TARGETS are being missed on housing, employment, open spaces, and heat-generating renewable energy in Merthyr Tydfil.
Those are the findings of the annual monitoring report of the council’s replacement local development plan (LDP) 2016-2031 which went before cabinet on Wednesday, October 8.
The report, which covers the period from the start of April 2024 to the end of March 2025, says there are some aspects of the replacement LDP that are not working as well or being implemented as effectively as they could.
It shows that overall housing delivery has dropped below the level required at this point in the plan period with completions in excess of 30% lower than they need to be.
At April 2025 a total of 827 dwellings had been completed across the county borough with the target being 1,263 completions.
A target is also not being met in relation to the delivery of allocated employment land with one new development completed on an allocated employment site during this monitoring period.
This development is for the construction of 14 industrial/commercial units at Pant Industrial Estate and is known as Paisley Business Park measuring 0.6 hectares with the target being 9.64 hectares of employment land development by 2026.
The report says: “Due to the nature of employment developments (being relatively large in terms of area and floorspace) this is likely to happen irregularly, and in sudden increases, rather than in smaller regular increments.”
It says: “These allocations are primarily large sites aimed at single large employers and with their associated infrastructure costs may only prove to be more attractive when market conditions improve and/or when specialist users are found.”
A target is also being missed on the number of jobs delivered with 125 jobs delivered over this monitoring period and 243 jobs having been delivered since the adoption of the replacement LDP in 2016 as a result of the construction of 14 industrial/commercial units at Pant Industrial Estate.
The target is for 1,251 jobs to be delivered by March 2026.
A small number of other developments were delivered during the monitoring period but these related to the extension or subdivision of existing employment activities and units so did not provide any additional jobs.
But the report says as these developments result in expansions and subdivisions of the existing activities they have the potential to increase the amount of jobs at these existing sites.
And applications were approved during the monitoring period which could provide additional jobs once built.
A target is not being met in relation to the improvement of priority open spaces using funding gained through the planning system with no priority open spaces benefiting from section 106 or community infrastructure levy funding during the monitoring period.
The target is 13 sites by March 2026 and two priority open spaces have benefited from section 106 or community infrastructure levy funding since the start of the plan period.
But the council is implementing a significant capital programme to refurbish or replace existing playgrounds across the county borough and more than 20 playgrounds are in line to be refurbished by the summer of 2026.
And there is a target for heat-generating renewable energy development across the county borough which has not been met.
No renewable energy developments that generated heat were permitted over this monitoring period but a number of small-scale developments were permitted which included air source heat pump installations such as at Treharris Library in Perrott Street.
The target is to secure planning permissions for 26.53 MWth (MegaWatts thermal) of heat generation by 2026.
Councillor David Jones, deputy leader of the council and cabinet member for climate change and communities, said the housing, employment, and open spaces figures are expected to improve over the coming year but the council had no control over heat-generating renewable energy as this relies on planning applications being submitted for this by businesses or residents.
But the report also says a number of aspects of the plan and its strategy are working well and the policies of the replacement LDP are being implemented effectively.
It says affordable housing continues to be delivered broadly in accordance with the target included in the monitoring framework although there remains a high level of need for affordable housing, particularly in relation to single-person accommodation.
It also says that policies that seek to protect environmental and historic designations have been implemented effectively with no development granted contrary to the relevant policies.
