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Letter To Ruth Kelly
Welwyn Hatfield
Council
Heritage of the Borough
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We ask the leader of Welwyn Hatfield Council what he thinks of the plan
to build the additional
housing. Cllr John Dean makes it clear that he's with the No Way To
10k campaign.
"Can the Leader of the Council explain the current position regarding
the recommendation by the East of England Plan Panel to the Secretary of
State that an additional 4,200 dwellings should be built in the Borough
over the period to 2021?"
Thank you for asking
this question.
First of all, the allocation of an additional 4,200 houses came as a
complete surprise to WH. This is a 72.5% increase on the 5,800 that had
been accepted by us, and at no point in the process has there ever been
any suggestion that we could accommodate 10,000 dwellings between 2001
and 2021. In fact, the most that had ever been mentioned resulted from
some technical work commissioned by the East of England Regional
Assembly in 2004, and that only identified the potential for an
additional 780 houses. It should be noted that further land will also
need to be allocated to meet the additional job growth figures mentioned
in the Report.
The Panel has not provided any evidence to justify this increase - the
Report comments generally on the role of new towns in delivering growth,
but gives little further explanation. It certainly does not explain why
it considers 4,200 dwellings to be a critical number for WH, or why this
amount of growth is required to assist in the regeneration or urban
restructuring of WGC and Hatfield.
This is not a question of "not in my back yard" - WH has always accepted
the need to build more houses in the Borough, including more social and
affordable housing (indeed, we indicated that it might be possible to
increase our allocation by 300 as recently as December last year) - but
there is a limit of what can and should be built. The Panel's assumption
that the scale of growth proposed could be accommodated without
prejudice to environmental limits is incomprehensible. WGC and Hatfield
have environmental constraints that include the River Lee floodplain
between the two towns, the A1M to the west and ECML to the east,
woodlands, wildlife sites, mineral sites, not to mention the Green Belt.
This number of houses could not be accommodated without prejudicing the
strategic purposes of the Green Belt. Coalescence is a real risk between
Hatfield and WGC, as well as between Hatfield and St Albans - this would
irreversibly alter the character of the Borough. In reality, the picture
is worse than this. The Panel has directed WH to carry out a strategic
review of its Green Belt boundary, which effectively requires us to
ensure that there is sufficient land available to allow further
expansion in the period to 2031.
As yet there has not been any sustainability appraisal or strategic
environmental assessment in respect of this number of houses.
Importantly, the level of growth proposed has not been made contingent
on the provision of the necessary infrastructure, and currently there is
no commitment from the Government to improve the A1M, the A414 or the
East Coast Main Line.
There has been no consultation or possibility for scrutiny of these
proposals, and the public has been ignored completely - the only
opportunity the residents of WH will have to voice their opinion with be
after the Secretary of State has considered the Report and published her
agreed changes to the Plan in November. This is contrary to the whole
spirit of the recent reforms to the Planning process, and the
consultation period will last for only twelve weeks during the Christmas
and New Year period.
"What is the Council doing?
At Officer level the Council is speaking to key players such as the
Highways Agency and the Environment Agency in order to enlist their
support. We have lobbied EERA and engaged with other Hertfordshire
authorities at Officer and Member level (and Chris Conway and I will be
meeting with Dacorum (whose allocation has risen by over 90%) and St
Albans (as houses allocated in both Dacorum and WH will almost certainly
be built in that district) separately to discuss the way forward). Chris
Conway has briefed Leadership and we have also briefed the MP - who has
written to the Secretary of State. Chris Conway is raising public
awareness by speaking to residents' groups, etc.
I would urge all Members to raise the profile of the implications of
this Report on the residents of WH. Chris Conway or Sue Tiley are more
than happy to brief Members on the facts - perhaps if enough Members are
interested, a joint briefing could be arranged.
It appears from the Report that the Panel was influenced by the strength
of feeling and well-organised opposition to the proposals for Harlow.
They had two years to establish their campaign, we have a maximum of six
months. We need to make sure that the voice of WH is heard at regional
and central Government.
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