07 Sep 2026
Residents from across the district who oppose the council’s proposed Local Plan are being urged to gather peacefully outside the Civic Centre.
The gathering is scheduled for 6.15pm on Wednesday September 9, ahead of the Extraordinary Meeting of SADC’s Full Council at 7pm.
An ePetition signed by 611 residents has called on the council to reject the Local Plan on the grounds that it lacks creativity and innovation in its approach to meeting housing need and does not provide adequate infrastructure to support the scale and location of development proposed.
Lead petitioner Damian Gaskin will be given up to five minutes to address the meeting, after which councillors will debate the petition for up to 15 minutes.
Members of the public have been informed that there will be no public seating available in the Council Chamber for the meeting. Some space will be available downstairs, but those residents will not be visible to councillors during the debate.
Campaigners are therefore asking people who oppose the Local Plan to gather peacefully outside the Civic Centre so that councillors can see the strength of public feeling.
Damian said: “This is absolutely not an anti-housing campaign. St Albans needs more homes, and in particular we desperately need social housing and genuinely affordable homes.
“Our argument is that we need to be far more creative about where and how we build them. Before sacrificing the Green Belt, we should be asking whether we have done everything possible with previously developed land, regeneration and appropriate higher-density development.
“We also have profound concerns about climate change, flooding, biodiversity, sustainable transport and whether the infrastructure required for major new developments will actually be there.
“People have legitimate concerns in communities right across the district.
“We would particularly welcome residents and campaigners from areas including Redbourn, Sandridge, Chiswell Green and north St Albans, as well as anyone else who believes the council should reconsider this Plan.
“This is about peaceful, democratic participation. We simply want councillors, as they arrive to make an enormously important and potentially irreversible decision, to see the people behind those 611 signatures and understand the strength of feeling in the communities they represent.”
