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Latest news on the Welwyn Hatfield Draft Local Plan Consultation
Consultation on proposed changes to the submitted Draft Plan 2016 (site allocations) 2020, the Addendum to the Sustainability Appraisal and the updated Habitats Regulations Assessment 2020
The Welwyn Hatfield Draft Local Plan was submitted to the Secretary of State for examination in May 2017 and a number of Local Plan examination hearing sessions have been held to date. During the course of the examination, the Planning Inspector (Melvyn Middleton BA (Econ), DipMgmt MRTPI) has advised that the Plan, as submitted, does not provide sufficient housing development proposals to meet the objectively assessed need for housing in full and the Council has been asked to investigate if there is any scope for additional housing sites to be identified.
To assist with this, in January and February 2019, the Council carried out a Call for Sites. Over 140 sites were promoted for housing, employment, mixed use or other forms of development. The promoted sites were subject to consultation in May and June 2019 and over 10,000 responses were received. Subsequently, the Council has carried out further assessments informed by an extensive evidence base.
Following meetings of the Council’s Cabinet Planning and Parking Panel and The Cabinet in January 2020, the Council is now consulting on potential additional site allocations and other changes to site allocations in the Draft Local Plan 2016. Consultation is also being carried out on the Addendum to the Sustainability Appraisal of the Welwyn Hatfield Local Plan (February 2020), and the Habitats Regulations Assessment Updated HRA Report (February 2020).
Consultation is taking place over a six week period, commencing on Wednesday 19th February and ending at 5pm on Wednesday 1 April 2020.
The best way to view the consultation documents, and other supporting documents including the Representations Procedure is online via the consultation portal. Once on the portal, you will also be able to download documents, and submit comments online: www.welhat.gov.uk/local-plan-sites
Alternatively, you can return your completed response form by email to localplan@welhat.gov.uk or by post to: Planning Policy, Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council, The Campus, Welwyn Garden City, AL8 6AE.
Please use a separate form for each site or settlement you wish to make comments on and ensure that we receive your comments by 5pm on Wednesday 1 April 2020 as we cannot accept late comments.
During the consultation period, a copy the consultation documents and a number of supporting documents including the Representations Procedure will be available to view at the following locations during normal advertised opening hours. Copies of response forms will also be available at these locations.
- The Council Offices: The Campus, Welwyn Garden City, AL8 6AE. (Opening hours: Monday to Thursday 8.45 – 17.15; Friday 08.45 – 16.45.
- Librariesin Brookmans Park, Cuffley, Hatfield, Welwyn, and Welwyn Garden City (Campus West and Woodhall).
- Parish and Town Council Offices: Hatfield Town Council, Northaw and Cuffley Parish Council, North Mymms Parish Council, Welwyn Parish Council, and Woolmer Green Parish Council. For Essendon Parish Council, Ayot St Lawrence, and Ayot St Peter Parish Meetings, no standard opening times apply and you are advised to contact the relevant Parish Clerk.
AGM Wednesday 26 February 2020
Chaired by our Honorary President Gary Mabbutt, MBE
The Annual General Meeting will be held on Wednesday 26 February 2020 at 8 pm in the North Mymms Memorial Hall, 36 Station Road, Welham Green.
Proceedings will include a Q&A session on latest developments on The Local Plan with our Planning Consultant, Jed Griffiths, MA DipTP FRTPI.
Please come along and support your local society.
If you need any further information regarding the AGM please contact secretary@northmymmsgreenbelt.org.uk
February 2020
Local Plan: Some good news – but must keep up the pressure.
The Council is currently consulting on proposed changes to the Draft Local Plan. The number of dwellings now being sought is increased from 12,000 to 14,025 in response to the Inspector’s demand to get nearer the target of 16,000.
But there have been some positive changes in respect of the Green Belt:
- All sites rated as high harm to the Green Belt have been removed from the Draft Plan
- No new sites rated as moderate/high are proposed to be added to the Draft Plan.
- There are two exceptions to the above – in Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield.
For our Parish this means:
The following sites have been withdrawn from the Draft Plan:
HS22 (BrP4) west of Brookmans Park railway station
HS24 (BrP7 south of Hawkshead Road
The following sites are now to be added in the Draft Plan:
BrP1/BrP35 (106 dwellings) in Bell Bar, west of the A1000
LHe4/5 (36 dwellings) in Little Heath, Studlands and Videne, Hawkshead Road
WeG10 (120 dwellings) in Welham Green, north of Dixons Hill Road
WeG1 (16 dwellings) Welham Manor, Welham Green
WeG3/3a (68 dwellings) land south of Welham Manor, West of Station Road, Welham Green
The following sites remain in the Draft Plan:
HS21 (BrP13) (14 dwellings) west of Golf Club Road, Brookmans Park
HS23 (BrP14) (10 dwellings) east of Golf Club Road, Brookmans Park
HS35 (12 caravan pitches) Dixons Hill Road, east of the railway line, Welham Green
SDS7 (92 dwellings and employment land) Marshmoor, Welham Green
HS25 (LHe1) (35 dwellings) north of Hawkshead Road, Little Heath
HS11 (120 dwellings and secondary school) New Barnfield
What Now?
- Check out the consultation details on the Council’s website: welhat.gov.uk
- Come to our AGM to learn more
- Please make your views known again. This will be your last chance to have your say. Over ten thousand comments were submitted following the last consultation. The outcome shows that your voices have had an effect in protecting our communities and the Green Belt
- The closing date for responses is 22 March 2020
WE NEED YOUR HELP
Our Green Belt Society has been in existence since 1976 and has around twelve hundred members who pay an annual subscription and make donations. Thank you. Without you we wouldn’t exist. We have your support at public meetings and you are active in making representations in support of the Green Belt. Again – thank you.
But we need to draw on our membership in a more regular way; we need eyes and ears in the community and we need to strengthen our committee, which meets monthly, with two or three new members. We particularly would like help with our website and communicating with members. Can you join us? If you are interested in a greater involvement in this aspect of your community, please get in touch either by speaking to a committee member at the AGM or through our website www.northmymmsgreenbelt.org.uk
Please also renew your membership if you haven’t done so already you can do this on the website here or download and print off the membership form here.
November 2019
You can now follow us on Facebook & Twitter
July 2019
RESPONSES TO THE CALL FOR SITES CONSULTATION
Our Planning Consultant Jed Griffiths MA DipTP FRTPI, prepared on our behalf responses to the consultation document issued by Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council on the 7 May 2019. To view our responses to those sites in North Mymms click here. To view BrP17 Land east of Swanland Road and west of Warrengate Road click here.
NEW DEADLINE DATE FOR LOCAL PLAN CONSULTATION
Please note that the closing deadline date for objecting/commenting on the additional sites in the Local Plan has now been extended to Monday 24 June 9am.
Following the NMDGBS and Parish Council Meetings, the Welham Green residents formed an action group and distributed information to all houses in the Welham Green community on how to object to the Local Plan consultation. To view their covering letter click here and to view the map click here.
Objection points are already shown below in the Welham Green and South Hatfield hand outs.
WELWYN HATFIELD LOCAL PLAN CONSULTATION
At the Public Meeting held on the 3 June, the following hand outs were given: Brookmans Park and Bell Bar click here ; Little Heath and Swanley Bar click here and Welham Green and South Hatfield click here
Watch our website for further developments.
PUBLIC MEETING
In response to the Council’s published details of their supplementary “Call for Sites” we are holding a Public Meeting on Monday, 3 June 2019 at 8pm at the United Reformed Church, Bluebridge Road, Brookmans Park.
If you feel passionate about protecting the area you live in then come along to the meeting where our Planning Consultant, Jed Griffiths, MA Dip TP FRTPI will update you on the Local Plan and answer questions. REMEMBER Your support is important as once the fields that surround you have gone they will never return.
Please pass this information on to your neighbours as without the support of the community our voice will not be heard. Look forward to seeing you on the 3rd June.
LOCAL PLAN UPDATE
ADDITIONAL SITES FOR OVER 3,000 NEW HOMES PLUS FURTHER EMPLOYMENT LAND AND A PRIMARY SCHOOL PROPOSED FOR NORTH MYMMS
WHBC have published details of the response to their supplementary “Call for Sites” to make up the shortfall in the housing numbers in the draft local plan.
Over 140 new and re-promoted sites have been put forward in our Borough.
42 of these sites are in North Mymms with suggestions for over 3,000 dwellings plus further employment land and a primary school.
The Council has opened up a Consultation on these proposals with a closing deadline of 5pm on Tuesday 18 June.
The consultation documents and guidance notes for making a representation can be viewed by clicking here.
The Society has previously commented on those sites which were promoted at earlier stages of the Local Plan process but we will be commenting in detail on all of the sites now proposed within North Mymms.
We will also comment on the overall impact on the Green Belt in the Borough.
The Council will be carrying out both individual and cumulative analysis of the sites. It is unhelpful that the analysis is not available during the consultation period.
Whilst these are only proposals they are a frightening indication of the fragility of our precious Green Belt and the fierce desire of local developers.
We shall be holding a Public Meeting on Monday 3 June to give members an opportunity to voice their views. Further details will be communicated shortly.
Volunteer social media editor and webmaster wanted.
Local green belt society looking to boost on line presence.
Are you a local student or young professional looking for voluntary work experience as a website and social media editor? Do you know how to send out compelling updates on Twitter and Facebook? Do you have an interest in the local environment?
If so, the North Mymms District Green Belt Society (NMDGBS) would like to hear from you.
The NMDGBS has around a thousand members, and currently communicates through regular newsletters which drop through local doors. The society also has a website where updates are posted from time to time. But the NMDGBS doesn’t have a social media presence, and the society would like to start sharing its updates on both Twitter and Facebook.
The position is voluntary and the hours flexible. You would be expected to be able to set up a Facebook page for the NMDGBS and manage both the updates, new members, and any comments, working closely with society members who would produce the content updates and act as a second pair of eyes for everything produced.
You would also be expected to help set up a Twitter presence @NMDGBS and produce updated tweets when requested. And you would be required to monitor responses and feed those back to the Society’s committee.
Anyone interested should contact the secretary on greenbeltnothmymms@hotmail.co.uk
AGM REPORT
The Society’s AGM was held in the North Mymms Memorial Hall on Monday 25th March and was presided over by our President, Gary Mabbutt, MBE.
The meeting approved the Chairman’s report and the Annual Accounts.
Answering questions on his report, Chairman, again asked for interested members to consider joining the Committee. He acknowledged that the Society sometimes struggled with communications and said that the Society would be advertising for a volunteer to develop social media communications and the web site.
The Society’s planning advisor, Jed Griffiths, MA DipTP FRTPI, gave an update on the Local Plan and answered questions.
The Council officers had been overwhelmed by the response to their new call for sites in January. As well as 79 sites being re-submitted, 65 new sites had been offered. It had been impossible for the officers to carry out the required appraisals in the time available and a new timetable had now been agreed. The identity of the sites would not be revealed until after the local elections in May when there will be a public consultation. Officers would present the outcomes to the Council in September; the public examination sessions with the Inspector would take place in December with a view to the Plan being adopted in Spring 2020. The Society would respond to the consultation once the identity of the new sites had been published.
Guest Speaker
The guest speaker at the AGM was Professor David Church, Deputy Principal of the Royal Veterinary College.
Professor Church gave an overview of the College’s work, its reputation as, now, the number one Vet College in the world and the plans for new facilities at the Hawkshead Campus in accordance with the development Master Plan approved recently by the Council. He also outlined the extent of the College’s local land ownership and spoke about the land that had been put forward to the Council for development in the Local Plan.
Responding in a lively question session, Professor Church confirmed that the College is not relying on the proceeds of land sales to fund the improvements at Hawkshead Lane Campus and that the lands of Boltons Farm are required long term for teaching and husbandry.
Gary Mabbutt thanked Professor Church for his excellent presentation which was warmly applauded by the members.
The Society and the College will maintain a dialogue as the local plan process continues.
MARCH UPDATE
Our AGM Newsletters are out for delivery and should be coming through your letter boxes within the next week or so. Please click here to view.
Subscriptions for 2019 are now due. Please join or renew your annual subscription – details of payment are shown in our Newsletter.
As we went to print with our Newsletter, the Council Officers are reviewing the new sites and new timetable. The 66 entirely new sites and 77 re-promoted new sites that were submitted far exceeded expectations, which means that it is not possible to conclude the intended consultation stage before pre-elections start on 26 March 2019. This will result in a short delay to the agreed timetable, such that presentation of results and recommendations to members could take place in September 2019 and examination hearing sessions could take place in December 2019.
The Council has also received a letter from the Inspector asking them to consider a quicker timetable than the one they originally submitted to him.
FEBRUARY UPDATE
AGM Monday 25 March 2019 8pm North Mymms Memorial Hall, 36 Station Road, Welham Green
Please come and join us at our AGM which will be chaired by our Honorary President Gary Mabbutt MBE on the 25 March at 8 pm in the North Mymms Memorial Hall, 36 Station Road, Welham Green. Proceedings will include a QandA session on latest developments on the Local Plan with our Planning consultant, Jed Griffiths, MA DipTP FRTPI. This will be followed by a talk by Professor David Church, Deputy Principal, Royal Veterinary College.
LOCAL PLAN UPDATE
Following a meeting of the Cabinet Planning and Parking Panel (CPPP) in mid-December, the Council decided that it need more development sites to be able to reach the housing target of 16,000. It published a new timetable which envisages adoption of the plan in Spring 2020. Click here to view.
NOVEMBER 2019 UPDATE
To view a Progress and Other Issues Report prepared by our Planning Consultant, Jed Griffiths click here
September 2018
GREEN BELT REVIEW
As part of the Public Examination of the Local Plan, the Inspector, asked Welwyn Hatfield Council to carry out an additional review of the Green Belt in the Borough.
This Green Belt Review was published at the end of August with a very short window for comment until the 18 September.
Worryingly, the report assesses two locations in North Mymms – Swanley Bar and Bell Bar – as places where future development would cause only “moderate harm” to the Green Belt.
Click here to see our comments prepared by planning consultant Jed Griffiths on this crucial and disturbing report.
The Inspector has set aside Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 November for hearing sessions to discuss the Green Belt Review. We shall attend with Jed Griffiths.
The Stage 6 hearing sessions, which will deal with the sites proposed in the Draft Plan, have been provisionally scheduled for week commencing 10 December.
The Green Belt Review is long and detailed and confusing. If you want to delve further, you may find it helpful to look at the maps in the “Figures” volume and, in the “Appendices” volume, the sections on Sites 53 through to 83 which broadly cover the area from Bullens Geen to Little Heath.
You can access the Green Belt Review at http://www.welhat.gov.uk/article/6938/Examination-Documents
The Green Belt Review documents, towards the bottom of the page, are:
EX88A Note to accompany Welwyn Hatfield Green Belt Study Stage 3
EX88B Welwyn Hatfield Green Belt Study Stage 3 Main Report
EX88C Welwyn Hatfield Green Belt Study Stage 3 Figures
EX88D Welwyn Hatfield Green Belt Study Stage 3 Appendices
GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATIONS – effective from the 25 May 2018
As a member organisation we are required to advise our members about the information we collect and how it is used. Please click here to view our Privacy Statement
WHBC LOCAL PLAN EXAMINATION STAGE 4
The dates for Stage 4 of the Local Plan Examination have been announced:
Thursday 26 June – Thursday 28 June 2018
Friday 29 June – Reserve session
Please click here for further details.
AGM 2018 Follow Up
As promised in our AGM note below please click here to see Richard Knox-Johnston’s Power Point presentation highlighting his talk from that evening.
AGM 2018
Our AGM took place on 26 March which was presided over by our President, Gary Mabbutt MBE.
Amongst the 80 or so attendees were several local Parish, Borough an County Councillors.
The Officers and Committee Members were re-elected for a further year.
Our planning consultant, Jed Griffiths gave an up date on the progress of the public examination of the Local Plan.
The Stage 3 sessions on topic Specific and Development Management Policies were held in the WHBC Council Chamber on 20, 21 and 22 February. The hearings can be viewed on the council’s webcasts by clicking .here.
The Stage 4 hearing sessions are scheduled to take place during weeks commencing 18 and 25 June. Details of the programme and the Inspector’s matters an issues for these hearing sessions will be available after Easter.
According to the Programme Officer, the Inspector is aware that the new Green Belt Review will not be ready until the end of June and that it is likely to raise new issues relating to housing land supply. He is prepared to hold additional hearings, probably in September, to consider those matters.
The Chairman of the London Green Belt Council, Richard Knox-Johnston, was the main guest speaker. He spoke of the Green Belt not just as a protection against urban sprawl but as an important contributor to the well-being both physical and mental, of an urban-dwelling population.
Richard’s full talk will be on our website shortly. Meanwhile you can find details of the London Green Belt Council (of which NMDGBS is a member) by clicking here.
RIP
We are very sad to report that our Vice President, Clive Bennett has died after a brave struggle against cancer.
Clive was a founder member of our Committee. He was a passionate defender of the Green Belt in North Mymms with a wealth of local knowledge. We shall miss him sorely.
PLEASE NOTE MEMBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR 2018 ARE NOW DUE – click here to sign up online . THE NMDGBS WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR INVALUABLE SUPPORT. IT IS MUCH APPRECIATED.
LOCAL PLAN UPDATE – MARCH
As you are all aware the Local Plan Examination Hearings are well under way and we are now approaching Stage 3 of the Examination. Following the Stage 2 Hearing please click here to view an interesting document prepared by The Inspector regarding the expansion of the WHBC Green Belt Review.
Stage 3 will be concerned with the topic-based policies in the Local Plan. Please click here for details of the next hearing session. However the main interest for our Parish will be in Stage 4, which will examine the site allocations.
To view a Progress and Other Issues Report prepared by our Planning Consultant, Jed Griffiths click here
LOCAL PLAN EXAMINATION HEARINGS Stage 2 Overarching Strategy
24 to 27 October 2017 – 10.00 – 18.00
Council Chamber, Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council Offices, Welwyn Garden City, AL8 6AE
Please click here to view our Statement in response to questions raised by the Inspector. Our Planning Consultant, Jed Griffiths, will be speaking on our behalf at these hearings.
Government issue a Planning Consultation white paper
This consultation seeks views on a number of changes to planning policy and legislation. There are some alarming proposals including:
- building most houses in the more unaffordable areas
- capping authorities to no more than a 40% increase to existing plans – a possible 5,000 to 6,000 more homes on top of the 12,000 to 15,000 already in the plan
To read the whole paper click here
We shall be responding to the Consultation before the deadline of 9 November and will post our comments. Members can respond individually using the response pro-forma included within the Consultation Paper.
SEPTEMBER NEWSLETTER
Our September Newsletter will be coming through your doors shortly. Please click here to view it.
LOCAL PLAN UPDATE
The Public Examination of the Local Plan starts on 21 September continuing through the Autumn. Mr Mel Middleton, the Appointed Inspector will test the Council’s draft Plan against legal requirements and consider comments and objections previously submitted. Our Society will be represented at the sessions with the help of our Planning Consultant, Jed Griffiths.
Due to the complexity of the Local Plan and number of representations received the Inspector has organised the hearing sessions into four distinct sessions and full details concerning this are available in his Guidance Notes at paras 19-28. All the hearing sessions will take place in the Council Chamber at the Welwyn Hatfield Council Offices, The Campus, Welwyn Garden City AL6 6AE and will start at 10.00am. Documents relevant to Stage 1 – Legal Soundness and Duty to Co-operate – of the hearing sessions are listed below:
- EX06 Inspector’s Issues and Questions for Stage 1 of the Hearing Sessions click here
- EX07 Inspector’s Guidance Notes click here
- EX08 Draft Hearings programme V1 of the Examination in Public of the Welwyn Hatfield Local Plan click here
Stage 2: Overarching Strategy & Associated Polices is scheduled for 24 – 27 October and 1 – 3 November. Details of the issues and questions for the hearing sessions in October and November will be sent out at the end of the first week of September.
Stage 2: Topic Specific Policies and Stage 4: Settlement and Site Allocations – dates to be announced.
This is a crucial stage of the Local Plan process. The Inspector could recommend an increase in the Council’s target of 12,000 houses, if he feels that is insufficient. The latest projections up to 2031, based on 2014 statistics, indicate a housing number requirement of 15,200. Click here to keep in touch with the progress of the Examination and scroll to the tab entitled ‘Latest News and Updates’
March 2017
Annual Subscriptions NOW DUE
Please note that your annual subscriptions are now overdue. Details for payment are on our website under Membership. Please check out our direct debit payment methods.
Local Plan
The Welwyn Hatfield Local Plan has just completed a significant stage. On the 16 March the Council’s Cabinet Housing and Planning Panel considered the public responses to the Draft Plan published last Autumn. They approved the draft with no material changes and sent it to the full Council for approval and submission for public examination. Further details and what this means for North Mymms can be seen on our Local Plan page.
Recent Interesting Articles
See below link in the February edition of The Ecologist “Green Belt must not be sacrificed to unplanned housing”
July 2016
We attended the Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council meeting of the Cabinet Housing Planning Panel on 13 June 2016 where ALL the sites recommended by the Planning Officers for the Draft Local Plan were voted in favour of (with the inclusion of additional site Hat11) by the six Conservative Councillors, including Brookmans Park and Little Heath ward councillor Stephen Boulton (Chairman). The three Labour Councillors and one Lib/Dem Councillor voted against.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR NORTH MYMMS?
The following are the recommended sites:
WELHAM GREEN:
WeG4b Marshmoor – 80 dwellings and 40,500m2 of employment land
GTLAA01 Foxes Lane – 12 pitches
Hat11 Land at Southway (next to New Barnfield) – 120 dwellings
BROOKMANS PARK:
BrP4 Land west of Brookmans Park – 250 dwellings
BrP13 West of Golf Club Road – 14 dwellings
BRP14 East of Golf Club Road – 10 dwellings
LITTLE HEATH:
BrP7 Hawkshead Road (on a reduced site area) – 100 dwellings
LHe1 Land north of Hawkshead Road – 35 dwellings
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
The next Cabinet Housing Planning Panel meeting will be on 14 July 2016 when the Councillors will be approving the Final Draft. We will be attending and will keep you informed.
The Draft Local Plan will have a final Public Consultation in the summer.
As soon as we have the final details we will be holding Public meetings in Welham Green and Brookmans Park and will keep you informed with our newsletter.
CONFUSED?
Although all the Welham Green sites are considered suitable, they have not been put forward because of limited primary school capacity and no alternative site has been identified to deliver an expanded school.
Recently reports in the Welwyn Hatfield Times have suggested the inclusion of WeG15 Potterells in the Draft Local Plan. The original proposal for Potterells does not not have a primary school but Colin Haigh, Head of Planning, revealed at the 13 June 2016 Cabinet Housing Planning Panel meeting that they have now received a letter from the site promotor for a proposed school. We have queried this with Planning and have been advised that the proposal came in too late to be included in the Local Plan. It could be raised during the consultation period and maybe during the Inspector’s examination.
We will be monitoring this situation and will keep you informed.
The Planning Officers have stated that if WeG15 Potterells came forward then it could include WeG3 Welham Manor – 45 dwellings (potential for 64 subject to alternative access arrangements) with access from Potterells.