27 Jun 2024
In January the St Albans development management committee voted to refuse an application to build 95 houses in the Green Belt west of Watling Street.
In May the applicant, Scott Properties, lodged an appeal which is due to be heard by Public Inquiry, starting on September 10.
On Monday night, meeting in private, the same committee resolved not to defend the refusal.
This is a most extraordinary about turn by the council, possibly having no precedent in the district and being extremely rare anywhere in the country.
Paul King, on behalf of Greenbelt, the community group that has been opposing the proposal since the application was first submitted, said: “I am staggered that the council can do this. Greenbelt has been accepted by the Planning Inspectorate as a Rule 6 Party in this appeal, and as such I was told about this by the planning department on Tuesday afternoon, three hours before the deadline for the submission of an important document. However no reasons were provided and I would very much like to know why the council has U-turned.
“There are very substantive grounds for opposing the appeal, three of which are a clear breach of long-standing Green Belt policy. So for the council to ‘roll-over’ on this is quite incredible.”
It is uncertain exactly what will happen now but the formal appeal process, which is driven by the Planning Inspectorate, is underway and would normally continue to a conclusion, whatever one of the parties decided to do.
Shirani St Ledger McCarthy, who chairs Keep Chiswell Green and spoke on behalf of Greenbelt at the January meeting, said: “Unfortunately I have more experience of appeals than I have ever wished for and, my understanding is that, once the procedure starts, the council becomes just a party to the proceedings and needs to adhere to the specified procedure and timescales as much as anyone else. The Planning Inspectors take full control of proceedings, through to a final decision. It now looks like the council will be ‘sitting in the stands’, whilst the merits of this case are discussed by the active parties.
“Over the past year, particularly in relation to this application, councillors have repeatedly been threatened with the ill-founded prospect of the council being taken into special measures for the quality of its decisions by Central Government. Actions such as this only hasten that prospect, by undermining their own credibility.”
Paul added: “The local community will be astonished by this decision. They have very actively and continually responded to each consultation on the scheme, only to find that their input has been ignored. We have submitted all of the appropriate documentation to the Inspectorate, including a strong Statement of Case and we wait for the next stage of proceedings.”
Anyone concerned about the development (5/2022/0267) can email Paul on greenbelt@gmx.com, to be kept informed of progress and to ascertain what can be done to oppose the development.
