Government Acts to Minimise Damage to the Welsh Tongue Caused by Property Developers

Emmett McIntyre's picture
Submitted by Emmett McIntyre on October 15, 2013 - 1:09pm

The Welsh Government  have announced on their web site that local planning authorities in Wales will be required to consult with the office of the Welsh Language Commissioner (Meri Huws) when preparing local development plans.  This move is intended to mitigate disruption to Welsh speaking areas caused by property development.  The announcement was made on the Government's website under the following headline: "Housing and Regeneration Minister, Carl Sargeant, today published guidance on how the Welsh language should be considered in the planning system". 

In making the announcement, Minister Sargeant is quoted as follows:

We recognise that the planning system can help to create the social and economic conditions which give people the opportunity to speak Welsh. This revised TAN provides local authorities with clarity regarding how Welsh language considerations should feed into the preparation of their Local Development Plans.
The guidance means that local planning authorities who have identified the language as an important local issue, must in future take the language into consideration as part of their Local Development Plan (LDP) and must consult the Welsh Language Commissioner when preparing and reviewing the Plan. In this way planning authorities will be able to use their LDP to mitigate the impacts on the language that can result from new development.

This question was addressed earlier this year by Welsh Language Commissioner Meri Huws who stated:

The current situation where large housing estates are built without clear guidelines on how to measure their impact on the Welsh language is unsustainable.

At the time, Commissioner Huws called for "proactive and positive" action.  Huws continued:

Hundreds of communities fear for the future of the language in their communites today because housing developments are undermining any attempt to sustain the Welsh language in those areas.

http://wales.gov.uk/newsroom/planning/2013/131009tan/?lang=en

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