10,000 plus homes proposed for Welwyn Hatfield Borough

On 19 December, the Government published its proposed changes to the draft East of England Plan, prepared by the East of England Regional Assembly. Public consultation on the changes is now underway and will run until 9 March 2007.

The headline for Hertfordshire is that the Secretary of State has supported the EiP Panel recommendations to increase housing development in the county to 83,200 new homes before 2021. This will include large scale development around Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield.

The recommendations for Welwyn Hatfield are:

• An increase in dwelling allocation by 4,200, as previously proposed, bringing the total figure to 10,000.
• A need to carry out a Green Belt review looking up to 2031 and beyond, in order to accommodate further development in the borough. Taking into account the current rate of housing development it would suggest that the borough could be allocated a further 5,000 dwellings.

We are shocked by these proposals, which fail to take into account concerns about transport infrastructure and environmental impact. Councillor Mandy Perkins, Executive Member for Planning says:  “I am absolutely dismayed at the Secretary of State’s proposal to allocate 10,000 homes to be built in Welwyn Hatfield as part of the East of England Plan.

“There is a strong lack of evidence to show how our borough can take on this level of dwellings without it causing a serious detriment to the quality of life for residents. We have fought hard to reduce the allocation yet the Secretary of State has clearly seen fit to pursue this option.

The council is going to closely scrutinise the report and the supporting document over the next few weeks before making a formal response.

Public Meeting

Welwyn Hatfield Council in conjunction with CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) arranged a public meeting to discuss the proposals for the East of England Plan.

The meeting took place on Wednesday 14 February and over 200 residents attended and heard presentations from Chris Conway, Chief Planning and Environmental Health Officer for Welwyn Hatfield Council, Michael Hargreaves and Julian Pitt of the Government Office for the East of England and Kevin Fitzgerald of the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

View the Government Office for East of England presentation

View the Chief Planning and Environmental Health Officer's presentation

Consultation

We urge all residents to also make their views known before 9 March 2007. This is your last chance to comment on the plan before it is finalised in spring 2007. To find out more about the plan, or to respond to the proposed changes, visit www.goeast.gov.uk. When viewing the website, there are several documents. We advise you view the Proposed Changes Consultation Document and Proposed Changes Companion Document. You can also write to:  Government Office for the East of England, Eastbrook, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 8DF.

Council contact

We, ourselves, do not have all the information at the moment and we suggest that you view the Go-East website in the first instance: www.goeast.gov.uk.

Information on the plan is also available on the East of England Regional Assembly website at www.eera.gov.uk/

MP Grant Shapps has also set up a website to provide information on the "No Way to 10k" Campaign at www.nowayto10k.com

If at this stage you need clarification than please contact us for further advice.

Tel: 01707 357000
Email: planningpolicy@welhat.gov.uk