Local Development Plan

11 March 2010

Last year Monmouthshire County Council began the consultation on their new Local Development Plan.  This included three potential sites for development in Devauden (click here for details).  The results of the consultation have now been published as wells as some supporting information, such as, ecological assessments of the sites.

Some of this information is relevant to the sites in Devauden and appears to include some anomalies.  Anyone wishing to submit comments on the Report of Consultation or supporting information must send them to the Development Plans Team at the address below by 4.30pm, Friday 19 March 2010.

The reports are all available on the council's website. 

Here are the links to the two most relevant documents:

LDP Ecological Site Assessments in Monmouthshire

This is the section that includes the sites in Devauden (pages 724 to 747). 

Function and Hierarchy of Settlements Study

The information for this study was collected in 2008 and so some of the information is out of date.  Councillor Robert Greenland contacted the Development Plans Manager and has received clarification about some of the points in the report.  For example:

• Devauden has a Post Office - it closed after the study was undertaken.
• Devauden has a Youth Club - this refers to the Scouts and Beavers.
• Devauden has a sports ground  - this is hall grounds (which may be a bit of an exaggeration).  Interestingly, Caerwent has several football pitches, changing rooms and a club house but that is not included as a sports ground in the report.
• Devauden has work opportunities - this is the garage/petrol station.  Devauden is one of the few settlements listed in the study to that have this criteria ticked.  Shirenewton School, for example, employs about five times as many people as the garage in Devauden but that is not included.

Whether you view the addition of more housing in Devauden as a good thing or a bad thing it is important that the council bases their decisions on accurate information and it is worrying to see details which are incorrect or out of date being used to inform the officers and councillors.  Hopefully this will be rectified  but if you have any other comments on the proposed sites  then you should send them to the address below.

The address for your comments is:
 Development Plans,
 Monmouthshire County Council,
 County Hall,
 Cwmbran,
 NP44 2XH
 Email: developmentplans@monmouthshire.gov.uk