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HGBA January 2020 Email
 

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Dear Member

In its draft ‘Local Plan’, St Albans District Council (SADC) has chosen to build on green belt sites across the District.

If SADC’s draft plan is approved by the Planning Inspectorate, 580 residences will be built on a site called ‘North West Harpenden’ which is a farmed green belt site adjacent to the Luton Road immediately north of the Town.

A further 760 residences would  be built to the north of Batford on a site known as ‘North East Harpenden’, again on  green belt land.

Although SADC’s draft Local Plan is controversial and may not be approved by the Planning Inspectorate, SADC is pressing ahead in conjunction with developers with what it calls ‘Master Planning’ for each site in the District on which it intends to allow development.

In the case of ‘North West Harpenden’, a ‘public consultation’ has been arranged by SADC to demonstrate how the ‘Master Planning’ process will make ‘North West Harpenden’ a site on which building should be allowed.

You are urged to attend the  consultation and ask questions on how ‘Master Planning’ can make it possible for Harpenden to cope with development on the scale proposed by SADC, whether one thinks in terms of, for example, traffic congestion on the Luton Road , parking capacity in the Town, the availability of school places and the impact on Harpenden’s train service of the massive development being planned on land close to Redbourn.

Not taking into account all the new build that is currently taking place all over Harpenden and thus within the greenbelt, the 1,340 new homes being planned for ‘North West’ and ‘North East’ Harpenden equate to 3,350 new residents at 2.5 residents per household.

Assuming 2 cars per household, there will be an extra 2,680 cars on the Town’s roads.

If only 15% of those car owners want to park in central Harpenden, we will need an extra 402 car parking spaces in a Town which already has insufficient car parking spaces.

In the case of the two sites that are scheduled for development north of Harpenden, we doubt very much if the new residents will consider that they are handily placed to jettison their cars and use buses, walk or cycle which is what SADC wants residents to do.

THE MASTER PLANNING PUBLIC MEETING CONCERNING ‘NORTH WEST HARPENDEN’.

Please see :  www.nwharpenden.co.uk        for details.


The Planning Inspectorate  is holding ‘Local Plan Hearings Sessions’ in January and February. The sessions are taking place in SADC’s Council Chamber.

The Harpenden Green Belt Association’s ‘hearing statements’ are at

https://stalbans.gov.uk/planning/Planningpolicy/localplan/hearings.aspx

Select Matter 7 (vii) and (viii).

If you have time to look, our input can also be found on Matters 1,2,4 and 6.

We will be at the ‘Local Plan Hearings Sessions’ to ensure that Harpenden’s future is fairly considered and taken into account.

 

David Rankin,

Chairman,

The Harpenden Green Belt Association.

Harpendengreenbelt.org.uk



www.harpendengreenbelt.org.uk

 
Copyright © 2020 Harpenden Green Belt Association, All rights reserved.


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