Ware Online Community Forum

Mark Carney the Governor of the Bank of England on Newsnight last night exclaimed how worried he was that an eminent housing boom in the UK would significantly undermine the economic stability of the country! Time then for East Herts to dramatically reduce their housing targets in their twenty year draft plan!?

Byronsnr wrote:Mark Carney the Governor of the Bank of England on Newsnight last night exclaimed how worried he was that an eminent housing boom in the UK would significantly undermine the economic stability of the country! Time then for East Herts to dramatically reduce their housing targets in their twenty year draft plan!?

I thought he was talking about a boom in prices being the risk to stability. Investment in house building is one of the underpinning themes to the recovery.

Surely it would be completely the wrong thing to build less as lack of supply just drives up prices and increases the 'Bubble' . I am in no way supporting the plan just pointing out that it's lack of houses driving the prices up not an increase in building them.

Anyone from East Herts Council who thinks the Ash Valley side of Ware might be suitable for development needs to go there now and have a look. The valley is flooded along the length of the Ash from beyond Widford all the way down to the Lea. There is nowhere that the River is still within its banks.

Hi All,

I have just had the EH Draft DIstrict Plan Perferred Options Consultation Brochure through my door this weekend and was gobsmacked at what I saw for Ware.

Where most of the other towns had little red squares drawn and precise number of houses Ware had two big circles with vague numbers.
The circle to the north stretches from Woodson Park all the way along to Priors Wood Primary School.

It might mean anywhere between 200 and 3000 houses. How can I give feedback on such contrasting numbers, over such a broad area?

What kind of feedback are they expecting us to give to such vagueness?

GOR27

The Daft District Plan was presented to residents this evening - at the Town meeting at Fletchers Lea.

A lengthy and meandering presentation from EHC Planners, then time for questions from the floor, billed as 'Consultation'. As was stated above, the proposal for Ware is broad developments to the north and east of Ware, for between 200 and 3000 homes - ie 6-7000 people, maybe 4-5000 cars.

No guarantees, of course, on major enabling infrastructure to include roads, retail, services (including water pressure and sewerage capacities), schools, doctors, nor a sufficiently improved rail service for the much desired 'sustainable' transport options. It was stated that these things should develop at the same time as the homes grow in number. There seems to be no understanding of the maximum capacities of the rail, road and services systems around here having already been reached and breached.

A very unsatisfactory evening - with Ware left to bear a considerable brunt (up to 20%) of the new housing proposed for the District. Very noteworthy that Hertford is left to provide a number of small pockets of development rather than a complete halo of new housing from the west through north to east. Right under the Stansted flight path too

From what I have been told , all residents should have been advised in advance of the meeting but neither I, nor any of my friends, were sent an invitation. It does rather look as if plans have been going on in secret for some time though- have a look at the following website that I found just yesterday,
http://www.sworders-agri.co.uk/properti ... tml?id=373

warekiwi wrote:From what I have been told , all residents should have been advised in advance of the meeting but neither I, nor any of my friends, were sent an invitation. It does rather look as if plans have been going on in secret for some time though- have a look at the following website that I found just yesterday,
http://www.sworders-agri.co.uk/properti ... tml?id=373

I'm not sure all residents needed an invite as this was the Town Meeting. However I do believe for the draft document to qualify as a consultation EVERY resident should have received a copy - I certainly haven't. The Town Council website states

'A summary has been sent to every household explaining what the District Plan is, the supporting evidence behind it, and the headline challenges and strategies for each town and the villages.'

This is the most important thing to affect the town in recent times and is as usual a shambles. We cannot allow our town to be walked over as a consequence of a perceived timid voice. This meeting should have been far better advertised by the Town Council and more efforts should be made to make sure the right documents have been sent out as stated.

I have seen a document - but it was on a table at the back of a church I was visiting! I was horrified by what I saw. Most towns seem to be able to have a lot of their houses on brown field sites with only a relatively small number on the green belt. Ware seems to have only a few on brown field sites and a huge number on the green belt. I was wondering then why I hadn't been sent a copy and I am pleased to see I am not the only one.

If everyone seeing a document is part of the planning process will the delay in sending out copies also delay the whole process?

My mother got one. I haven't and I have been looking for it. From what I have read of the paper it looks like a deliberate attempt to destroy the character of Ware. Very surprised Save Our Green Spaces aren't up in arms about it.

Having done a bit more digging it appears, like any good local government process, that all it requires is a copy to be available at council offices and local libraries.

It would appear that our own Town Council have let us down on this by failing to inform enough people about the plan and meetings about it. How can we object if we aren't informed about it ? We can't know to go looking for it if we don't know it exists! This plan is so important to Ware that this should have been handled MUCH better.

Link to East Herts page - consultation ends on 22nd May

http://www.eastherts.gov.uk/index.jsp?articleid=29192