HISTORY was made last week by members of Monmouthshire County Council when they spent a full 13 and a half hours debating the draft Local Development Plan.

It was believed to be the longest meeting on record in deliberating on where to build the 4,000 houses needed across the county to meet the Welsh Government target.

All but one of the sites earmarked for development in the LDP was adopted by the council, despite pleas from local pressure groups, individuals and local members concerned over the proposed development in their communities.

More than 100 protesters packed the public gallery, with a few being allowed to speak during the marathon debate to give their passionate views on local sites.

The only development to be removed from the plan was council owned land in Raglan after local member Councillor Andrew Crump provided a viable alternative site, which he showed had local support as well as backing from council members for the 45 houses

But instead of putting the issue to the vote, cabinet members and officers chose to offer an amendment for the site to be withdrawn instead, which was approved by the whole council.

Councillor Crump said: "The villagers have accepted that development needs to be undertaken in Raglan and have put forward an alternative site that would acceptable by the majority of local residents. This site is in private ownership and has access onto the Usk Road, which eliminates the problem of every car journey having to go through the village."

Councillor Eric Saxon said: "In many respects the alternative site is a better proposition as getting through the village can be difficult at the best of times.

"It seems the Raglan community have got together and come up with a better alternative."

Councillor Bob Greenland said: "This is a most important meeting as we are at a very important stage in our vision for the next 10 years and beyond.

"Our aim is not to preserve the past, but prepare for the future as the Welsh Government has told us that we have to allocate sites for building development. This is the culmination of Monmouthshire's plans for the future that will go out to public consultation over the coming weeks. This is when the public can suggest alternative sites."

As the debate unfolded every councillor, except for two, spoke out against the proposed development in their individual wards, but each plea was overturned by the council.

Members spoke about having the right mix of affordable homes and those selling on the open market.

Councillor Peter Fox said: "Affordable housing is very important to this county as the demographic shows that at the present time young people have to move away because they can't afford to live here. Our talent needs to stay in Monmouthshire, and the good thing is we are proposing different levels of affordable housing."

Councillor Roger Harris: "We've heard that many of our villages could be dying and this LDP gives us the opportunity of breathing life back into them."

But Councillor Simon Howarth pointed out that the 60/40 split in favour of affordable housing would be unattractive to many developers and would leave many sites undeveloped.

However the officers were told that they had overlooked allocating space for cemeteries.

Councillor Anthony Easson added: "Nowhere in this LDP has there been made mention of land for burial spaces. As an authority we need burial spaces badly and there is no allocation in this draft plan for this. I suggest that cemeteries need to be included in the final LDP.

Councillor Giles Howard said: "We don't have a legal duty to provide burial space, but maybe we have a moral duty to do so."

Councillor Bob Hayward added: "With the proposed increase in population in all these areas we should also be allocating additional land for use as allotments in these communities."

Councillor Easson added: "While we are at it, this report is lacking in the provision of gypsy sites. We've failed in the past to provide sites for this community and we have only one official site and that is in Portskewett."