Planning Madness: The Bizarre World of Pembrokeshire Council's Planning Department

Is this about protecting the environment, or simply a system that’s become unaccountable and increasingly disconnected from the people it’s meant to serve?

Pembrokeshire—a county of sweeping coastlines, rugged cliffs, and a planning department that often seems to defy both logic and local interest. For residents, engaging with the Pembrokeshire County Council planning office can feel less like navigating bureaucracy and more like walking into a Kafka novel.

Let’s be blunt: what exactly is going on in County Hall?

Do They Use Common Sense?

Short answer? It doesn’t always feel like it.

Locals who try to build a modest extension or convert a barn are often met with a wall of red tape, vague refusals, and endless delays. Meanwhile, large developers somehow manage to secure approval for projects that seem to contradict the very development plans the Council claims to uphold. It raises the obvious question: where is the consistency? Where is the fairness? Where, indeed, is the common sense?

Planning decisions that should be straightforward often become a months-long ordeal, filled with conflicting advice, shifting goalposts, and silence from officials until you push... and push again. You might expect that from some far-off government body, but not from the council that's supposed to represent you—the local taxpayer.

The Whisper of Underhand Deals

Is it all above board? One would hope so. But the optics, at times, are troubling.

When certain large-scale developments get green-lit despite vocal public opposition and seemingly obvious environmental concerns, it's hard not to wonder: is there something going on behind closed doors?

Are some applications being waved through because of who’s involved, while others are crushed simply because the applicant is an ordinary local without connections?

There’s no solid evidence of corruption, of course—but perception matters. And right now, the perception among many Pembrokeshire residents is that the system isn’t just broken—it’s biased.

Why Do They Step on the Necks of Locals?

If you're a farmer looking to put up a small agricultural shed, or a family trying to build a home on inherited land, good luck. Locals frequently find themselves rejected, second-guessed, and scrutinized to absurd levels. It almost feels as though the Council’s planning office is there to block development rather than support it—unless, of course, you’re a company with deep pockets and an expensive consultant in tow.

What Needs to Change?

• Transparency: Publish more detailed reasoning behind planning approvals and refusals. Make it clear who made the decision, and why.

• Accountability: Councillors and planners should be held to higher standards when it comes to consistency and fairness.

• Support for Locals: Stop penalizing residents for wanting to live and work in their own county. Make it easier—not harder—for young people and local families to stay rooted in Pembrokeshire.

Pembrokeshire’s planning system doesn’t have to be this way. But until it becomes more open, logical, and genuinely supportive of local interests, the reputation of the planning department will continue to sink.

Because right now, to many residents, it doesn't look like planning. It looks like stonewalling, favoritism, and a growing disconnect from reality.