The Campaign Against Stevenage Expansion Newsletter

August 2002

The Planning Application
A year ago CASE asked for your help in opposing the application by the Stevenage Consortium to build the first 5,000 houses in the Green Belt West of Stevenage. Your support was massive - over 7,000 CASE supporters filled in the CASE objection forms, making West of Stevenage one of the most heavily opposed developments of all time.

In theory, the two planning authorities involved, North Herts District Council and Stevenage Borough Council, should have decided the application long ago. In fact, no decision has been made because the application has run into a major problem. The developers had to submit a "traffic impact assessment" and they based it on a remarkable assumption - that bus services would be so good that less than half of people would use their cars, rather than the usual 85%.

Everything else - predicted road improvements and junction changes that would be needed - was based on this assumption. CASE challenged the accuracy of this in detail and we were right. It has been shown that the developers' traffic predictions were not reliable, and to date, they have not been able to produce a traffic assessment that is reliable.

But traffic assessment isn't the only problem the developers are coming up against.

The Review of the County Structure Plan
You may remember this all started several years ago when the County Council agreed to include a proposal for up to 10,000 houses on land designated as greenbelt West of Stevenage to meet the Government's housing target for the entire County up to 2011. A lot has happened since then:

• control of County Hall has changed from Labour (who supported the project) to Tory (who are opposed). There is now political will to stop West of Stevenage.
• changes in planning law mean greenfield sites should not be developed when satisfactory brownfield or urban sites are available, and Councils must do proper assessments of how many houses can be built within urban areas.
• new housing targets for the period 2001-2016 have been published by the Government. Hertfordshire must now find space for 49,200 houses, at a rate of 3,280 per year.

In response to all this, the County Council has carried out a detailed "Urban Capacity Study" and says about 47,000 houses can be built in the County without developing greenfield land. The District and Borough Councils disagree, saying only 35,600 can be built in urban areas.

The County Council is now updating its Structure Plan and wants our views on ways of meeting the new housing targets. Their consultation paper is on the County's website at www.hertsdirect.org/structureplan and is available at public libraries.

It is very important that as many of you as possible respond to this consultation because one of the options (B) would almost certainly allow West of Stevenage to proceed, along with similar schemes around the County, whereas another option (C) would almost certainly prevent it.

The County Council is suggesting 3 different options to meet the Government's new targets:

Option A
"Use the county council's figures, and make up the small difference in our requirements from green fields:

Houses on land which already has planning permission 16,400
Houses on previously developed land 30,600
Total 47,000

In this option about 2,000 new homes would need to be built on green field sites which do not already have planning permission. Before it was decided which greenfields would be used an appraisal would look at all greenfield options, including ones already identified in plans, to see where development would be most appropriate."

Option B
"Use the district councils' figures and make up the larger difference through more development on greenfield sites:

Houses on land which already has planning permission 16,400
Houses on previously developed land 19,200
Total 35,600

In this option in order to meet the Government's target a further 13,600 homes would need to be built on green field areas which do not yet have planning permission. A fresh look would need to be taken at all green field sites previously identified and other possible sites. Again, there would be an appraisal to consider all the options."

Option C
"As there appears to be enough housing land to meet our needs until at least 2011, closely measure what land comes forward for development over the next few years and then decide if greenfields will be required in the period to 2016. This is the county council's preferred option:

"This option will give us the flexibility to monitor developments over the next few years and make informed judgments, in consultation with local communities, as more information becomes available.

Under Option C development would take place between now and 2011 on sites which already have planning permission and "previously developed" sites. Between now and 2006 we would follow Government advice to 'plan, monitor and manage.' By 2006, the situation will be much clearer. We will see what the trends are for development on "previously developed land" and we will be able to take into account emerging Government policies which could have a major impact on Hertfordshire, for instance, any future development of Luton and Stansted airports."

CASE's Position
CASE strongly supports the County Council's view that Option C is by far the best. We believe that if this option is followed there are excellent prospects that the proposed strategic development to the West of the A1(M) will be deleted from the revised version of the County Structure Plan.

Please complete the attached response form before 30th September. The full version of the Consultation Document and County Council questionnaire is available on the County Council's website at: www.hertsdirect.org/structureplan.