A four-day inquiry into plans for more than 1,400 homes in Wrexham will take place in September.
Inquiry details
Inspectors from Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW) will base themselves at Wrexham Guildhall to hear evidence over the refusal of Wrexham County Borough Council to grant permission for a Redrow Homes development at Lower Berse Farm at Ruthin Road, which is being referred to as a super estate.
As well as 1,450 homes, the 73-hectare key strategic site development – covering an area of farmland equivalent to 102 football pitches – would also include a primary school and community facilities.
Background and legal battle
The plans were resubmitted in October 2024 during Wrexham County Borough Council's High Court battle over its refusal to adopt the local development plan (LDP) that would have allowed the super estate to go ahead. Since then, the authority has won the legal battle and the Welsh Government has agreed to withdraw the LDP.
The application remains live, however, with neither side willing to back down. As a result, PEDW has organised an inquiry. It will hear legal arguments and call expert witnesses who will be cross-examined to help it reach a decision on the disputed application. If four days are not enough to reach a decision, the inspectorate could remain in Wrexham for up to seven days to gather evidence.
Arguments for and against
While the LDP is no longer legally a material planning document, the robust gathering of data to develop it means that inspectors may still use the evidence within it to support their decision – rather than the unitary development plan (UDP), which is now more than 20 years out of date.
In its most recent submission to PEDW, The Planning Consultancy, working on behalf of Redrow, stated: "The evidence that underpins the unadopted LDP is, in every respect, more up to date than the evidence that underpins the UDP." It then quotes Wrexham's own planning officer's report: "Crucially, the UDP is based on outdated national planning guidance and underpinned by an evidence base that is now woefully outdated, being well over 20 years old."
It contends that the super estate development is strategically important to meet the housing needs of the people of Wrexham. Opponents argue considerations including the loss of best and most versatile (BMV) agricultural land plus the fact the land sits outside Wrexham's settlement limits according to the UDP mean that the development should not go ahead.
"The site lies outside of the settlement limit for Wrexham, as defined by the UDP," said Wrexham County Borough Council in its appeal response. "It also lies within a green barrier, special landscape area and the majority of the site is classed as BMV land." The council does not consider the site's status as a KSS1 allocation in the unadopted LDP to be a material consideration that outweighs the conflict with the UDP policies.
