Joint Services

Powys seems to have done the right thing in looking to buy-in part of the planning service particularly those occasionally required services. This time it's minerals planning. It appears that the northern part of Powys will join forces with Flintshire, while the south part of the County will have its minerals planning work undertaken by Carmarthenshire. Makes a lot of sense given that minerals planning is a very specialised area of planning legislation, which is forever changing. The cost of employing a minerals planning specialist is costly. However, minerals operators may have a free reign to do very much what they want in Powys in the future given the distances that Flintshire or Carmarthenshire staff will have to travel to deal with an enforcement complaint. As for the communities living in close proximity to minerals sites, the local minerals authority will be in no position to safeguard their residential amenities.