A DINAS Powys councillor has criticised the Vale of Glamorgan Council cabinet's decision to approve the Local Development Plan (LDP).

Plaid Cymru councillor Chris Franks said the Labour-led cabinet had ignored public opinion in rubber stamping the proposals to build more than 10,000 houses in the Vale.

He said that a number of people will be disappointed with the report presented to cabinet and are concerned with the number of houses which are planned.

"Plaid exposed the weakness in the projected housing need by quoting the Welsh Government's own figures. We have proved that the Vale needs nearer half the number proposed. So they have been forced to desperately include additional considerations to seek to justify the numbers.

"Also the routes of potential bypasses around Dinas Powys and Llysworney have been specifically excluded from the plan."

He claims there has been little response to residents' concerns regarding the fact that the infrastructure may not be able to cope with the extra traffic generated by the building.

Cllr Franks went on to say: "Again there is little reference to rail services. Welsh Government has failed to ensure the services to Cardiff and Bridgend are upgraded to cope with the demand."

Vale cabinet members insist they have responded to every representation that they could find and have dealt with each to the best of their ability.

They stress they they have undertaken a lengthy consultation process during which they have received thousands of responses including some supporting the plan.

But Cllr Franks said: "The Vale Council and the Welsh Government simply want more houses and they are determined to have their way.

"We have been let down by Jane Hutt AM and indeed Vaughan Gethin AM for Penarth.

"They have not backed residents and are content to see the quality of life affected by these plans. Their silence has been deafening.”

Jane Hutt responded saying: "As the Assembly Member for the Vale of Glamorgan, I submitted my formal response to the Vale Council’s LDP consultation in 2013 and since then, have continued to raise any issues and concerns regarding the LDP, from constituents from across the Vale - including Rhoose, St Athan, Llantwit Major, Wick, Cowbridge, Wenvoe and Barry.”

He branded the consultation process a "costly and misleading farce" and said that the cabinet has supported the Welsh government at the expense of local residents' wishes.

Cllr Franks pointed to the Merrie Harriers junction, Penarth, and Cardiff Road/Murch Road signals, Dinas Powys, as examples of the failure to deal with infrastructure shortcomings.

"These over-capacity junctions clearly are not able to cope with the large number of extra vehicles. Plaid is not convinced that the expected planning applications will be able to resolve the traffic problems."

The party says its fears on the impact to the road system of the housing developments were ignored by both Labour and the Conservatives.

Penarth's deputy town mayor Mike Cuddy (Labour) said “The council (Penarth Town Council) provided their observations on the LDP some time ago. There are some recent Focused Changes which the Vale Council will be consulting on and the council will consider these when they receive them.”

Councillor Clive Williams (Conservative) said “The Vale Council were told to build 9000-plus houses by 2020. If you are challenged that this must be achieved it is difficult to allow consultation or other arguments to be given the true strength they deserve. The reality of the situation, however, is where can we build these houses, land-wise? What impact would these homes have on the traffic situation, where will the children from these homes go to school and so on? The fair proportionality goes out of the window and the rural Vale would take the brunt of the situation. The Vale Planning officers are intelligent professionals and would have used whatever guidelines they could to comply given an extremely difficult task.”

Vaughan Gethin AM had not given a response as the Penarth Times went to press.