15/07/2023
Did you know that we're going to have a new Local Plan?
I’m John Galvin, a local Lib Dem councillor and some of you know that I help organise the Stop L&G campaign. This week I voted to approve the public consultation on a new draft Local Plan (LP). I thought it would be helpful to explain why the Council is doing this and what residents can do next, whatever their opinion.
Targets
Harpenden’s Green Belt is under threat from multiple speculative proposals from developers, and a Local Plan(LP) is indisputably the only way to stop them.
Our LP is now the oldest in the country. Our planning experts tell us we have no choice but to prepare a new LP which implements the Govt’s imposed target on us of 15k new homes over the next 17 years.
I desperately hope this target will reduce substantially due to changes before the LP is finalised, eg new planning legislation, and we will reduce the LP targets if we can. However the Govt set the rules and it is in their hands to change them.
People ask why we can’t delay our LP as some other councils are doing. The reason is that we’re under a particular and real threat from national Govt that they will take over our LP process as our plan is so old. We want to keep our plan in local hands so that we can keep control and shape it according to local needs.
St Albans District Council,
SADC have hired consultants with a track record of developing successful LP’s. The Draft LP is based mainly on an assessment of which sites will do least harm to the Green Belt. It has not yet been subject to a rigorous assessment of infrastructure needs such as transport, education, parking, water and sewage etc.
This evidence can only be gathered through a public consultation as this triggers detailed responses from relevant agencies, eg from the County Council about transport. The LP will inevitably change and be improved, and we want to receive this evidence as soon as possible.
A key document is the Infrastructure Delivery Plan (IDP), which will set out how local infrastructure can meet the demands of 15k new homes. Councillors have not yet seen this document - it will be released soon as part of the public consultation.
The draft LP does contain policies which the Council will use to shape the plan, such as using brownfield sites first. One policy is that the Council intends to maintain the level of public parking broadly at current levels in Harpenden town centre, even though the layout of individual car parks may change so that they can accommodate more new homes.
The public consultation
I’d ask you all as residents to take part in and respond to the public consultation. We expect thousands of responses and each one will be considered.
For Harpenden, traffic and education are huge issues, especially for the large development proposals. It is already recognised by the Council that Harpenden has particularly acute problems in these areas. Residents should make their concerns crystal clear during the consultation and this will help us as councillors to shape changes to the plan in next stages. Other key issues such as water, sewage, flooding, heritage sites, healthcare should also be flagged by residents.
Overall, this draft LP is not a done deal and we want residents to give us the evidence to help change it. I hope you find this summary helpful.
Have your say: www.stalbans.gov.uk/news/give-your-views-draft-local-plan-st-albans-district
