South Wales Evening Post - 25 November 2006
It would be hardly surprising if the company behind the Royal Fern golf development at Llangyfelach was disappointed by the level of support for the plan shown by Swansea councillors on Thursday night.
To recap: The council's planning department approved the ambitious plan for golf courses, youth academy, holiday lodges and executive homes, even though the houses breached its own city plan. An Assembly planning inspector looked at it and recommended that it should go ahead. But a committee of three AMs from outside the region said no.
As a result, there was a call at Thursday's meeting for councillors to change the long-term Unitary Development Plan to include Royal Fern. Instead, councillors decided to simply note the Assembly's decision at this stage.
When public consultation on a new UDP starts in March, the council will remind the UDP Inspector of the support Royal Fern had received from city and Assembly planners.
Whether that will be enough to encourage the developers to go to the extra cost of submitting their own case to the inspector remains to be seen.
If the answer turns out to be no, then that little band of AMs will have done the city a great disservice, and the council will have been found wanting in its response.
