The now expired Powys Local Development Plan (LDP) is still a material planning consideration when deciding planning applications, councillors have been told after fears of a planning “Wild West” in the county.

When the 2025/2026 financial year ended on 31 March, the Powys LDP, which covered 2011 to 2026, “dropped dead”, and it had been expected that a new “replacement” LDP would take over and guide housing and industrial development in the county up to 2037.

But a number of snags have cropped up and caused long delays in the formation of the new LDP, which is estimated to cost around £2m.

The concern is that without an LDP, the county could become a planning “Wild West”, with developers able to take advantage of the situation and build wherever they like before a replacement LDP comes into force.

But councillors have been told this will not be the case.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s planning committee on 16 April, councillors were provided with advice from officers on how to deal with applications during the interim period between LDPs.

Development management team leader Gemma James said: “A document has been put together which outlines and hopefully gives you assurance that the LDP was fully scrutinised at public examination and was found to be sound by a planning inspector at that time.

“As such, post 31 March, the LDP will remain a material consideration for the planning authority and other decision makers to have regard to when determining planning applications.

“Legal precedent confirms a time-expired LDP continues to have legal status and forms a sound basis for planning decisions until it is replaced.”

The council started work on its replacement LDP in 2022, but progress has been hampered for a number of reasons.

These include the need to find a new Gypsy and Traveller site in north Powys in the Welshpool area.

The proposed new national park in the north-east of Wales, which includes a small part of Powys, would trigger an automatic review of the LDP if it was created, which could see Powys having to start work on the replacement LDP from scratch.

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