Category Archives: Planning

Planning Portal News – 7th February 2013 – New Garden Cities concept

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For your convenience we provide a link (on the Links Page) to the Government’s Planning Portal because it is always worth a browse. Sometimes we go further, and recommend selected articles to you.

Of particular interest, the 7th February Planning Portal News includes a heading:

Report finds Infrastructure funding is holding up major residential projects.

The Report referred to has been prepared by property consultants and  analysts, GVA under their own banner ‘National Policy Research Bulletin‘. Within their Bulletin is an article ‘Unlocking Garden Cities‘, which GVA themselves describe as ‘the Government’s Garden Cities and Suburbs Aspiration’:

Planning for large scale housing development lies at the heart of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and features in the Government’s National Housing Strategy published in November 2011. The New Garden Cities concept features as one of the preferred delivery routes to achieving a significant increase in new housing numbers.

So, what is ‘the New Garden Cities’ concept?

You can find the answer to that by reading the article by GVA which can be reached via the Planning Portal for 7th February 2013 . Report finds Infrastructure funding is holding up major residential projects  It is very readable and contains much of educational value for anybody who has an interest in current planning issues and tensions at the national level. These are real issues which in the foreseeable future have the potential to impact most of us living in the South East of England, directly or indirectly.

We believe that WPAG members will find this an interesting read.

Planning Application: The Frythe

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(The following Report is based upon research and analysis undertaken by Ron Oxley, WPAG Lead Member for Planning Applications).

The Frythe – Approval of Plans to Redevelop

The Frythe, just south west of Welwyn, was sold on 19th December 2010 to the development Company, Land Improvements. Although the 47 acre site is Green Belt land, it presents approximately 29 acres of Brownfield Development opportunity.

Land Improvements is a development company specialising in producing plans, obtaining planning approvals & organising pre-contract site preparation and management of the subsequent construction work.

On 20th December 2012, two years after the sale, Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council (WHBC) granted Full Planning Application to build 196 new homes, (to include Affordable Housing). Agreement was also given to convert the original Victorian mansion into 14 apartments.

The basic layout of the site was approved, with several distinct areas ‘designated’, or marked out, for housing development. Using this approach, eight areas (A to H) have been designated, allowing each to have a distinct identity.

The Planning Application includes the provision of roads and footways, car parking, drainage, pool improvement, soft and hard landscaping, play space and lighting, and a perimeter enclosure.

Demolition of the laboratories and offices is now complete, and the groundwork for roadways and services is under construction, preparatory to the next stage, which will be to draw up building works contracts.

The first market-driven housing completions are expected in the third quarter of 2014, with Affordable Housing following on in parallel with later market-driven completions.

Infrastructure for a Bus Service onto the site will be investigated. Continue reading →

Welwyn Parish Plan – Your New Ideas needed

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Wanted – your Ideas and Suggestions

The Welwyn Parish Plan Action Group, who are responsible for progressing the Parish Plan, are inviting suggestions for new projects in 2013.

The  Action Group is inviting new ideas and suggestions for projects of benefit to the Welwyn Community, to consider for adoption and taking forward in 2013.

Do you have a pet idea to make Welwyn a more attractive, convenient or sociable place to live or work? If you have – the Parish Plan Action Group would like to hear from you.

 

Where to send your ideas

Please send your ideas by post to the Parish Plan Secretary, 2 Wendover Drive. Welwyn AL6 9LT.

All ideas will be acknowledged and you may be invited to come along and tell us more!

Alternatively come to the Community Café at St.Mary’s New Church House on any Tuesday and speak to Shirley Butler or me.

Jon Green

Chairman Welwyn Parish Plan Action Group

 

The Welwyn Parish Plan – Progress Report

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The following Report is from Jon Green, Chairman Welwyn Parish Plan Action Group

WELWYN PARISH PLAN – PROGRESS REPORT

Over the 4 years the Plan has been in existence a range of initiatives have been launched, some large some small.

To give some examples, the Parish Plan Action Group has:

  • started and progressed the village centre traffic safety project in liaison with the Highways Agency and the Parish Council (remember the debate about a mini-roundabout?)
  • launched the Community Café in partnership with the St.Mary’s Church P.C.C.
  • published a free Guide leaflet of useful information and contacts
  • planted and continue to plant bulbs to beautify the road verges
  • organised four Art and Craft Fairs in 2012, with more planned for 2013
  • organised  several series of computer classes with the help of professional tutors
  • issued a transport information leaflet
  • persuaded the bus companies to include Queensway on the 314 route and to agree an additional Green Line stop
  • put up a community noticeboard at the entrance to the post office.

So you can see – the Welwyn Parish Plan Action Group has been quite busy since we started.

Current Activities

Our most far reaching involvement is about to become more visible with the emergence of Welwyn Hatfield Council’s Strategic Plan. As most people are aware the Council have recently published their proposals for housing development forward to 2029.

The Parish Plan Action Group has been deeply involved, in partnership with the Parish Council and Welwyn Planning and Amenity Group. Our objective is to lobby the Borough Council for the most advantageous outcome for Welwyn parish, including Oaklands/ Mardley Heath and Digswell.

Future Planned Activities

Looking forward into the New Year we hope to launch a school holiday scheme in conjunction with the Borough Council to keep children occupied. This would be run by trained youth leaders.

New Ideas Wanted

The Parish Plan Action Group is managing a LIVING Parish Plan.

To help it breath we do need a constant flow of new ideas.

Please contact Jon Green at with your thoughts and suggestions.

 

What is – a Parish Plan?

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What is a Parish Plan?

A Parish Plan is a community led plan that sets out a VISION of how the community wants to develop, and identifies the ACTION needed to achieve it.

A Parish Plan is produced by the community, and for the community. It is based on a detailed consultation involving the whole community. Based on the views and opinions of the people who actually live there, it sets out the needs and aspirations of the Parish

The Parish Plan identifies what actions the community would like to be taken, who should take each action forward, and what time scale should be set for each one.

A Parish Plan is a statement of how a local community sees itself developing in the future.

Who Creates and Manages a Parish Plan?

A Parish Council launches the Parish Plan process and supports the establishment of a Parish Plan Steering Group, formed of leading volunteer members of the community, who manage the process from then onwards.

The Parish Plan Steering Group may or may not include Parish Councillors, but it operates independently of the Parish Council.

The Steering Group organises and conducts public meetings, raises questionnaires within the community and analyses the responses. The Steering Group consults outside bodies as appropriate before drawing up a draft Parish Plan which the Parish Council formally agrees. The Steering Group then elects a Management Committee or Parish Plan Action Group to drive things forward from that point.

How long does a Parish Plan Last?

As and when actions are completed the Parish Plan will be updated .

The Parish Plan Action Group will continually seek to respond to the community’s needs and aspirations as they develop, and in this way the Parish Plan becomes a living document. Continue reading →

Permitted Development Rights – ANTAS Objections

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ANTAS (the Association of North Thames Amenity Societies) is an association of local civic societies working to ensure high standards of planning and architecture in our towns and villages, and working to preserve and care for our countryside.  WPAG is member of ANTAS  along with twenty two other civic and community groups across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

With the power of its membership behind it, ANTAS is a voice to be heard at the National level.

As part of the Consultation process, the ANTAS Chairman, (Mr Jon Green), has lodged objections to Mr Pickles, Secretary of State, about two aspects of the Government’s proposed planning reforms.

1) Permitted Development Rights

ANTAS challenges the thought that the proposed PDR’s will alleviate the country’s housing needs. The argument is that although small builders might regard it as good news that building works can proceed with more freedom from planning rules and regulations, i.e. at a faster tempo than before, there must be concerns that the very removal of conventional safeguards within local planning authorities’ procedures will allow potentially inappropriate private residential developments to creep in.

ANTAS give, as an example, the proposed relaxation of controls to permit (domestic) ground floor back extensions up to  6 and 8 metres without the need for local authority planning approval. Such easing of established local authority planning procedures could remove the opportunity for neighbours, and others, to register legitimate objections should they so wish on, for example, such important issues such as loss of amenity, or lessening of security,.

Similarly, ANTAS attack proposals to allow commercial premises to extend and build virtually up to their site boundaries without a planning check to consider the impact on neighbouring land users, or potential traffic and road safety implications where there is a presumption of increased site activity.

2) Major Infrastructure Developments

ANTAS attacks plans to remove into the hands of the Government’s Planning inspectorate, major infrastructural projects lodged with those local planning authorities who, compared to others, are deemed to be statistically low in terms of their ‘track record’ of speed of response and quality of action, i.e. their rate of ‘Refusals’. The criteria for taking such draconian steps is at this stage open to doubt and uncertainty, but of critical importance.

ANTAS argues that the obvious risk of such discipline, clearly intended, is to put pressure on planning departments to speed up their approval rate, potentially at the expense of care and attention to planning priorities.

Go to the ANTAS website to learn more about their work and objectives.

To learn more about the detail of the Government’s proposals, click Permitted Development Rights, or go to the Government Planning Portal on the Links page for information on a wide range of planning related subjects.

Neighbourhood Plans – A Tactical Dilemma

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Neighbourhood Plans – a tactical dilemma

The following article by Jon Green was addressed to ANTAS members, and recently published in their Newsletter

With the increasing interest in exploring the pros and cons of pursuing a Neighbourhood Plan a tactical question will soon arise in the civil parish of Welwyn , which spreads over three  physically separate settlements, linked administratively but with distinctly different characters.

The question will be whether to develop smaller and localised Neighbourhood Plans for each settlement which would perhaps bring greater community involvement in preference to a ‘composite’ Plan for the entire parish, which might appear more logical to our Borough Council but risk a weaker identity across our disparate community.

Practical issues such as the attitude of our local authority and the costs of preparation and implementation are clearly likely to be the determining factors, but it will be helpful to learn the views and better still the experience of members who have faced a similar quandary.

Jon Green