Welwyn Hatfield Council objects to the East of England Plan

Welwyn Hatfield Council objects to the proposed changes to the East of England Plan

On Thursday 1 March at a special meeting of the Cabinet Planning and Transportation and then at Cabinet on Tuesday 6 March the Secretary of State’s Proposed Changes to the East of England Plan were considered by members and the grounds for objection agreed. Over forty representations have been submitted by the Council. In addition ten of the eleven Hertfordshire authorities have jointly written to the Secretary of State expressing their concern at the robustness of the Plan.

The letter can be downloaded here.

In essence there are four main grounds of objection to the spatial strategy and in particular to the policies for this part of Hertfordshire known as the London Arc. They are:
o That the Plan is not ‘soundly’ based because of the lack of robust evidence and technical work  justifying the proposals for Welwyn Hatfield and Central Hertfordshire

o That the Plan is unsustainable as no work has been carried out to assess the ability of Welwyn Hatfield to accommodate this development sustainably or to assess the merits of other options

o That the Plan is undeliverable within the timescales of the Plan period

o That the preparation of the Plan has followed an undemocratic process because the proposals have not been subject to public scrutiny or consultation.

The Council has submitted over forty representations to the East of England Plan. The following documents contain the main points made by the Council and are available to download:

The Council’s overall objection

Policies on the Green Belt SS7

Housing H1

Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield Key Centre for Development and Change