A PLAN to guide planning decisions at Ceredigion council, adopted just two years ago by councillors, is not working, unnecessary and not suited to a rural county, Cabinet members have said.

The council adopted the Local Development Plan (LDP) 2007-2022 in 2013 as the successor to the Unitary Development Plan, which was set to run out in 2015.

The LDP sets out the guidelines by which the council’s planning committee is supposed to approve or reject proposals, including conservation areas and housing numbers in rural villages.

Councillors, who have been told that the “failing” plan can not be reviewed and reworked until 2017, said the plan is “completely unworkable” and is responsible for some “bad decision making”.

“This is not a local plan, it is a Cardiff plan and clearly is not working for us here in Ceredigion,” Housing Cabinet member Cllr Dafydd Edwards (pictured, above right) told members at the last planning meeting.

“It’s just too much bureaucracy and is unworkable. How can people in Cardiff understand better than us what is needed in our rural areas?”

Council leader Cllr Ellen ap Gwynn (pictured, top left) said she “foresaw” the issues of the plan - including going over agreed settlement numbers in smaller villages, when the plan was pushed through two years ago.