16 Nov 2024
The district council’s draft Local Plan is not fit for purpose, claims a local environmental campaigner fighting to protect a rare wildlife meadow.
Dr Robert Wareing has been battling for years to prevent the development of the 12-acre Bedmond Lane Wildlife Meadow, which borders the whole of the western edge of the Verulam Estate.
Cala Homes, owners of the meadow, have declared their aim is to build 78 houses on the site, and SADC have controversially included it in their draft Local Plan.
The council’s selection of sites proposed for release from the Green Belt is based upon the Ove Arup & Partners Limited report on the Green Belt Review of June 2023 (‘The Arup Report’), but Dr Wareing says they have failed to consider the biodiversity of these areas.
When the wildlife meadow was originally included in the Plan, Matthew Dodds, the planning and biodiversity manager at Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, condemned SADC for making a mockery of its own environmental credentials.
He said earlier this year: “By including this site, the council will be endorsing the destruction of green infrastructure for its role in combating climate change and supporting biodiversity, along with its value for recreation, health and wellbeing, and landscape value… Categorically, for the avoidance of doubt, it will not be possible to deliver biodiversity net gain on this site within the proposed plans.”
Dr Wareing has now responded to the Regulation 19 consultation, which allows for public comment on the draft Local Plan’s compliance and ‘soundness’ with national planning policies.
He says the inclusion of this meadow calls into question three specific grounds to challenge the validity of the Plan: it is not consistent with national or local policy; it is not legally compliant, and it is not justified as an appropriate strategy.
Dr Wareing said: “This is not just an ordinary field in the Green Belt. It is extraordinary and very special both in terms of supporting a massive range of biodiversity and, as a former Asset of Community Value, the extent of its use by many local people for outdoor recreational, social, sporting and educational activities over five decades.
“It ought to have been excluded from the Plan on the grounds that such sites conflict with national policy on the protection of the environment, both as a contributor to biodiversity and to local people’s health. “This wildflower and wildlife meadow has, in previous planning applications, been described by the Hertfordshire & Middlesex Wildlife Trust (HMWT) as ‘unique in St Albans and of significant ecological value and importance’. It is one of the very rare examples of a true natural wildflower and wildlife meadow that remain in this county.
“Arup’s unsound assessment of the sites within the Green Belt with potential for development means decisions in the Plan are fundamentally flawed and thus not justified.
“Whilst I understand that SADC is under huge pressure to deliver a Plan, I would argue that this single imperative may be causing them to plough on regardless without properly listening and considering views of residents, councillors and independent experts.
“Failure to take account of this meadow’s ecological value and wildlife status – as a crucial element of the holistic framework of the Plan – calls into question the validity of the consultation process and therefore the ‘soundness’ of the whole of this latest Plan.
“The failure of SADC to act on, or to acknowledge, representations pointing to the ecological value of this wildflower and wildlife meadow is even more perplexing because SADC and councillors for Verulam Ward have stood shoulder to shoulder with local residents in fighting to preserve Bedmond Lane Wildlife Meadow over many years as a succession of planning applications to develop the land have been made by the owners. They are therefore fully aware of the biodiversity and value of this meadow.”
SADC strategic director for community and place delivery Chris Traill has described Regulation 19 as something of a technical consultation.
She said: “We are not asking people for feedback on their general views on the draft LP, but are asking whether it is in line with planning law and national planning policy.
“We have a responsibility as a council to deliver an Local Plan that conforms with planning law and national policies and we are confident that we have done so. This consultation, though, will put that to the test, allowing for any concerns to be raised.”
The Regulation 19 stage of the Local Plan consultation concluded last Friday. Feedback will be considered by the planning policy and climate committee on November 28 when it will also consider submission of the Plan to the Government.
