Councillors have called for smaller housing targets and more democratic oversight in the Vale of Glamorgan's new local development plan.

Local development plans are major council policies setting out where and how much building should take place across an area.

Next month Vale of Glamorgan council will begin a series of public consultations on replacing its development plan, looking at what priorities and issues should be considered.

Then the long replacement process begins in earnest next summer when the council will call for candidate sites to be put forward for potential housing developments or employment use.

Several other consultations will take place and the plan will be revised before finally being signed off in October 2025, although this is just a target date and the plan could be delayed.

But this week councillors on the environment and regeneration scrutiny committee have raised concerns about the replacement plan and called for changes to be made early on.

During the scrutiny meeting on Tuesday, October 19, Plaid Councillor Ian Johnson said: "The local development plan is one of the most controversial pieces of council policy that we have. In 2012, the administration was changed after a campaign to scrap the LDP and 700 houses that were due to be developed at Weycock Cross were removed from the LDP and things were shifted around. We've also had campaigns on the number of houses in the LDP.

"I have a concern that the timetable here lacks a democratic accountability juncture. We start this process in 2022, after the next set of local elections, and it's completed in 2025 ahead of the next set of elections.

"Now if I were a planning officer or a Welsh Government official looking for a smooth delivery, then that's a great timetable. But I want to raise a concern that—although there is consultation—there's no point at which the wider general public have an opportunity to say 'actually no, I really don't like this and I believe something else should happen'.

"So I worry we'll have a very technical process and lots of the concerns which may come up, particularly in 2024, could be brushed to one side or removed or reduced by technical responses."

Another concern raised was the number of new homes needed to be built in the Vale of Glamorgan. The current development plan—taking into account factors like forecasted population growth and economic growth—suggested the Vale needed thousands of new homes, which proved very controversial when the plan was being drawn up.

Conservative Cllr Vince Bailey said: "There was a lot of discussion around the time we adopted [the current plan], about the Welsh Government imposing housing targets. I remember being assured that this review stage would be an opportunity to make the case for fewer homes. We feel we're being asked to build a disproportionate number of homes.

"If we do have an opportunity to challenge the number of homes contained within the plan or to change that, when can we start doing that and why aren't we starting already? Because it feels a little passive at the moment."

Marcus Goldsworthy, the council's head of planning, told the committee that the timescale was set according to guidance from the Welsh Government. But he added delays were likely. He also said the council's planning department was hoping for smaller housing targets in the replacement plan.

He said: "We already have an LDP, so this isn't necessarily a completely new redraft. This is a review of the LDP that we currently have to update. The reason the timescale has been set out like this is to meet the guidance set out by the Welsh Government. But there will undoubtedly be slippage, because the way these things work something will happen and cause slippage. I'll be very surprised if we actually manage to keep to that timescale.

"I hope we will have lower numbers than last time. The Vale took a lot of housing in the current LDP and our view is we would probably be looking for lower numbers. But I can give no guarantees that's where we'll end up."

Once sites are earmarked for development, either for housing or employment, it can be difficult for local communities to prevent planning applications getting approval. One example is Model Farm, east of Cardiff Airport, which was earmarked as a potential major employment site in the current development plan.

The current plan sets out how land across the Vale of Glamorgan should be developed until 2026. The replacement plan would cover a period of 15 years, up until 2036, taking into account how the population of the Vale is likely to grow over that time.

Other factors likely to influence the replacement development plan include climate change and the coronavirus pandemic, and how local planning policies can adapt to tackle both crises.