17 Mar 2023
It’s the final chance for residents of Chiswell Green to have their say and prevent a staggering 721 new homes from being built on their doorsteps.
Developers want to stick the housing on Green Belt land at St Stephen’s Farm and south of Chiswell Green Lane, adding 1,800 new residents to a village which currently only has 3,000.
It is feared the developments will result in years of construction noise, traffic and pollution, local roads will be gridlocked, air quality will diminish, and these proposals will only be the tip of the iceberg for further housing on the Green Belt around the village.
A massive campaign led by non-political protest group Keep Chiswell Green resulted in the two schemes being rejected by the district council, but as expected the developers appealed to the Planning Inspectorate.
There will now be a public inquiry into both appeals taking place in St Albans between April 17-26.
In a remarkable result for grass roots activism, Keep Chiswell Green (KCG) has been granted ‘Rule 6 Status’, which means they can fully participate as a main party in the inquiry.
Unfortunately this is not without associated costs, and the group is now trying to raise £14.5K to engage expert witnesses who will be able to highlight the negative impact these developments would have on local traffic, transport, health, biodiversity and the need to preserve the Green Belt.
KCG co-chair, Shirani St Ledger McCarthy said: “Keep Chiswell Green is delighted to see that, finally, all local residents are being formally notified by our local council of their right to participate in this important public inquiry. After so many households failed to receive their original letters by 24th January as the process instructs, the Planning Inspector has very generously extended the deadline for comments to 31st March, and Keep Chiswell Green encourages all local residents to speak up and make their voices heard. Keep Chiswell Green also encourages all local residents to attend as much of the Inquiry as possible, especially the first session – Monday 17th April, 10am, Civic Centre.”
The scheme south of Chiswell Green Lane (ref 5/2022/0927) is by Cala Homes and for the demolition of existing structures and construction of up to 391 dwellings (Use Class C3), provision of land for a new two-form entry primary school, open space provision and associated landscaping. Internal roads, parking, footpaths, cycleways, drainage, utilities and service infrastructure and new access arrangements.
The St Stephen Farm application (5/2021/3194) , known as the Polo Field, is for the demolition of existing buildings, and the construction of up to 330 discounted affordable homes for key workers, including military personnel, the creation of open space and the construction of new accesses and highway works including new foot and cycle path and works to junctions.
Keep Chiswell Green has identified nine reasons to challenge the appeal, and is urging local residents to include these details in their submissions to the inquiry.
1) Brownfield sites should be exhausted before building on Green Belt is permitted
SADC should not allow any new housing on Green Belt until it can demonstrate that all its brownfield sites have been built on first. The council should also enforce granted planning permissions on brownfield sites before Green Belt permissions are granted.
2) SADC should only be permitting the building of the types of housing that we actually need in St Albans
The local and county councils report on what types of housing are needed in St Albans but allow developers to dictate what they want to build providing they satisfy the affordable and self build percentage quotas.
3) SADC has failed the residents of St Albans district
By failing to produce a Local Plan, district residents will suffer the consequences as this allows developers to dictate which land will be developed and with what types of housing. The Green Belt was defined for a reason; it’s not up to developers to circumvent these provisions.
4) The domino effect will cause further loss
Development of the Cala site will inevitably lead to the development of the remainder of the plot bordered by Chiswell Green Lane and Noke Lane – up to 1,000 more new houses.
Development of the Polo Field site will inevitably lead to the loss of the adjacent site between the Polo Field site and the current settlement boundary – another 100 new houses?
5) Failure to consider the impact of additional traffic
This material consideration in the planning process but has been completely dismissed by Herts County Highways. Comparatively, traffic was accepted as a material consideration in the recent decision by East Herts District Council to refuse 350 new homes in Buntingford in November last year.
6) Money instead of actual biodiversity net gain
The developers would be destroying huge amounts of biodiversity, which they have vastly underestimated, and are proposing to pay for biodiversity units to be provided “offsite”. Achieving this offset is likely to be challenging enough so as to be unachievable, even at the levels they estimate. Either way, Chiswell Green is losing a significant amount of biodiversity and there is no clear plan as to how that will be offset.
7) Open and play space vs loss of countryside
In addition to the loss of biodiversity, the planning officer for the Cala application attributes positive weight to Cala’s use of 3.34ha to provide open and play space, but Chiswell Green will actually lose 14ha of prime Green Belt which has previously been available to the public, including for various horse riding activities, all of which
will be lost.
The Polo Field development offers a “memorial park” but this is not a commemorative location and the loss of the benefits of another 14ha of countryside is of much greater consequence to the local community than a memorial park with no play facilities or other specific benefits.
8) A two form entry primary school is not necessary
The local primary schools are currently under-subscribed, the birth rate is steadily declining, and the actual number of households in the 2021 census confirms that past forecasts have over-estimated population growth in Hertfordshire.
9) Overplayed economic benefit
Cala Homes has stated that there could be £10.9m in additional household spending and £920,287 in additional council tax revenue for SADC from their development. Presumably SADC would anticipate a similar economic benefit from the Polo Field development. The suggested economic benefit cannot be given any positive weighting in the planning decision as it cannot be justified.
To donate to the campaign visit https://keepchiswellgreen.org/donate/
To comment on the appeal email Holly.Dutton@planninginspectorate.gov.uk and use the subject ‘Objection to APP/B1930/W/22/3313110 And APP/B1930/W/22/3312277. Please also
include your name and address, and the phrase “I am against the appeal proposals”.
Photos for this article provided by KCG and Gary Broadbent.
