Hertsmere Borough Council has shelved its draft local plan after acknowledging its residents had “clearly rejected” the plan.
Following council leader Morris Bright’s sudden announcement at a full council meeting last night (January 26), it looks like the council will go back to the drawing board and come up with a new plan that is more widely supported.
However, this comes with risks with a councillor leading the local plan process warning the council could end up with developments “it does not want”.
The draft local plan is an important document that sets out how Hertsmere will grow over the next 15 years and beyond by providing homes, infrastructure and jobs for future generations.
Primarily, it set out what land in the borough could be sacrificed to meet Government housing targets of around 12,000 – and the Government expects local authorities to have new local plans in place during 2023.
A protest in Borehamwood in September
Around 20,000 comments flooded in during a public consultation period towards the end of 2021 after the draft plan revealed huge swathes of green belt land in Hertsmere were severely at risk of being built on.
A protest banner to save fields from development in Bushey
In a statement published last night on the Hertsmere Conservatives website, Cllr Bright said: “Our residents have clearly rejected the draft local plan. Now the council must reject it too.”
He added: “Whilst residents and councillors understand the need for new homes, this potential decimation of large swathes of green belt has been too much for local people and local councillors to accept.
“I think it unlikely we will have a new local plan in place before 2024.”
This week, Cllr Bright and his colleague Cllr Harvey Cohen met with the borough’s Conservative MP Oliver Dowden to discuss the local plan. The Hertsmere Tories say Mr Dowden has offered his “full support” in continuing to make the case for Hertsmere’s housing…
Source : times
