The Watford Observer July 11 1997

Villagers oppose manor homes plan

AMBITIOUS plans for a housing development on the grounds of Shendish Manor have met with opposition in Kings Langley.

The scheme to build 300 houses with shops and pubs on land owned by the historic manor behind Apsley Station has not yet been discussed by planners at Dacorum Borough Council.

But it has already been given the cold shoulder by people in Kings Langley who fear the village could not cope with more houses and traffic.

Chairman of Kings Langley Residents Association Mrs Pam Elderkin who has lived in the village for 15 years, said she thought the traffic and infrastructure, as well as secondary schools in the area, would be "horrendously overstretched".

The plan was announced by London-based Itarton Willmore Planning Partnership only weeks after Dacorum Borough Council learned it would have to find new Green Belt sites to meet the area's housing needs.

According to a report on a public inquiry in March into the Hertfordshire Structure Plan, a blueprint for development puplished last July, around 1,000 houses will have to be built in the Dacorum area.

Residents' association spokes-person Mrs Vall Lee said: "The proposal should come as no surprise to anyone concerned with the development of Green Belt land in Dacorum.

"We feel it is one of many by the owners of Green Belt land, eager to make a profit, that will find their way to the in-trays of Dacorum Borough Council planners. "Our aim is to fight any pro-posed Green Belt development on Rectory Farm and land to the south of the village and to minimise any change in character to this village as a result of growth and traffic."

But Mr Lee Newlyn, of Barton Wilimore Planning Partnership, said he believed the scheme would not affect Kimp Langley. "One of the scheme's merits is that it is sustainable, and near the railway. North London Rail-ways has said it would increase the capacity and frequency of trains at Apaley so there would be no need for residents to me their cars." He said he would welcome a public forum or exhibition where residents could view the plan'

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