New Homes Plan for Hertfordshire

Wednesday 29th November, 2006

Public meetings are to be held next month in a bid to raise awareness of plans which could see thousands of new homes built in the Green Belt.

St Albans District Council's planning portfolio holder Cllr Chris Brazier has arranged the meetings in Redbourn and Colney Heath which could both suffer from proposed extensions to neighbouring towns.

Arlington Securities wants to build 5,000 homes on Hatfield aerodrome, a development which would encroach into the district along Hatfield Road, eroding the Green Belt buffer with St Albans.

And the Crown Estate is looking to build 5,000 to 6,000 houses on land adjacent to Hemel Hempstead and the M1, close to Redbourn.

The developers want the additional 10,000 homes included in the East of England Plan which will govern development in the district until 2021. A provisional decision from the government on the Plan is expected before the end of the year.

On Tuesday the district council's cabinet agreed to join forces with Dacorum Borough Council to fight the threat to the west of the district.

The council had not wanted to publish a formal consultative document on the proposal until after the government publishes its decision on the Plan but Dacorum has decided to push ahead because it feels the need to start to raise public awareness as soon as possible.

Planning portfolio holder, Cllr Chris Brazier told cabinet: "I don't think people are aware of what is being proposed and how the suggestions will affect the district

"If the proposals go ahead the character of the rural fringes of the district will be changed with the development of thousands of new homes."

Cllr Chris Oxley added: "The potential impact of the proposals for Hemel is that we could see an extra 10,000 people in our district. This would put tremendous pressures on the infrastructure."

Cllr Brazier commented after the meeting that if both sets of proposals were included in the East of England Plan, they would strip away the Green Belt buffer between Redbourn and Hemel Hempstead and between Colney Heath and Hatfield.