Sometimes planning surprises you. Not least a phone call the week before last regarding some land on the market. That triggered a series of checks and cross checks.

The first surprise is that the Outline Planning Permission for the Key Strategic Site at Bodelwyddan has lapsed. It was (is?) the kingpin of he Current LDP Strategy and the Preferred Strategy in the Replacement LDP consulted on in 2019. It is also a key scheme in the North Wales Growth Deal Land and Property Programme.

Despite the scheme’s original promoters no longer being in play, new interests secured some non-material changes to the outline permission last year, removing some of the obstacles to submitting reserved matters. It might (in theory) have been relatively straightforward to apply to extend the life of the permission. Covid 19 may have hindered preparation of reporting and scheme design in mitigation were an application of that type made. Yet it wasn’t. That is perhaps the greater surprise.

So, now Denbighshire has no approved jewel in its Development Plan Crown. So tightly defined is Policy BSC 5 on which the KSS hangs, a new, alternative (lesser?) scheme might well depart so significantly from the LDP as to force an early LDP review as it would not comply with the current LDP and be open to challenge.

That leaves, in its immediate wake, 3 questions to ask.

1 . What now for Denbighshire, its development plan and this part of the Growth Deal?

2. Deliverability is key to planning in 2021. As the saying goes, “Once Bitten, twice shy’. Will Denbighshire Officers and Members have the appetite to promote the KSS or a KSS lite a second time ?

3. What other immediate opportunity exists in the wake of the KSS lapsing?