30 Jun 2026
A Redbourn resident has formally served SADC with legal papers challenging planning decisions
affecting both the parish of Redbourn and the River Ver catchment area.
The legal challenge centres on the council’s approval of residential development in the Redbourn area at a time when Markyate wastewater treatment works – the facility which will serve that development – was already under formal investigation by the Environment Agency for discharges to the River Ver outside permitted conditions.
The ongoing investigation has been running since December 2023 and remains ongoing, and monitoring of the Ver for its ecological status and water quality remains active.
The river, which is an internationally significant chalk stream, is currently at moderate ecological status, well below the good ecological status required under environmental law, with over-abstraction and wastewater discharge identified as the primary pressures.
The man serving the papers is Redbourn resident Paul Crowley, who lives in Ridgedown. He is not a lawyer, a campaigner, or a well-resourced organisation, and is in fact a disabled man living alone , managing complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and dyslexia.
The legal grounds set out in his pre-action letter include: failure by SADC to take into account material considerations, specifically the ongoing EA investigation; failure to obtain or rely upon adequate evidence of wastewater infrastructure capacity; and failure to give adequate weight to the environmental impact on a globally rare habitat.
Developers are bidding to add thousands of homes onto Green Belt land in the vicinity of Redbourn, with many already included in the district’s draft Local Plan, currently in the final stages of approval.
Approximately 1,000 homes are planned for a 104-acre open arable site on the northeast edge of Redbourn village, between Dunstable Road, Harpenden Lane and the Redbourn bypass, while the East Hemel development will see 4,000 homes on 975 acres east of Hemel , south of the B487 Hemel Hempstead Road (Redbourn Road) and north of the A4147 St Albans Road.
Mr Crowley believes SADC should not approve any developments in Redbourn without proper assessment of wastewater infrastructure, and whether it could cope with thousands of additional homes in the area.
In his pre-action protocol letter he stated: “The council failed to obtain or properly assess adequate evidence that wastewater infrastructure capacity existed to support the development approved. No authority – not the Environment Agency, not Natural England, and not Thames Water – has produced evidence demonstrating that wastewater capacity is or was sufficient.”
He contends that it was irrational for the council to approve residential development relying on assurances of wastewater capacity at a time when the statutory regulator was actively investigating the wastewater treatment works serving that area for discharges outside permitted conditions.
He insists that no reasonable planning authority properly directing itself to the relevant facts could have concluded that the planning conditions relating to wastewater infrastructure were satisfied in these circumstances.
He has also filed a parallel damages claim under the Human Rights Act 1998, Article 8, on the basis that the council’s planning failures have contributed to conditions – including E. coli contamination risk, sewage overflow events, and river closures – that have directly interfered with the claimant’s documented therapeutic use of the local environment.
The council has been given until 13 July 2026 to respond substantively to the pre-action letter. If no adequate response is received, judicial review proceedings will be issued without further notice.
Redbourn independent councillor David Mitchell said: “I think the issue of wastewater – and also fresh water – is a huge issue considering the numbers of housing proposed for the area. “Thames Water has a statuary duty to provide the infrastructure but it’s hard to see how this will happen given we are potentially looking at around 30,000 new houses by 2050. The existing infrastructure is creaking and contaminating the local chalk steams. We need a major study to look into the provision of sewerage services before development begins.”
Harpenden MP Victoria Collins added: “The River Ver is one of our area’s most precious and fragile natural assets, and protecting our rare chalk streams is an absolute priority for me”
“That’s why, with Lib Dem colleagues, we have also pushed the Labour Government to embed chalk stream protections into planning legislation to give councils more powers in planning. Labour has so far refused.
“Working with local councillors, we will continue to stand up for our local environment, fight for the stronger protections our chalk streams deserve, and always press for planning decisions to genuinely consider infrastructure constraints, the impact on our environment and the concerns of our communities.”
SADC is unable to comment as legal proceedings are active.
