Pupils Plan Pembrokeshire's Future

Pictured are Bob Smith (Senior Forward Planning Officer) and Councillor Islwyn Howells with students from Ysgol Bro Gwaun, Sir Thomas Picton School, Milford Haven School, Tasker Milward School and Greenhill School.

 

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by ORR

March 21, 2008

Thirty local sixth-formers have been giving their views to Pembrokeshire County Council planners on what the County should be like by 2021.

The pupils discussed the direction that future development across the County should take with officers from the planning department in a Youth Seminar at County Hall recently.

The seminar was designed to give the young people an insight into the planning process, and learn how the plans and policies which are used to determine planning applications are produced.

The Council is currently producing a new Plan (the Local Development Plan) which will set the framework for new development across the County (excluding the National Park) from 2011 until 2021.

As part of this process, the Council is engaging with communities and listening to their views on the main issues facing Pembrokeshire.

The sixth-formers were asked to imagine the sort of place they would like to inhabit in 2021, and what that might mean in terms of housing, employment and facilities.

They discussed the challenges and opportunities facing the County, and were asked to think about how these issues might be dealt with in the future.

Pupils were also given copies of the current settlement boundaries for their school and were asked to consider how much new housing they would like to see between 2011 and 2021, where they would locate development, and whether there were particular areas or features they would like to protect.

Pupils are pictured with Margaret Morris from Ysgol Bro Gwaun, Councillor Islwyn Howells, and Peter Sedgwick (Forward Planning Officer).

 

Councillor Islwyn Howells, Cabinet Member for Lifelong Learning, Children, Young People and the Welsh Language, welcomed the pupils to County Hall and stressed the importance of involving young people in the production of the Local Development Plan.

He said: “These are the people who will probably be trying to buy their first house when the new plan comes into place.

“It is very important that we get their views on what they think the priorities for Pembrokeshire should be over the next decade or so.”

The seminar is part of an ongoing process of evidence gathering and consensus building for the new Local Development Plan.

Further information on the plan is available on Pembrokeshire County Council’s website at www.pembrokeshire.gov.uk/planning.