Thank you for your recent letter concerning Castle Cement.  I note with some
concern that the decision taken by Flintshire Council is contrary to the
wishes of the local community.  This clearly causes difficulties, since the
basic principle of planning decisions is that they should be undertaken by
and within the local community.  If the County Council does not respect the
wishes of the local community, that causes a very fundamental problem.

As you will probably be aware, the questions of planning which were
previously handled by the Secretary of State for Wales within the Welsh
Office, now come under the National Assembly of Wales - and not under the
House of Commons.  This facilitates locally elected Members from your own
area to participate more directly in general ieeus of planning, although
this has to be within the framework of planning laws as laid down by
Parliament.  It may be that you have already approached your local Assembly
Member - I imagine that it might be Tom Middlehurst  or Alison Harford.
Both are of course Labour Members of the National Assembly.

The Plaid Cymru Regional Mamber, Janet Ryder, AM has taken a direct interest
in these matters, and if you have not already done so, you might consider
contacting her - her office address is: 21, Chester Street, Wrecsam (tel:
01978 313909).

You will be glad to know that Peter Law the Secretary for the Environment
and Planning has in fact this week announced that he is calling in this
planning decision.  This of course doesn't automatically mean that it will
be reversed, but it will be reconsidered.

Yours sincerely,

Dafydd Wigley
Member of National Assembly of Wales/Member of Parliament for Caernarfon.