24 Sep 2024
The next phase in the process of implementing a Local Plan for the St Albans district is now underway.
This week, members of SADC’s planning policy and climate committee agreed to commence the Regulation 19 Consultation.
This only allows for public comment on the draft Local Plan’s compliance and ‘soundness’ with national planning policies – not whether potential sites for infrastructure, employment and housing developments should or should not be included.
SADC has carried out numerous studies to assess the impact of the proposals on the environment, transport, heritage, the Green Belt and social issues such as education and leisure.
Monday’s meeting included questions tabled by members of the public in response to the process.
Mark Short said he appreciated there was little prospect of reducing the housing numbers for the district with the Government intent on destroying the Green Belt, but highlighted the many red flags raised relating to the north St Albans site, including unrealistic estimates of traffic generation, undeliverable safe transport routes, flood risks and the impact of Heartwood Forest.
“There seems a danger of being blinded by the number of houses that this site can potentially deliver rather than being guided objectively by the planning merits or the limitations of the site. So is there a real danger that if this is brought forward, the Local Plan could be considered unsound by inspectors, particularly if local residents and campaign groups mount legal challenges to the site selection on the basis of the fact that the many concerns being raised have not been resolved to their satisfaction?”
Council spatial planning manager Chris Briggs responded: “There is always a danger for all [Local] Plans. All Plans are not guaranteed to be found sound by the inspectors and all plans are at risk of judicial review.
“However, officers are comfortable that the advice of this committee and the evidence this committee has seen does provide a comprehensive evidence base and does reduce that risk to an acceptable level. We’ll continue to look at further evidence as it comes forward through the Regulation 19 publication process.”
Gee Smedley, spokesperson for campaign group CLASH, accused the council of ignoring the flood risk to the site, while St Michael’s parish councillor Damien Gaskin said the highways assumptions were unrealistic, and asked why SADC was taking “this almost perverse course of action and rebutting questions with nonsensical answers”, both of which were rejected.
Cllr Mike Hobday presented a petition of 556 signatures opposing Green Belt development in London Colney.
He said: “The purposes of the Green Belt include checking unrestricted sprawl, yet the district council deliberately chooses sites adjacent to built-up areas… The council has chosen the easy option, to concrete over our green fields.
“What’s happening here is that the most valuable Green Belt, that immediately adjacent to our villages, is being targeted as the first call for development. Why? Because it’s apparently more sustainable to build on the edges of villages and towns, so people will walk to shops and to schools.”
Cllr Lynn Cunningham accused him of “absolute hypocritical NIMBYism” as there was no proposal for alternative sites, and all the councillors in the room were faced with giving up land in their wards for housing because of the numbers allocated to them by the Labour Government.
Cllr Hobday responded: “In the short period of time that I’ve been a member of this council and we’ve had a Labour government, there’s been no request from council officers, no suggestion from the council leadership that we might want to take a cross-party approach to engaging with the Government. If that has changed and if the council wants the support of Labour councillors with the Labour Government, I think the appropriate way to do it is to raise that with the Labour group itself.”
Addressing the report on the allocation of sites, Chris Briggs said SADC had undertaken an extensive and rigorous search for previously developed “brownfield” land, but an insufficient supply of this forced the council to identify sites on Green Belt land.
He said later: “We’ve got about 5,000 homes worth of brownfield sites and we need to provide just shy of 15,000 homes. There’s a 10,000 homes shortfall. That’s the bottom and top of it in those terms, and we’ve seen no evidence to suggest there’s largescale brownfield sites we’ve missed.”
Much of the meeting was taken up by councillors debating the inclusion of specific sites, and how they were scored, with Mr Briggs defending the methodology used in each case.
For example, Cllr Dawn Gamble questioned the inclusion of Bedmond Lane Wildlife Meadow in the Plan: “The ecology, biodiversity of this piece of land is absolutely amazing, it includes a diverse range of flora, grasses, mature trees, ponds, and even a protected species of orchid… Locals have been working very closely with the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, who support its preservation as a wildlife site.”
To which Mr Briggs said: “We live in the real world and deal with real world likelihoods. The site is owned or optioned by a house builder, and at the moment the local community have absolutely no power to do anything to protect those areas. Again, I’ll step away from the specifics here, but in the general course of events, one can’t undertake anything to protect species on private land.”
With the district facing revised housing targets which will see even more development of Green Belt land in the future, Cllr David Mitchell said: “If we’re trying to save Green Belt, we’re not going to be able to. It seems to me that we’re basically giving up on the Green Belt as a country, as a government, as a district… We’ve got to start thinking much bigger about the whole thing.”
Chair Cllr Paul de Kort said having a Local Plan in place alongside a five-year land supply for development was critical to campaigning against any increased targets.
The decision to move forwards to Regulation 19 Consultation was approved by all 11 Liberal Democrat councillors on the committee, with two votes against.
Commenting after the decision, CLASH’s Gee Smedley said: “It continues to be mind-boggling watching an excruciating political point-scoring exercise rather than what we all need: sensible, defensible planning policy.
“We just need a pragmatic and sensible approach. SADC must deliver on its commitment to make meaningful site selections now the full evidence base is published.
“If north St Albans was not a flood zone and sitting on a dual carriageway with a cycle lane, we would not even have a campaign group as the site would have been developed 70 years ago when New Greens was built. But these are real constraints to delivery and ignoring the evidence in the process jeopardises the whole Local Plan.”
SADC strategic director for community and place delivery, Chris Traill, said after the meeting: “We are not asking people for feedback on their general views on the draft Local Plan, but are asking whether it is in line with planning law and national planning policy.
“Neighbouring councils, for instance, need to consider if we have met our duty to cooperate with them while producing the draft Local Plan.
“We have a responsibility as a council to deliver a 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 consultation starts on Thursday September 26 and continues for six weeks to Friday November 8. In the meantime, Full Council will decide whether to approve the draft Local Plan at its meeting on Wednesday October 16.
Following this, the planning policy and climate committee on Thursday November 28 will consider a report on the Regulation 19 consultation feedback.
Provided the draft Local Plan was approved by Full Council and it is considered to be in accordance with national policy, it will then be submitted to the Government for examination by an independent planning inspector.
You can take part in the Regulation 19 consultation and view the draft Local Plan along with other documents at https://www.stalbans.gov.uk/new-local-plan.
