PENARTH councillor Lis Burnett has criticised rival politicians for making “political capital” out of the Vale Council’s draft Local Development Plan (LDP).

Cllr Lis Burnett, cabinet member for regeneration, innovation, planning and transportation, said she was “disappointed” at comments made by Vale MP Alun Cairns and South Wales Central AM Andrew RT Davies.

The Penarth Times recently reported that the Welsh Government (WG) had written to Vale Council planners raising concerns that the authority’s Revised Deposit Local Development Plan did not show enough evidence of growth and it was concerned about the plan’s delivery.

The WG considered there was a shortfall of 500 homes, resulting in raising the housing provision to approximately 10,950 dwellings over the plan period, and said housing provision in the Deposit Plan should be an absolute minimum.

Cllr Burnett, who represents the St Augustines ward, said: “I am disappointed at the comments from Alun Cairns MP and Andrew RT Davies AM, but not surprised, as yet again they unashamedly attempt to make political capital where there is none to be gained.

“As part of the LDP consultation the council has received several representations to the deposit draft plan from public bodies, including those from the Welsh Government. All representations received by the December 20 deadline are currently being recorded and entered onto a database and will be publicly available in the near future.

“All representations, including those from members of the public will be fully considered and until then it is premature to comment on specific representations. However, the council’s officers have already met with WG officials to discuss progress on the LDP, at which time there was a discussion on the representations received.”

She added: “It is interesting to note that there are no ‘Category A‘ objections (the most significant category into the soundness of the plan), unlike the previous unsustainable version produced by the previous administration. The current plan is also backed by an independent sustainability assessment that ranks it as being more sustainable than the previous Conservative administration version.”

She added: “The emotive language used by individuals supposedly in positions of responsibility again does a disservice to their constituents by over-emphasising the comments of WG officials and demonstrating a lack of understanding of the plan-making process.”