13 Nov 2025
Councillors are set to decide how to proceed with plans for 191 homes on Green Belt land at Chiswell Green.
The development is part of a site on land south-west of Chiswell Green Lane which already has outline planning permission for up to 391 homes, a primary school, and associated development.
Now an application for reserved matters consent seeks approval for the proposed layout, scale, appearance and landscaping, and is due to be heard by members of SADC’s development management committee on Monday.
A previous decision was postponed to give officers the opportunity to issue a revised report on the proposals after perceived errors were identified by campaign group Keep Chiswell Green.
Shirani St Ledger McCarthy of Keep Chiswell Green said: “We are delighted that the officers at St Albans council have taken our concerns seriously and recognised that the supposed benefits of the Taylor Wimpey proposal are not as beneficial as they might have thought.
“However, we remain very concerned that the revised conclusion the officers have come to is that there is still sufficient benefit, in its current form, to warrant a recommendation to approve. The impact of the planned removal of trees and vegetation and of the new properties on the houses that border the Taylor Wimpey development is very significant indeed.
“We hope that St Albans council will recognise that the Government’s planning rules give them an obligation to existing, as well as new residents. The National Planning Policy Framework specifically states that planning decisions should ensure that developments create places ‘with a high standard of amenity for existing and future users’. It goes on to instruct planning professionals that ‘development that is not well designed should be refused’.
“Residents have highlighted repeatedly to officers that this development does not provide a high standard of amenity for existing users and is not well designed. This proposal, like the many others being built now in the district, could be anywhere, is everywhere, at the developers’ convenience. Nowhere in the NPPF or other planning guidance is there an instruction that decision-makers should pander to developers, which is what appears to happen in this district.
“We want to see developers and officers engage in a meaningful way with residents so that the developments that are being forced on us at least minimise the harm to us, conform to planning rules, and suit the character of the area. We hope that councillors will recognise at the decision meeting on Monday that this development still does not meet the minimum standards necessary to warrant approval, and will refuse it. Our councillors need to stand firm with residents and tell the developers to do better!”
Neighbour Russell Hipkin of Hammers Gate said: “When the designs first came out I was really shocked to see on the plans from Taylor Wimpey that there was a 5.48m fence 4 to 5m from my boundary.
“I put formal comments into the planning office in February and September and was even more shocked to see that the original design was left unchanged, even though better designs are possible. I don’t understand this but suspect that the planning office is simply too overloaded to do a proper job.”
