the focal point of tourism for the North East of Wales. We know a dead town centre will blight the AONB status we have and wreck the World Heritage site we are the source of.

“Denbighshire County Council, in its short-sightedness, faces costly regeneration as the local economy collapses. We therefore appeal to the Welsh Government to consider our request to call in these applications, and to heed warnings of legal challenges which Denbighshire has just received.”

KLS makes further comments on the issue on its own website at: www. en.keepllangollenspecial.org.uk

llanblogger is keen to carry as diverse a range of views on this story as possible. To comment, e-mail us at llanblogger@gmail.com