Councillor finally gets planning permission for a new barn

The application by Councillor Jonathan Wilkinson was in front of the council’s planning committee for a decision on Thursday.

Councillor Wilkinson uses the land at Allt y Maen, Meifod, near Welshpool to graze sheep and cattle.

A building there has fallen into disrepair and Councillor Wilkinson wants to replace it with a new one.

Planning applications by Powys councillors as well as council staff are brought in front of the Planning committee for a decision.

The application had originally been in front of the committee at its meeting on August 10 – but as there weren’t enough councillors at the meeting discussion, a decision on the application had to be postponed to a future meeting.

Usually, 17 councillors are expected to attend planning committee meetings, on August 10, eight were absent.

Councillor Wilkinson is himself a member of the committee and due to him declaring an interest in the item was not at the meeting.

Fellow Conservative, Councillor Adrian Jones also declared an interest and left the meeting for the item as he and Councillor Wilkinson are related.

At the meeting, planning officer Hannah Miller advised the committee to approve the application subject to several conditions.

Committee solicitor Colin Edwards said: “In accordance with the protocol I have studied the documents and correspondence relating to the document and I can confirm that this has been considered normally.”

Conservative councillor Gareth Pugh said: “It’s the same old story, this would not be in front of us if the applicant wasn’t a member (councillor).”

He added that he was ready to move the application on to a vote and it was approved unanimously.