Archive - Thursday, 3 January 2002


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Grange plans not to be 'called in'

Controversial plans by Pembrokeshire County Council to develop the Grange at Fishguard will not be called in by Assembly Environment Minister, Sue Essex.

The news has been condemned by Nick Bourne, AM for Mid and West Wales and Welsh Conservative leader in the National Assembly, as disappointing and frankly unbelievable.

The councils planning application proposes creating a second access road to Fishguard High School off Vergam Terrace.

Outline planning permission was granted in 1998 to build a new junior and infants school with community education facilities on the Grange. Local opposition against the development has been strong.

A group called North Pembrokeshire Community Objective (NPCO) was set up to fight the plans. Opponents of the plans say the influx of more children to the same part of Fishguard will create a dangerous build-up of traffic.

If ever there was a situation that clearly needed looking into, it is this one, said Nick Bourne.

This is a controversial planning application against which a great many local people are opposed and yet the decision-maker is the same authority as the applicant.

This is a nonsense that must be obvious to just about everybody bar the Minister for the Environment.

He said in the course of this process, the council had lost an unfavourable police report to the proposed access from Vergam Terrace and earlier in the year lost a 250-name petition against a proposed access from Vergam Terrace.

In June, questions were raised about the possible alterations of date stamps on official documents which set out the councils application renewal, he said.

Whatever the explanation for this, it is clear that there are questions to be answered and the only way that local residents can ensure that a fair decision is made is if an independent review is made of the whole process.

I warmly welcome the police report on this matter and I shall continue to campaign against the ridiculous situation where a council can grant itself permission for a controversial development without an independent review.