Welsh Laws to Protect the Celtic Tongue Against Property Developers Begins to Bite

A law passed last year by the Welsh Assembly which seeks to protect Welsh Language areas from the ill effects of property developers has begun to work. A major property development scheme in the Welsh language heartland has been blocked by the local authority under the terms of the “Planning Wales Act of 2015”.  The legislation requires local planning authorities to assess the impact of proposed property development on Welsh speaking area.  The legislation states that the authority must “... (assess) the extent to which the Welsh language is used in the area", and that the “…appraisal must include an assessment of the likely effects of the plan on the use of the Welsh language…”.

The blocked 366-unit property development was propsed for a district adjacent to the City of Bangor which is the largest city in the historical county of Gwynedd in North West Wales. The Gwynedd Council reports that according to the 2011 census over 65% of residents of the county are Welsh speakers but that the percentage of Welsh speakers in the Bangor area drops to just over 36%.  Thus on the face of it the City of Bangor and its suburbs are precisely the Celtic language areas that the legislation was intended to protect.

Bethan Ruth of the Welsh Language Society (Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg) is quoted by the BBC on the positive impact of the new law: "Any housing developments should reflect local need, rather than the interests of developers."  Local residents in tandem with language activists had organized in opposition to the development. News reports quoted Gareth Roberts, a Plaid Cymru Councillor in Gwynedd and a leader of the opposition: “As well as our concerns about the language, local schools are at breaking point and the roads are clogged up."

In March 2014 Transceltic reported on the tensions which were then building at the time and which resulted in the 2015 legislation. As early as late 2013 the issue of property developers damaging the Welsh language prompted Byron Davies, member of the Welsh Assembly, to comment that if property development was left unchecked it would “Marginalise the Welsh language in its heartlands.”  The same article included a statement by Welsh Language Commissioner Meri Huws, whose guiding hand is starting to see remarkable successes in defense of the Welsh language: “The current situation where large housing estates are built without clear guidelines on how to measure their impact on the Welsh language is unsustainable. Hundreds of communities’ fear for the future of the language in their communities today because housing developments are undermining any attempt to sustain the Welsh language in those areas.”

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2015/4/section/11/enacted

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-35968290