RESIDENTS publicly challenged Carmarthenshire County Council’s radical plan to scrap Carmarthenshire’s 18 ‘Special Landscape Areas’ at the Monday’s Cabinet Meeting at County Hall.

Planning Lead Cllr Ann Davies was grilled about the Council’s plan to axe Carmarthenshire’s 18 special landscapes and changes to its policy on putting cables underground.

Carmarthenshire is well known and widely appreciated for its beautiful unspoilt countryside. So much so that Carmarthenshire County Council had formally designated 18 such areas in its Local Development Plan, including the Towy and Cothi Valleys. Thereby affording protection within the planning system from detrimental development.

Significantly, these designations have been successfully used by residents to stop pylons and windfarms. These have included the Llanllwni Mountain Windfarm in 2014 and the Brechfa Windfarm cables where they now cross the Towy Valley underground.

But these Special Landscape Areas – and the protection the designation carries – are now being swept away by the new Local Development Plan currently under consultation.

Residents are concerned that the new Local Development Plan ‘double downgrades’ Carmarthenshire’s landscapes. Not only does it strip residents of an important tool to object to destructive development, it also slashes the amount of potential compensation or mitigation available. Great for developers – not so good for residents. And a major blow to the local tourism economy, which is based on the county’s greatest asset: our special, historic landscapes.

Residents’ campaigner Havard Hughes commented: “Carmarthenshire County Council has been quick to talk tough on pylons. However, their actions on the local plan speak louder than these words and jeopardise our landscapes. By taking this risky approach to our landscapes they are putting our tourism economy and heritage in jeopardy.

Natural Resources Wales has blown the whistle on the Council’s plans by questioning the loss of the Special Landscape Areas such as the Towy Valley. Yet Carmarthenshire County Council seems unwilling or unable to produce the evidence base for abolishing the Special Landscapes designation.

Councils across Wales are coming under huge pressure from developers to give them more freedom to put up pylons, windfarms and solar arrays. We fear that this plan as it stands will strip residents of tried and tested protections. These protections are good enough for our neighbouring counties such as Ceredigion and Swansea so why not Carmarthenshire?

The Plaid Cymru administration’s new Local Development Plan is the most radical rewriting of our planning rules since the creation of Carmarthenshire County Council. We will now be challenging them under the Freedom of Information Act to uncover the evidence for these changes.”