Election Candidates’ Statements on the Local Plan

NMDGBS has asked all the candidates standing for our two North Mymms wards in the Borough Council election for a statement on their views on the Local Plan. Specifically we have asked them whether or not they will support the Plan if the Inspector insists on the Plan meeting a Full Objectively Assessed Housing Need (FOAHN) of 16,000 dwellings.

We have received responses as follows.

From Teresa Travell, Conservative Party candidate for Welham Green and Hatfield South

“As chairman of North Mymms Parish Council I have appeared at the hearings held by the inspector and our position has always been against excessive building on the green belt. If elected to the borough council I will not support an increase in housing numbers to 16,000.  Throughout the Local Plan hearings I have always considered the number of proposed houses to be too high. I even consider the number of over 13,000 in the latest submission to be an unsatisfactory increase. It is important that local democracy is preserved and that the very strong feelings locally are respected by the inspector.”

Peter Basford, Richard Griffiths and Paul Zukowskyj, Lib Dem, candidates for the two wards, have given us a joint statement of their party’s policy which they support.

“The Welwyn Hatfield Local Plan is a plan to build way more houses than we actually need. The inspector and the council seem unwilling to believe the evidence provided by the statistics and are being driven instead by Government policy to ‘build build build’. The local Lib Dems do not believe a housing target in five figures is right or can be justified. The council should have put up a far more convincing argument against the projection. If the local plan has a housing target of 13,800 or even 16,000, the Lib Dems will vote against, as we did in November 2020 at full council, the only party to do so. Damage to our area from speculative developers is no different to damage to our area from a plan not fit for purpose.”

From Stephen Boulton Conservative Party candidate for Brookmans Park and Little Heath

“I am very much against any increase of assessed housing need to 16,000, and cannot see a way in which that figure can be supported. Throughout iterations of the Local Plan process I have always considered the number of dwellings suggested to be too high given historical evidence and uncertainty in future numbers. The recently submitted target of 13,800 is still a significant and uncomfortable increase. I shall review the inspector’s report once available and determine the best way forward at that point. In making any decision, my priority will always be to minimise any impact on the very important green belt and to respect local opinions. Any final plan must be the council’s plan and not the inspector’s plan.”

We shall publish additional replies if and as they are received.

AGM 2021.

Note from the Chairman about the AGM arrangements

We are very sorry that because of Covid restrictions it is not possible to hold our AGM in the usual way.  Rather than wait indefinitely until we can hold a public meeting, we have decided in effect to hold the meeting in two parts.

The first part will be conducted virtually through Zoom with the only resolution to be presented being a formal resolution to adjourn the meeting until such future date as we can get together without the Covid restrictions. The required quorum of 15 members is assured.

We did look at sending out the Zoom link to the membership generally but concluded that it would be impracticable to try and hold such a large virtual meeting. We hope members will understand.

Once we can meet in public, the meeting will be reconvened to deal with the full agenda. The current members of the Committee will continue in post until the adjourned meeting.

We anticipate that the Council will be holding a further public consultation on the Local Plan in the Summer. If possible we shall organise a public meeting at that time and will continue the adjourned AGM then.

The Notice of the meeting, The Agenda, Minutes of the AGM 2020, Chairman’s Report and Financial Statements are all available here on the website.

Agenda  here 

Minutes of 2020 AGM  here

Financial Statement  here

Chairman’s Report here

Notice of the meeting was published in the April Newsletter.

 In this issue:

• Local Plan Update
• Local Elections
• Society AGM
• Your Support

Local Plan Update

• The Inspector held a series of virtual examination hearings throughout March at which the Society was represented through our planning advisor, Jed Griffiths. Members of our committee worked with Jed on the representations and visited the sites with him ahead of the hearings.

• Representatives from Water End Residents Group, Little Heath Action Group and Bell Lane Action Group (BLAG) were also involved in the hearings.

• Our written representations  on the sites and other matters are available on our website

• You can also watch video recordings of the hearings. click  here

• We must now await the Inspector’s report which will be presented to the Council sometime after the local elections in May.

• On the overall numbers –  the Objectively Assessed Number (OAN) –  the best indication of the Inspector’s thinking can be found in his notes to the council after the recent hearings,. EX253 Inspector’s Stage 9 round-up notes 18.3.21  click here

• There, the Inspector states that the Plan must provide for the housing numbers in full. That number will be his decision but he has yet to say what it will be. It is clear that the Inspector’s decision on the final OAN will be absolutely critical in terms of the amount of Green Belt land which will be lost to housing.

• Developers are pressing for an OAN of 16,000 as previously agreed by the inspector; the council now say it should be 13,800.

• We and others argue for a figure of around 10,000 as reflecting the latest ONS population projections for the Borough. With CPRE Herts we submitted a paper by experienced town planner, Professor Alan Wenban-Smith, to support our position and worked and other local groups to present a united view.

• The difference is about meeting the genuine needs of the Borough versus the ever-present market demand from London. That is the argument, not just for North Mymms and Welwyn Hatfield but across the whole of the Green Belt in Hertfordshire.

• The government declares its policy is to protect the Green Belt; but it also wants to “build, build, build.” The Inspector has his eye on national government policy.

•  As regards the individual sites in North Mymms it is difficult to speculate; it would appear from the Inspector’s Interim Report and his rounding up session at the end of Stage 9, that sites Marshmoor (WeG4a), South of Hatfield (HS11), Welham Manor and Station Road (WeG3a), and Land to the West of Brookmans Park (BrP4) are likely to be recommended for inclusion in the Local Plan. For Little Heath, it seems likely that sites LHe1 and LHe4/5 will also be recommended, together with a reduced area of BrP7.  In the course of the hearings, the most controversial matter was the debate on site BrP1 at Bell Bar, involving the Society and the Bell Bar Action Group (BLAG).

• What Happens Next? From the Inspector’s notes of the Stage 9 rounding-up session, it would appear that the end of the Examination is in sight.  At the time of writing the Borough Council is in purdah, until after the elections on 6^th May. The Inspector has stated that he intends to produce a draft of his final report, together with a list of Main Modifications to the Local Plan, for the consideration of the new Council.  If the Council accept the Inspector’s report, there will be a further six-week period of consultation on the Main Modifications.  We shall consult members and if possible hold a public meeting.

• There is provision in the Local Plan Regulations for further hearings to be held into the Main Modifications, if these are necessary. Following that, the Inspector will issue his final report to the Council. Only at that point will the Examination be over.

• It is expected that, if the Borough Council accept the Inspector’s report and its recommendations, the Local Plan will be formally adopted in the autumn of this year.

Local Elections

• On 4th May, three Borough Council seats will be up for election in the wards covering North Mymms Parish: two seats in Welham Green and Hatfield South, one in Brookmans Park and Little Heath.

• Details of the elections and the candidates can be found on the Council’s website here. Please use your democratic rights.

• The Society is writing to all the candidates for these seats to ask whether they support the target of 16,000 dwellings in the local plan and what they will do if the Inspector insists on this number. Their answers will be published on our website.

Society AGM

 We are very sorry that because of Covid restrictions we have not been able to hold our AGM in March as usual. Rather than wait indefinitely until we can hold a public meeting, we, like many organisations, will use Zoom. We shall open the meeting formally and then adjourn it until such date as we can get together without the Covid restrictions.  That means the only resolution to be proposed at the meeting will be to adjourn.  A quorum for the meeting is assured.  The current members of the Committee will continue in post until the adjourned meeting is reconvened.

• The Agenda for the meeting, Minutes of last year’s meeting, Chairman’s Report and Financial Statements will be posted on the website.

• Accordingly, “Notice is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting of the Society will be held via Zoom on Monday 26th April 2021 at 7.30pm.”

• As explained above, we anticipate that the Council will be holding a further public consultation on the Local Plan in the Summer. If possible we shall organise a public meeting at that time and will continue the adjourned AGM then.

• We hope you will understand the need for these arrangements. If you have any questions, please get in touch through the website.

Your Support

• The Society has just over one thousand members. Thank you very much. Your support is the essence of our existence; without it we could not defend the Green Belt in this area as we do.

•  Membership subscriptions, at one pound (£1.00) per head, are payable for the calendar year and are now due.

• As our usual “green” membership subscription form cannot be delivered, please will you pay your subscription using the membership form on our website. We would be most grateful for (and need) anything you may wish to add by way of donation. We are living off the generosity of previous years. Please also take the opportunity to check that we have your membership details correctly.

Committee Membership.

• During the year we have lost committee members through illness, resignation and departure from the district. We urgently need new blood. Please get in touch if you can help us, particularly as regards communications and the website.

• If you would like to know more without obligation, contact the Secretary or the Chairman through the website. secretary@northmymmsgreenbelt.org.uk or hairman@northmymmsgreenbelt.org.uk

WELWYN HATFIELD LOCAL PLAN EXAMINATION STAGE 9 HEARINGS

Jed Griffiths, MA Dip TP FRTPI, our Planning Consultant, has prepared on our behalf the following Responses and Statements for the Local Plan Examination Stage 9 Hearings which will be held virtually.  All these sessions can be viewed on Welwyn Hatfield District Council’s  website under Local Plan.

WEEK 1

Monday 22 February 09.30 – 17.00   EX223 Treatment of Green Belt Boundaries.  To view our Response click here

Tuesday 23 February 09.30 – 17.00 Fully Objectively-Assessed Housing Needs.  To view our Response click here

Wednesday 24 February 09.30 – 17.00 EX221 Windfalls.  To review our Response click here

Timetable for Hearing Sessions scheduled for 1 to 18 March are still to be finalised.

Please see below Statements prepared by Jed Griffiths on our behalf for these Hearing Sessions.

EX237 Further Sites for Housing Development submitted to the Examination by the Council click here

EX238 Potential Additional Sites, for Housing Development at Villages excluded from the Green Belt click here

1. The Local Plan (an update and call to arms – again!).

2. Other planning matters.

3. Green Belt in Hertfordshire

3. Membership. Subscriptions for 2021 are due.

1. The Local Plan

• Although it appears to be progressing very slowly, there is a lot of work going on on the local Plan and the next few weeks will be very busy.

• We are indebted to our planning consultant Jed Griffiths who has been doing most of the heavy lifting for our submissions and who represents us at the various hearings. We can help him by letting our local councillors, and also our MP know what we think.

• This process is being driven more by central government targets than by local needs so, more than ever, we need our Council to stand up for local interest.

• Whatever government ministers may have said about supporting the Green Belt they are prepared to sacrifice it for housing targets – whether or not the targets are sensible or realistic in today’s economy.

• And to add to the confusion, the Inspector has decided to hold hearings into sites, including some in North Mymms, which had been put forward for development but which were not accepted by the Council and not included for public consultation in the Draft Local Plan Proposed Submission in August 2016 or the Consultation on Proposed Changes in February 2020. Details below in section ii.

i. The Objectively Assessed Need (OAN)

• In the summer, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) published new population estimates that showed a substantial slowing down in the rate of formation of new households in the Borough over the Plan period (2016-2036).

• The Inspector asked the Council for their view on whether the new estimates represented a material change to the OAN in the Plan of 16,000 or 800 dwellings a year.

• In November the Council recommended that the OAN for the period of the plan should be reduced from 16,000 to 13,800 or 690 dwellings a year.

• 13,800 was considerably higher than the figure urged by NMDGBS and others and disregarded the straight forward interpretation of the ONS projections.

• The Inspector, having already invited views, is to hold a hearing on 23^rd February to consider the impact of the new forecasts on the OAN. He will then set out his view on what the OAN should be.

• NMDGBS has made a submission based on our previous comments to the Council urging an OAN of 387 dwellings per year. This can be seen on our website HERE.

• In his correspondence and preliminary conclusions, the Inspector has pointed out that “the figure that is currently before the examination is 16,000 and not whatever alternative figure the Council would prefer it to be” He also states “A fundamentally lower housing requirement would not support the national objective to boost the supply of housing.” The clear implication is that national targets trump local need.

ii. The Sites

• In February 2020, the Council consulted on changes to sites selected for development. You can see the details the sites and of NMDGBS comments (along with all the other comments) HERE

• At the Council’s CPPP meeting in November, with no consideration of the 770 or so responses to the consultation other than the officers’ summary, approved the site selection as set out in the consultation document. The total number of dwellings was 13,277.

• This decision was approved by the full Council on 27^th November and a Schedule of Main Modifications to the draft plan sent to the inspector.

• The inspector has responded saying that in addition to conducting hearing sessions on the sites recommended he also wishes to examine a number of additional potential sites, for housing development, at villages excluded from the Green Belt. These include Welham Green, Brookmans Park and Little Heath.

• The questions for these hearing sessions which can be viewed HERE

EX237 Further sites, for housing development, submitted to the Examination by the Council in November 2020

EX238 Potential additional sites, for housing development, at villages excluded from the Green Belt

• The sites are: Welham Green

WeG1, Welham Manor

WeG3a Station Road West

WEG10, Dixons Hill Road

WeG6, Skimpans Farm

WeG12, Land north of Pooley’s Lane

WeG15, Land at Potterells Farm

WeG17, Land South of Dixon’s Hill road

Brookmans Park

BrP1 Bell Lane

BrP12a, Land north of Peplins Way

BrP34, Brookman’s Park Transmitting Station

Little Heath

Lhe 4/5 Videne and Studlands Hawkshead Road

• If you have previously commented to the council on any of these sites at a previous consultation you may submit a hearing statement relating to that site.

• Any hearing statements should be sent in pdf or word format to the Programme Officer at louise@poservices.co.uk and must arrive by the deadline of 5.00 pm on Friday 12 February. Hard copies of hearing statements are not required in addition to an electronic copy. Written submissions carry exactly the same weight as oral submissions, but anyone wishing to participate in any of the hearing sessions will need to notify the Programme Officer of this by 12 noon on Monday 8 February. The hearings are scheduled for the period 1^st to 18^th March.

• NMDGBS will be submitting comments on all these sites and will be represented at the hearings. Our comments will be available on our website HERE

• The matter in the hands of the inspector rather than the council but we have raised with local councillors our concerns at the examination of of sites that have not been put forward by the council. The implication is that the Inspector intends to make his own judgement and recommendation as to which sites should be included in the plan: in effect the inspector is conducting his own beauty parade! Local Councillors are confused and taken aback!

• Please make your thoughts known to your local councillors and, if you have previously submitted comments to the consultations, submit your comments to the Inspector.

• Note that: “The Inspector is only inviting comments in the context of the potential revisions to the policies and proposals and the evidence on which the revisions are based. He is not inviting general comments. Any responses which do not directly address the documents open for consultation will not be accepted.”

iii. The Green Belt

• The Council has produced a proposal for a general approach to strengthening new Green Belt boundaries by tree planting and “green buffers”. (Document EX223 in the Examination list). NMDGBS will be submitting comments and attending the hearing on 25^th February

2. Planning Refusals

• We were pleased to note that applications for developments at Firs Park, Bell Bar, and Roundhouse Farm, Bullens Green, were refused. However, the latter decision has been appealed. We shall be submitting comments to the appeal.

3. Green Belt in danger throughout Hertfordshire

• Welwyn Hatfield isn’t alone. A powerful report from the London Green Belt Council shows how the countryside around London is shrinking. The LGBC (of which NMDGBS is a member) has updated its review of threats to the Green Belt showing that these have trebled in just four years. Hertfordshire is one the counties most affected.

• 233,000 new homes are currently planned for “Protected” Green Belt countryside. The report concludes that one of the main causes of the increase is “interference” by Government planning inspectors in local council’s plans, “forcing local authorities to allocate more Green Belt land for development”.

• You can read the report on our website.

4. Our Membership

• With a thousand or so members, the Society rejoices in strong support from the community. Subscriptions are now due. We need your subs and donations as we have been living off the generosity of previous contributors. Given the current covid restrictions you could renew your subscriptions online via the membership page on our website HERE

• It’s clear that our AGM will have to be delayed; we cannot at the moment deliver our usual “All Houses” green leaflet. If that continues to be impossible, we shall publish our annual report and accounts in a future newsletter.

• Please share this newsletter with your friends and neighbours; encourage them to join. All the details are on our website.

• Money isn’t everything and we would like more involvement from our members to share the load. Particularly: are you someone who could help us communicate our message, leverage the impact of our website and improve our effectiveness in defending the local Green Belt which in this year of lockdowns we have all come to appreciate more fully? Send us an email through the website. Thanks in advance.

1. Local Plan

i. The OAN: will the council reflect the lower population projections?

The council’s Cabinet Planning and Parking Panel, (CPPP), (Chair, Councillor Stephen Boulton) is to meet on 12^th November to consider the outcome of the consultation on additional sites which took place earlier this year. Members will also have before them the interim report of the inspector with his view on the “soundness” of the Plan and further information from the council’s consultants, Turley, about the effect on the Objectively Assessed Need (OAN) of the latest household formation projections from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) that were published in the summer.

In his report the inspector states his preliminary conclusion that “exceptional circumstances exist for the release of sites from the Green Belt sufficient to meet the housing requirement”. (https://www.welhat.gov.uk/local-plan/new/examination/inspector)

This would be a stark consequence for our local Green Belt.

The inspector is quite blunt that the Council must propose additional housing sites sufficient to meet the full OAN or withdraw the Plan from examination.

ii. Why should the OAN be so high?

In the Proposed Submission document on which the council consulted us in August 2016, (https://www.welhat.gov.uk/new-local-plan) the OAN was in a range of 12,616 -13,433 and the adopted housing target was 12,000 equating to 637 dwellings per year over the period 2013-2032. Following new ONS projections in 2014, the OAN was understood to have increased and is currently considered to be 16,000 over the revised plan period of 2016-2036. This equates to 800 dwellings per year.

Under the guidelines for preparing the plan, the starting point for establishing the OAN should be the most recent population and household projections. These are then “uplifted” to reflect local factors. For example the original OAN in 2016 included an uplift of 10% which “included a positive allowance to help improve household formation rates among younger people” (whatever that meant!).

The ONS projections published this summer show a dramatic 60 per cent slowdown in the projected increase in the growth of the number of households over the plan period and therefore a much lower starting point from which to calculate the OAN. Turley was asked by the Council to review the OAN in the light of the latest projections.

In their review, Turley chose not to use the latest figures as a new starting point but treated the slowdown as a “blip”. They said that 16,000 was still an appropriate figure, though at the top of a range of 715 – 800 dwellings per annum over the 20 years 2016-2036. However they recommended an OAN towards the bottom of the range, namely 775 dwellings per annum giving a total of 14,300.

Several councillors questioned the evidence for this recommendation and the application of uplifts in excess of 50% above the starting point implied by the new projections. Turley was to be asked to take account of their comments and that response should be available to councillors for the CPPP meeting on 12^th November.

iii. An independent review

The NMDGBS has commissioned an independent professional review of the Turley report by Alan Wenban Smith which we have submitted in response to the inspector’s consultation and which we are sending to councillors with our comment.

The report is quite clear that Turley’s latest recommendation is unduly high and has not been substantiated; that the starting point based on the latest ONS projections should be 309 households per annum; that all “uplifts” to take account of other factors should be transparent and fully evidenced.

Our planning consultant Jed Griffiths has also prepared a commentary on Turley’s review.

Both reports can be accessed on our website.

iv. Other Reviews

And we are not alone in showing that the OAN proposed by Turley is unduly high.

The campaign “Save Symonshyde” have calculated an OAN of 387 dwellings per year (7,740 for the Plan period).

Future Housing Need – Hertfordshire 2020-2036, published by CPREHerts, compares the projected housing need based on the latest ONS projections with that based on the ONS projections made in 2014. For Welwyn Hatfield this shows a reduction of 51% in the estimated need over the period.

The survey concludes: “Annual housing must reflect local factors and would be no less than 314 dwellings a year. The standard method isn’t applied for the current local plan, but as a guideline it would indicate up to 432 dwellings a year (a total for the borough over 15 years of between 4,710 and 6,480) 9,500 dwellings fewer than the inspector recommended.” https://www.cpreherts.org.uk/

v. How much Growth?

The council’s consultation document of August 2016 includes a chapter, “How Much Growth” which sets out the targets for housing and employment. It is the employment and economic growth ambitions particularly which influence the OAN and provide the uplifts from the ONS projections.

In his interim report to the council the inspector is clear that if WHBC maintain their targets for employment growth, they have to find the housing.

But targets for growth need to be realistic and reflect current circumstances.

Councillors need to be confident that the original aspirations are still appropriate for changed economic circumstances and will not lead to unnecessary over appropriation of sites for housing in the local Green Belt.

Notwithstanding the confident assertion of the Prime Minister quoted below, in Welwyn Hatfield, the consequence of “build build build” will be the sacrifice of our local green belt.

vi. Remember Remember the 12^th of November (and the 23^rd too)

So there is much riding on the CPPP meeting on 12^th November (and of course the full Council meeting on the 23^rd .

In other circumstances we would have organised a demonstration outside the Council Offices but on zoom it doesn’t have the same impact. So if you haven’t already done so, write to your local councillors and urge them to approve an OAN that fully reflects the changes in the population projections and changed economic circumstances.

2. Local planning applications

The society has submitted objections to two recent planning applications.

Details of the applications at https://planning.welhat.gov.uk/Planning

• (Reference 6/2020/2379/MAJ)for development at The Firs Park, Woodside Lane, Bell Bar AL9 6DG. The application is for “the use of land as an extension to the existing caravan park for the provision of an additional 25 caravans.

• An application, (reference 6/2020/2248/OUTLINE) for outline permission for the erection of up to 100 dwellings, with all matters reserved except access, at Roundhouse Farm, off Bullens Green Lane, Colney Heath. A parallel application has been made to St Albans BC as this site straddles the local authority boundary with St Albans. The site has not been proposed for the local plans for either council.

3.The White Paper: Planning for the Future

The Society has responded to the government’s consultation on the White Paper, Planning for the Future with a submission prepared by our Planning Consultant Jed Griffiths which argues that we need a system which takes account of local interests, and is transparent in its operation.

Specifically on the Green Belt, the paper notes that whilst the list of proposed protected areas includes Green Belt, it is simply not enough to state that policy will remain unchanged. Given the current pressures on the Green Belt, there needs to be a positive affirmation of the policy to protect the Green Belt and the open countryside.

You can see the full response on our website.

4. Quotes of the month

• “There is abundant brownfield space across the whole UK, and I speak as someone who used to be the planning authority for London, and I know whereof I speak. The opportunity is there.”

Boris Johnson, responding to Coventry North West MP, Ms Taino Owatemi MP at Prime Minister’s Questions. Hansard 7.10.20

• “Panshanger is a great example of how Homes England is focussing its expertise on preparing land for the development of new homes. The site has long been recognised for its potential to deliver homes for Hertfordshire and the wider East of England.”

Dan Wheatley, Senior development Manager at Homes England. (Homes England is the non-departmental public body that funds new affordable housing in England.)

Welwyn Hatfield Times 14.10 20

Read the response from Jed Griffiths MA DipTP FRTPI On Behalf of North Mymms District Green Belt Society

Final Report to North Mymms District Green Belt Society – Read the full document