In his latest blog for Caerphilly Observer, Caerphilly AM Hefin David talks about future plans for the Local Development Plan, supporting local businesses, and tackling hate crime.
LDP – What next?
On July 18, Caerphilly County Borough Council agreed to withdraw its draft Local Development Plan (LDP) following a period of public consultation. Residents and campaigners were strongly opposed to the plan for a number of reasons. I have argued in previous blogs and during the Assembly election campaign that LDPs are fundamentally flawed because they follow only local authority boundaries and do not connect very with those plans in neighbouring authorities.
With this in mind, Caerphilly Council has committed to being a lead authority in producing a South East Wales Regional Plan (or ‘Strategic Development Plan’), which will consider connections across council borders and try and avoid the build-up of housing in certain areas, like the south of Caerphilly. I will do my best to make sure that residents’ voices continue to be heard in its production and I will keep you informed of how things are going. In the meantime, Caerphilly will co-operate with other authorities in planning matters.
Managing Brexit and tackling hate crime
On July 13, I spoke in the Senedd about the outcome of the EU referendum and the need to manage Brexit in the interests of Wales and Caerphilly in particular. You can watch my speech here. I mentioned the fact that incidents of hate crime had recently increased following the referendum. I supported a Caerphilly Council motion from Cllr Roy Saralis calling for action to tackle hate crime. It isn’t just violent actions that can be causes of hate – our words too can wound deeply and we all have a responsibility, politicians included, to act respectfully to one another.
Pension campaigners
In a Senedd debate in June, I asked Mark Drakeford AM, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance to back Women Against State Pension Inequality, or WASPI, a group across Wales who are fighting deeply unfair consequences of the Pensions Act 2011 legislation. The UK Government Act has left tens of thousands of women born after 6 April 1951 with much reduced pensions. Mark Drakeford agreed to continue to campaign on this and called directly on the UK Government to introduce fairer arrangements.
Local business support
I’m also in the process of setting up an ‘Economy and Enterprise’ project, which will involve listening to businesses in our community and coming up with a better way of supporting and working with our small businesses. I’ve already held some meetings with traders and will continue to do so. I will be reporting my findings to the local authority and Welsh Government. I’ll tell you more about this project as it develops in future blogs.
Get in contact
My constituency surgeries are now fully up and running. If you want to meet with me, give my office a call on 01443 838542 and we can book you in. I’m also contactable via email-hefin.david@assembly.wales, on www.facebook.com/HefnDavidAM or Twitter @hef4caerphilly.
Please keep in touch.