I love local democracy, politics, all those things. The social media comments in response to the new Lidl being built in our town have been prettry scathing with fears over the impact on traffic at the Morrisons roundabout.
Did you know that councillors in Torfaen turned down the application. And did you know that refusing Lidl permission led to a £16,950 bill for the council?
Planning decisions are a simple but complicated process. Councillors can’t just say no to an application based on a hunch. You can submit a planning application for anything to be built anywhere.
But to avoid you wasting your money and time, there is a raft of information and guidance available about generally what will be approved if your application meets all the criteria.
It’s broad but specific.
In Lidl’s case the land in question had been passed as a potential retail development. So Lidl did what all big companies do well and submitted an application that ‘ticked all the boxes’ including data around traffic in the area, the impact of its store and mitigations.
This led to them saying they would widen St David’s Road and insert a ‘right turn only’ lane on St David’s Road.
I’m not sure how many cars arrive or leave a supermarket in an hour but I’d guess Lidl showed the impact on roads would be minimal but of course there are pinch points at certain times on certain days.
Councillors raised the local worries they had seen and been told about by residents when the application came before them.
And they voted against it. They voted knowing that Lidl could appeal and would bring a solid case for their application by showing it met all the necessary requirements under planning law and Torfaen’s Local Development Plan.
Lidl went to the Planning Inspectorate for Wales and gave them their application and reasons why it shouldn’t have been refused.
I don’t think the councillors or council had data to show accidents had increased (or decreased) or happened on a regular basis on the Morrisons roundabout. Lidl had data to argue their case.
So they won and Torfaen was sent a £17,000 bill for costs.
The local media tries it best to follow and watch what happens at council meetings including checking all the reports and papers. And then report back to keep the public informed.
Councillors represented local people’s views during the Lidl application and voted against it.
This article is to help Cwmbran Life readers understand and hopefully see what actually happened against what they think happened for this decision to be made.
I’m not for or against the new supermarket being there. I’m just a local politics geek who likes trying to help readers understand the process and steps on decisions are made.
And remember it all happened at public meetings that are streamed online and available to view by anyone.
If any planning officers or councillors want to comment and add or correct anything please do so- or send me a message and I’ll anonymously correct or add to this story.