Stevenage West - A brief history of crime

1995
Tory Government, advised at a high level by the British Housebuilders Federation, cooks up housing need figures for the first quarter of the 21st century based on statistics provided by the Rhubard Marketing Board and the British Rail Pension Fund. A bit like the Society of British Motor Manufacturers and Traders persuading Her Majestyıs Government that we must all buy new cars every five years.

1996
Herts County Council are told by HMG to bin its Green Structure Plan which had been welcomed as an imaginative vision for the future of the County. Instead it must plan to build thousands of houses on Greenbelt land which for 50 years has been sacred and on which no builder has trod. Keet it quiet, they said, for it is your good fortune to be on a Development Corridor which is the brainchild of some of our Best Men at the Ministry.

1997
An Inquiry at Stevenage. Sharp suits (by invitation only) are gathered round a table. The man in charge, a deceptively affable character, exchanges pleasantries with Council Officers, sundry advocates, a developer or six and one or two members of the public who have managed to penetrate this so-called consultation exercise. The result is of course a foregone conclusion. The banter and the expensive lawyers are wasted. As are the carefully constructed arguments for perceiving what is good, looking after our birthright and building houses where people actually need them, not where corporate builders would like to see them. The first nail in the coffin of North Herts Greenbelt is well and truly banged in.

1998
A year of interminable meetings, of watching Labour Councillors shed crocodile tears as they vote for incomprehensible resolutions put before them by Council Officers who see advancement, if not New Year Honours, in being associated with the biggest loss of Greenbelt since time began. A new County Structure Plan is born. Later the same year. A room in Hitchin. CASE are gathered round a table. A revolutionary idea is put forward. Let us ask the people of Hitchin and surrounding villages what they think. Their Councillors, knee deep in paper about the refurbishment of Public Lavatories from Royston to Old Knebworth have no time for anyone who does not speak the obscure lingo of Local Government. Anyway, the Party decide which way to vote on important matters, democracy has nothing to do with it.

1999 March
A resounding 7000 people send their names to the Electoral Reform Society asking that before the matter goes any further a Referendum should be held about houses in N Herts and where to put them. Mr Blair had offered Referenda on important issues before he was elected, but the little men who ran our District Council said No. Too expensive and too late.

1999 May
Local elections. The little men are rumbled at the ballot box. CASE was right and Joe Public voted for the Other Lot who had agreed with CASE that the slide towards Stevenage West in N Herts had to be stopped. And there was great relief and glasses were raised to toast these warriors who had galloped down Gernon Road and up to the Great Chamber to vote with their consciences and for their constituents. Little did the Conspirators realise that a hangover lay in store.

1999 November
The Rt Hon Peter Lilley, MP to the House of Commons, 3rd November 1999

"When I first took the Deputy Prime Minister to task for approving the decision to build up to 10,000 houses in my constituency, he justified his approval by alleging that there was local democratic support. That was nonsense. It had been steam-rollered through the County Council by the Lib-Lab coalition, which had an overall majority of one. The council knew it could not count on that majority because some of its members, rightly, were prepared to rebel on the issue.

The sanding orders were changed and the matter was put through a sub-committee where there was a majority. The council undemocratically refuses to let the matter come before the full council. That decision was steam-rollered through with the approval of only 14 out of 72 members on the Council in Hertfordshire. It was never democratic.

Since the Deputy Prime Minister cited democracy as his reason for giving approval, the Conservatives have regained control of Hertfordshire, not least because of that issue. The Conservatives have also gained control of North Hertfordshire Council by a thumping majority, also because of that issue?

There is massive public disapproval of building on the green belt..."

1999 December
It is a grey December and in that same Chamber our friends on the Centre Right, these moderate figures with strong views, mumbled in to their papers, shrugged their shoulders, bowed their heads AND VOTED FOR EVERYTHING THEY CLAIMED IN MAY THEY WOULD TRY TO CHANGE.

2000 June
It is clear our Councilors need reminding that their first duty is to represent the views of their constituents, not those of their unelected officers.

Through CASE, the views of a majority of North Herts electors on this issue are well known. These views are not being properly represented in the Council Chamber for reasons which CASE will continue to pursue (see letter)

2000 July
"...the present draft Local Plan (containing proposals for development West of Stevenage) does not comply with the latest Government planning advice (PPG3).

...in the circumstances it cannot be rational to pursue non-complaint proposals to an inevitably hotly contested inquiry in a year's time."

Legal Advice to North Herts District Council - July 2000

Donıt go away, this is not the end of the story..

Bill Bowker