CASE Notice Board 2004

23rd June 2004

The Public Inquiry has now come to an end. The Inspector will now produce a report that will be sent to the Secretary of State (John Prescott who will;; make the final decision as to whether or not planning permission should be granted for the development.

It is unlikely that a decision will be made until early 2005.

15th February 2004

Public Inquiry Latest

The Transport Issues will be argued before the inspector starting on Tuesday 17th February and at present it is anticipated that the arguments will go on for about two weeks. Our Barrister, Megan Thomas will represent CASE. She will be cross-examining the witnesses called on behalf of the Developers.

The principle issues that will be considered will be the amount of traffic that will be generated by the development both internally and externally; whether the bus services anticipated by the developers will be adequate and will be sufficient to ensure that large numbers of residents choose to use the anticipated service rather than their cars; whether the access to the development is adequate, and whether the developers' predictions that the majority of journeys by residents will be by bus, bike or foot rather than (as in the rest of both Stevenage and Hertfordshire, ) by car are believable.

At present there appears to be little common ground between the position of the developers' transport consultants and the County Council. Indeed they cannot even agree what is or is not agreed between them!

CASE will be relying on the detailed evidence produced by the County Council in this respect and will be supporting the County Council 's opposition to the developers transport proposals.

Megan Thomas will also represent CASE at the important sessions dealing with the issues of principle as to whether or not the development should be allowed to proceed. This session will deal with issues such as whether there is adequate amounts of brownfield land to meet Hertfordshire's housing needs. This session will start on Tuesday 30th March and will last for about two weeks.

24th January 2004

The public enquiry is now fully underway. The County Council are taking the line that the original proposal for a major development on this site was a serious error and must be rectified. This approach has been fully endorsed by North Herts District Council and, of course, by CASE. The developers and Stevenage Borough Council are, predictably, still maintaining that a major greenfield development west of Stevenage is essential to meet Hertfordshire's housing needs.

The enquiry is scheduled to last until late May 2004. A copy of the proposed time table can be found at www.personaassociates.co.uk/s77_call.htm.

January 2004 Newsletter

The Chairman's Message

The Campaign Against Stevenage Expansion which started in 1996 is now coming to a climax! At last all the issues will be debated fully and in public, and CASE will have the opportunity to show why our thousands of supporters are so opposed to this development on our Greenbelt. To do this, we need your help as never before. Please read on . . .

The Public Inquiry

A Public Inquiry into the planning applications for 3,600 and 5,000 houses West of Stevenage begins on 20 January at 10am in the Spirella Ballroom, Letchworth. The first day will consist of opening statements from the different parties: FOR the development will be the developers' consortium and Stevenage Borough Council; AGAINST will be Herts County Council, North Herts District Council, Luton Airport and CASE (Campaign Against Stevenage Expansion) under the umbrella of CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England). The Inspector appointed to chair the Inquiry has identified the main issues for the Inquiry as:

• whether the amount of development proposed needs to be provided, and if so, when;
• whether it is necessary & appropriate for such development to be provided here;
• what are the likely main impacts on the local environment and infrastructure and whether they can be suitably mitigated.

The Inquiry is scheduled to run until 2nd April, with an adjournment during the first 3 weeks in March. It is open to the public during its duration and will meet Tuesdays to Thursdays 10am - 5pm and Friday mornings.

What You Can Do to Help

Please attend the opening day of the Inquiry. This will give an important and immediate message to the Inspector and all parties that the opposition has not only not gone away, but that we are still fighting!

The public can make representations. Anyone may contact the Programme Officer for the Inquiry and ask to make a statement to the Inspector at the "Third Party" session towards the end of March, or to submit a written statement without appearing. Third Party evidence (12 copies) must be submitted at least one week before being scheduled to appear. The more, the merrier! Further details: contact Helen Wilson on 01462 476740.

. The Background - How Did We Get Here?

The Hertfordshire Structure Plan is where this all began, in 1996. Herts County Council said the only way to meet housing numbers imposed on it by Government at that time was to build on the Greenbelt. However, this met with huge public opposition and subsequent changes in Government policy made such proposals unacceptable. In 2002 the County Council updated their Structure Plan to cover the period up to 2016, removing the proposals for West of Stevenage as there was no longer any justification for development on greenbelt land. However, the Government Office of the Eastern Region intervened and said all regional, county and district planning authorities should be working together to produce housing projections up to 2021.

The County Council duly put its revised Structure Plan on hold. The Stevenage Local Plan had followed the original Structure Plan, including proposals for development West of Stevenage. However, the verdict of the Government Inspector who conducted the public inquiry into Stevenage's Local Plan last year was that there is considerable uncertainty over the strategic justification for development here, particularly because changes in national planning guidance say brownfield sites should be developed before greenfields. He went on to say that planning permission for the proposed development should not be granted until the strategic justification has been reconsidered, and then only if it is accepted.

The North Herts Local Plan also included proposals for development West of Stevenage, but was withdrawn after the new Government guidelines were published because the two were at odds. A revised Plan (minus proposals for development West of Stevenage of course!) is likely this year and will, undoubtedly, also be decided at a public inquiry.

What Have We Done?

For the past 7 years CASE has co-ordinated the opposition to unnecessary development on our Greenbelt. Many thousands of you have supported CASE at a rally and in a referendum, at public meetings and demonstrations, at protests and vigils, and by signing objections and petitions. We have always been advised that the longer we could delay things, the more likely we were to win, and your action has helped us in this. Just a few years ago, the developers were planning to have the first houses ready in 2004, yet not a brick has been laid! This could not have been achieved without the incredible commitment and steadfastness of our supporters

.If we have "lost" you from our supporter list, we apologise; this was because of computer problems.

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