Julie James, Minister for Housing and Local Government
This was published under the 2016 to 2021 administration of the Welsh Government
The consultation period for the Draft National Development Framework (NDF) is being extended by two weeks and will now close on Friday 15 November 2019.
Following the commencement of the consultation on 7 August 2019, a small number of non-material omissions and inaccuracies have been identified. The naming of appendices in the Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) was potentially confusing and supporting mapping referred to in Appendix B was not included. An amended HRA addressing these issues was placed on the NDF consultation webpage on 21 August.
There was also potential for confusion in the assessment tables in Appendix B of the Integrated Sustainability Appraisal (ISA). Earlier policy numbering and wording was shown alongside the final policy numbering and wording from the Draft NDF. An amended ISA addressing this and improving cross-referencing within the document was placed on the NDF consultation webpage on 28 August.
In the interests of transparency, we have published a complete list of the changes to both documents on the NDF consultation webpage and extended the consultation period to allow additional time to consider these. The changes are minor in nature and are not directly material to the consultation on the Draft NDF. They relate to the HRA and ISA rather than the Draft NDF itself and they have not materially changed the assessments or the conclusions drawn from them.
If people have already submitted a response to the consultation, and feel their responses are affected by these changes, they are welcome to submit further representations. All responses already received are valid and do not need to be resubmitted unless people wish to amend their response.