PLANS by a Powys County Councillor to build a replacement barn for livestock on land used for grazing have finally approved – six weeks later than expected.

The application by Cllr Jonathan Wilkinson was in front of the council’s Planning committee for a decision at their meeting on Thursday, September 21.

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

A building there had fallen into disrepair and Cllr 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 their meeting on August 10 – but as there weren’t enough councillors at the meeting discussion and a decision on the application had to postponed to a future meeting.

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

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

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

At the meeting Planning officer Hannah Miller advised the committee to approve the application subject to a number of 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 Cllr 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.