1500 new homes for Ware

[Andy B]

Its interesting that the Council are in favour of building on green belt and seemed disappointed that its held up even though the general consensus in Ware (I believe) is that the 1500 houses are not wanted or are there factions who are in favour of the build?
Surely attaching a large number of properties to Ware will change it out of recognition.

[Steve]

Its interesting that the Council are in favour of building on green belt and seemed disappointed that its held up even though the general consensus in Ware (I believe) is that the 1500 houses are not wanted or are there factions who are in favour of the build?
Surely attaching a large number of properties to Ware will change it out of recognition.

By law the District is required to have a plan to address housing need. The UK as a whole has a housing shortage. I'm sure the District would much prefer to preserve the green belt, but in the absence of any other land being available to build new homes, there is little other option.The council needs to plan for 745 new homes per year until 2033.

The council is probably disappointed because the plan has been eight years in the making. A lot of time, effort, consultation and money has gone in to the plan. The plan that was top be adopted had the approval of the government's own inspector. So for the Secretary of State to put a hold on the plan just hours before final adoption is understandably frustrating.

[jbond]

Its interesting that the Council are in favour of building on green belt.

Which council though; HCC, EHDC or WTC/Wareside/Thundridge? Although the answer is going to be more or less the same. It's EHDC's District Plan. 7 of the 10 Ware town councillors are also EHDC councillors. To my knowledge only one of them is sufficiently against Ware N&E to vote against the DP. One other is likely to abstain. All the rest are very likely to follow the party line and direction from the EHDC leader. Only 3 of the Town councillors are really against Ware N&E.

Wareside and Thundridge are against the Ware N&E plan but have very little influence. Robert Brunton EHDC Hunsdon and David Andrews EHDC Thundridge have worked hard to try and make the DP reasonable but I don't think they'd vote against it.

HCC has to try and pick up some of the infrastructure implications and especially Transport, Traffic and Roads. They've been instrumental in putting hard limits on some of the proposed development but the developers will try hard to wriggle round them. So Ware is limited to 1000 homes and not 1500 until there's a strategic solution to Hertford's traffic problems (eg a bypass). And the developers of Ware N&E have to pay for upgrades to the Rush Green roundabout. The developers are trying to say that better bus services, making Ware high st semi-pedestrianised and a cycle path from Wodson to Ware Town centre will encourage a modal shift away from cars and so mean Hertford can cope with the extra 500 homes. HCC and everybody else rightly thinks this is complete bollocks.

[Andy B]

Who in their right mind thinks that the motor car driver is going to leave their expensive vehicle at home and hop on their bike? If I recall correctly didn't "Two Jags" want to get everyone out of their car and onto public transport and that failed miserably because the infrastructure was not, is not there. We are fortunate here to have quite a network of cycleways but it is still the motor car that dominates.

Steve stated that the council needs plan for 745 houses per year till 2033 I'm quite stunned by that so never mind the 1500 houses that over 10,000 so besides who is financing the build who is going to buy them assuming all councils have the same planning structure.

I struggle to comprehend what Ware would be like with an increase in population of that scale.

[jbond]

AndyB, I'm not sure you realise the big figures are not just Ware. It's 839 houses per year from 2011-2033 which is 18,913 for the whole of East Herts, not 18000 just in Ware. The Ware figures are 100 by 2022, 800 in 2022-2027 and 100 2027-2033. With an option of an extra 500 if they build the Hertford Bypass.

And that points up the wider problem. 1000 in Ware, 1000 in Hertford, 1500 in E. Welwyn, 3000 in Gilston and the A414 grinds to a halt. If you bring in all the neighbouring councils, it's around 50,000 new homes within 20 miles of Hertford. Harlow has plans for expansion, East, South, West as well as Gilston in the North. The other three are in other councils so part of other District Plans. But they all have to share the Hospital and the Train Station. And anybody that wants to drive eastwards towards Stevenage, Welwyn and Hatfield will travel on the same A414. Broxbourne council is doing the same thing in Hoddesdon, Cheshunt and so on, which directly affects us because of the effect on the A10 and the same surrounding roads, the same train service, the same NHS hospitals, the same sewage works and so on.

[Andy B]

Thanks JB for putting it all into perspective, there has on the odd occasion a thought come to mind have we done the right thing in moving to NZ and the picture you paint make is quite compelling that it was the correct move. While I was working a guy came in a little late and was moaning about getting stuck in a traffic jam which made me laugh and he did not appreciate that till I explained just what a traffic jam was and what he had was a hold up nothing more. This is not nirvana and we have problems here but compared to the UK they nothing too much to worry about.
It sounds as though your traffic problems may escalate!
Have you thought about "Music and Many Motors"?

[jbond]

Hold on the District Plan released.

https://www.eastherts.gov.uk/article/36 ... trict-Plan

Vote on adoption scheduled for 19:00 Tue Oct 23, EHDC Offices.

[Steve]

Hold on the District Plan released.

https://www.eastherts.gov.uk/article/36 ... trict-Plan

Vote on adoption scheduled for 19:00 Tue Oct 23, EHDC Offices.

No surprise really. This was only ever about due process IMHO. If it had been called in it would have effectively been a vote of no confidence in the Planning Inspectorate.

The local authority thinks the plan is sound.
The Planning Inspectorate think it is sound.
The SoS doesn't disagree.

I doubt there are grounds for a Judicial Review, so I don't see there's anywhere else to go. Game over. Move on to the Neighbourhood Plan and make the best of the inevitable.

[jbond]

Neighbourhood Plan for inside the current town boundary. Alex Curtis as chairman of the forum is due to call a kick off meeting to restart the NP forum. Curtis, Pope, Reed are representing the town council. I'm attending the first meeting at least, on behalf of the Save Ware group. There may be others.

For the Ware N&E development outside the town boundary, it's the EHDC Masterplan. Linda Haysey was due to give a private briefing on the Masterplan process to various resident reps but that was postponed due to the SoS hold on the District Plan. Presumably that will go ahead again in the next month or so. In theory, she should be doing the same for the relevant Town and Parish councils.

In a way, this is where the real work starts. We need to keep a careful eye on planning applications especially prior to an agreed masterplan.

[jbond]

EHDC District Plan

The vote on adoption of the EHDC District Plan is tomorrow night. 18:30 for 19:00, Tuesday 23 Oct, EHDC Offices, Pegs Lane, Hertford.

It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that the councillors will vote for adoption. But you might still want to come and say hello to them.

Here are the agendas.
http://democracy.eastherts.gov.uk/ieLis ... d=3490&J=1
http://democracy.eastherts.gov.uk/ieLis ... d=3381&J=1

It will be webcast here.
https://eastherts.public-i.tv/core/port ... ive/379071
https://eastherts.public-i.tv/core/port ... ive/380219