Category Archives: Planning

Local Plan Newsletter – Issue 11

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The Borough Council has commenced the period of public consultation for the Final Draft of the Local Plan. This started on Tuesday 30th August and ends on Monday 24th October at 5 p.m.

The Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council (WHBC) have produced Newsletter No. 11 which contains details of the dates and venues of their drop-in consultation events, and you are encouraged to note these dates and to attend, in order to get a fuller understanding of the Local Plan.

This consultation process is your final opportunity to make representations before the Local Plan is submitted for independent examination by the Government’s appointed Planning inspector.

But it is important to read the advice given in Newsletter No.11 regarding the basis upon which representations may be made, and to be clear that these representations will be made public. It is the Planning Inspector, and not the WHBC Planning Department who will consider representations at this stage.

For your own personal copy of Newsletter 11, which details the WHBC approach and schedules click Local Plan Newsletter 11 August consultation special

 

 

 

 

 

Local Plan Newsletter – Issue 10

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Copy of the Newsletter

To read your own copy of the latest Newsletter from the Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council Planning Department, click the Local Plan Newsletter 10 July 2016 FINAL

The Local Plan – the latest stage

The Submission of the Final Draft of the Local Plan will be considered by the Borough Council’s Cabinet Housing & Planning Panel (CHPP) on 20 July and then by Cabinet on 2 August. If approved, it will be published for consultation for eight weeks commencing on 22 August and ending on 17 October at 5pm. A series of consultation events will be held across the borough and the dates and venues for these will be published on the Council’s website.

WPAG Response 

WPAG representatives will be working in a sub-group formed by the Welwyn Parish Council’s Planning & Licensing Committee, and representatives of the Welwyn Parish Plan Action Group, to co-ordinate a response to the Borough Council  from Welwyn’s community..

The WPAG is also making plans to highlight the various proposals within the Final Draft Local Plan, as they affect the Parish of Welwyn,  in a series of articles to be posted on this website. These posts will include a summary of the sites selected for housing in Welwyn.

Your Comments

WPAG members will be able to post their comments on the website blog, and in this way, help us shape our contribution to the Welwyn Parish Council sub-group.

The Borough Council will of course be inviting the general public to comment direct to them as part of the Consultation Process.

 

Planning Portal News – 26th November 2015 – Research identifies most promising locations for housing growth.

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The following is report is by the  on November 26 2015

New research from Knight Frank and planning and design consultancy Barton Willmore has identified local authority areas where economic and planning data, combined with regional knowledge, suggest good fundamentals for residential development in the short to medium term.

Factors taken into account include forecast economic and employment growth, as well as future housing supply and demand. Sales to stock ratios, social environment, infrastructure and affordability were also measured.

Local planning knowledge was then added, examining which planning authorities had a five-year land supply and where a local plan was in place, as well as looking at policy support for housing and economic growth.

This, along with input from Knight Frank land agents, resulted in a list of areas where the fundamentals suggested development opportunities.

Key findings highlighted that:

  • Manchester and Leeds are expected to be among the councils which will experience the strongest rates of household growth over the next ten years
  • In the Midlands, Warwick scores highly on “liveability”, and also has strong employment growth forecasts, while robust household growth is projected in Leicester
  • Brentwood is one of the hotspots with the strongest forecasts for future employment increases, as well as showing one of the largest imbalances between pipeline supply and household growth over the next five years
  • South Cambridgeshire also has a particularly strong forecast for employment growth and has been rated highest in an independent survey of rural locations across the UK
  • Bristol and Bath & North East Somerset local authorities have a local plan and a five-year housing supply, and the determination to step up development
  • Guildford and Reigate & Banstead in Surrey are well positioned to take advantage of the housing need generated by the capital.

Iain Painting, Senior Planning Partner, Barton Wilmore, said: “Our shortlist of development opportunities is aligned with an increased emphasis on urbanisation, focusing on many of England’s key cities both in and well beyond the South East.

“Opportunities exist where local authorities are struggling to source a five-year land supply through the local plan system, such as York, but also where councils have a positive appetite for growth, supported by policy, such as Leeds and Bath.”

Planning Portal News – 19th November 2015 – CPRE Challenge to Housing Targets

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The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has called for an overhaul of the way local authorities set housing targets after claiming the present system led to countryside being lost unnecessarily.

The pressure group claimed in a report that research it has commissioned showed that local authorities were being asked to base their plans on aspiration rather than need. This resulted in ever higher housing targets and the consequent unnecessary release of countryside for development without an increase in overall house building.

(The above is an extract from the Planning Portal News 19th November 2015).

What is – the Government Housing & Planning Bill 2015-2016 ?

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The Housing & Planning Bill 2015-2016 is currently before Parliament and is at the final stage. To read about the Bill in more detail go to:

http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/housingandplanning/documents.html

The Impact Assessment (from which the following is extracted) relates to clauses within the Bill and poses two questions:

  • What is the problem under consideration?
  • Why is government intervention necessary?

Explanatory Notes are provided as follows:

In the year to June 2015, 131,000 new homes were completed. Although housing starts are at their highest annual level since 2007, and there are now almost 800,000 more homes in England than there were in 2009, we are still not fully meeting the demands of over 200,000 households formed every year.

In addition, not enough people who want to own their own home have the opportunity to do so.

The rate of homeownership in England has been falling since its peak in 2003, despite the aspiration for home ownership remaining strong. Although over 230,000 households have been helped by government-backed schemes to buy a home since spring 2010, younger households, in particular, are now less likely to own their own home than a decade ago.

The public need to have confidence that housing policy in our country is fair and fit for the future. Social housing needs to work as efficiently as it can. Private tenants need additional reassurance that rogue landlords will be driven out of business. Further government intervention is required to ensure this happens.

(The Impact Assessment proceeds to pose questions about the policy objectives and the intended effects, i.e. getting the nation building homes faster, helping more people buy their own home, ensuring the way housing is managed is fair and fit for the purpose).

Planning Portal News – 14th October 2015 – Local Plans shrinking the Green Belt

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Planning Portal News: 8 October 2015

Green belt figures

New figures show that there has been a decrease of around 2,000 hectares overall of green belt in England between April 2013 and the end of March 2015 largely because of new local plans adopted by 11 local authorities.

These latest figures show that the extent of the designated green belt in England as at 31st March 2015 was estimated at 1,636,620 hectares, around 13 per cent of the land area of England.

Since these statistics were first compiled for 1997, there has been an increase of 32,000 hectares in the area of green belt after taking account of the re-designation of some green belt as part of the New Forest National Park in 2005.

(The above is an extract from Planning Portal News)

The Clock Gardens – A Timely Response for Opinions from Local Residents

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Whilst listening to local residents at various locations, it became apparent that there are many varying opinions about the new Clock Gardens development. With the use of the social media website, Streetlife, and other forms of communication, many comments were provided and this is just a sample of some of them who corresponded on Streetlife.

Lin W believes that the development is an abomination and cannot understand how developers got approval as it is not in keeping with the surrounding area.

Linda Mc says that it is an ugly development in the wrong place, but also highlighted another major issue regarding traffic problems at rush hour.

One of the other contributors to Streetlife, Chloe, is one of the few that actually like the development and had many comments to make including her view that it is very attractive. She also mentions that it is better than building a nursing home as the local medical staff would not be able to cope with the demand. Her views include the benefit for younger members of our community who have to start somewhere on the housing ladder.

Ian S made an interesting comment about being elbowed out by buy-to-letters if he wished to buy one of the flats. Other comments have indicated that these flats have been mostly bought by buy-to-letters so Chloe’s comment about first time buyers may not ring true here.

Apart from the few who actually like the development, other respondents based their views on a couple of topics including the ugliness of the development, the possible traffic problems that may be caused at peak times and how did the project get approved in the first place?

One comment from a local resident on the way to Stevenage when passing the development was “Living there will be like sleeping on the hard shoulder of the Motorway!“

Local Plan – Welwyn Hatfield – Progress update

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WHBC Cabinet Housing and Planning Panel Newsletter No 8 reports that they have recommended to Cabinet a revised timetable for the preparation of the Welwyn Hatfield Local Plan.

The following are extracts from the WHBC Newsletter No 8 published October 2015

To get your own copy of the Newsletters you are invited to email your details to planningpolicy@welhat.gov.uk or telephone 01707 357532.

The Borough Newsletter No 8 declares:

The revised timetable reflects the amount of time that it will take to: analyse nearly 6,000 consultation responses to the draft plan; assess 61 new and/or amended sites; update evidence, such as the need for new homes in the borough; receive evidence from third-party studies such as the Herts Water Study; and liaise with service providers in respect of schools and healthcare and other infrastructure.

New Sites

The Newsletter identifies that many new and/or amended sites have been put forward for potential inclusion in the Local Plan since the draft was put out to consultation earlier this year. Details of these proposed sites can be found on the Local Plan website, but they come with a caveat. In none of these instances have the proposed sites yet been assessed for suitability.

Of special interest to the WPAG, there are a number of newly proposed housing sites affecting Welwyn directly, and it is worthwhile familiarising yourself with these, in readiness for our involvement in the Consultation on the final draft Local Plan which is scheduled for the Summer of 2016.

Drop In Events

But in fact you do not have to wait that long, because the Borough is running two drop-in events where these proposed new/amended sites will be able to be viewed, as follows:

20th October 2015     – at The Hub, Hatfield Town Centre between 4 pm and 7.30 p.m.

11th November 2015 – at The Focolare Centre, Parkway, Welwyn Garden City, between 4 p.m. and 7.30 p.m.

At these events we are informed that officers will be available to answer questions about the Local Plan process and the feedback received to date.

We repeat, the Borough cautions that these sites have not yet been assessed and therefore no decision has been made on their suitability.

Local Plan Timeline

Autumn – Winter 2015    Review responses and further technical work

Spring 2016                    Complete evidence, site assessments, draft final Local Plan

Summer 2016                 Consultation on final draft Local Plan

Autumn/Winter 2016       Review responses and submit for examination

Early 2017                       Examination in Public

Spring/Autumn 2017       Examination Inspector’s Report and Adoption

Planning Portal – 24th September 2015 – Large Scale Housing Schemes

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(The following is an extract from the Planning Portal Content Team, reporting on 24th September 2015).

Ministers should consult on bringing large-scale housing schemes within the Planning Act 2008 regime for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs), a report commissioned by law firm Bond Dickinson and planning consultants Quod has urged.

The report, based on the views of housing and planning experts in both the public and private sectors, claimed that use of the NSIP regime could harness the power of the private sector and “relieve hard-pressed local authority budgets”.

Less than half the estimated 240,000 new homes needed each year were completed in 2014, and the last six years had seen the lowest level of house building since the Second World War, it added.

The report insisted that there was widespread support for creating new settlements on the scale of the post-war New Towns to address the housing crisis.

However, it argued that this was unlikely to happen without policy and legislation that overcame the current barriers to bringing forward large-scale housing and mixed use projects within the current planning system.

The report noted recent research suggesting that only 25 per cent of local planning authorities had a local plan which had been adopted as sound since the publication of the government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in 2012.

For the full report go to Planning Portal Content Team report).