A DISPUTE over a website link put the brakes on public hearings for a major housing plan.

The local development plan is intended to set out where new development should take place including more than 2,000 new homes centred around Chepstow and Caldicot as well as Abergavenny and Monmouth.

The hearings, originally due to begin in June, will now take place in September after Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW) said Monmouthshire County Council failed to properly publicised them as required by law.

Council deputy leader Paul Griffiths, who is responsible for the plan, said the issue was due to the council publishing a website link to the hearing timetable rather than displaying it directly on its website.

At June’s council meeting, Cllr Griffiths said: “PEDW gave its view the provision of a link did not conform to the legal requirement on the council and the procedural timetable should appear directly on the council’s website rather than through a link.

“That was their judgement, it would not have been mine, but their judgement matters in this case and as a result the arrangements are now directly available on the council website.”

Despite the setback, he stressed that the examination of the plan had not been suspended and was still moving forward.

The current plan identifies four key housing sites, including 500 homes east of Abergavenny.

Conservative Lisa Dymock asked if the council would hold a review as to ‘how this misjudgement was made’ and consider any lessons learned.

Cllr Griffiths said he believed a Wales-wide review should be held involving PEDW, the Welsh Government and local authorities which “should give serious consideration as to whether a link is, or is not, an effective means of communication. It may well be in the future that we will move into the 21st century and PEDW and Welsh Government will recognise the link works effectively.”