We are pleased to publish our latest newsletter "Spring 2020" available as a download. Please enjoy reading our latest news and we would appreciate any feedback to enable us to improve this newsletter. Read the newsletter here:

CPRE Hertfordshire is committed to the protection, promotion and enhancement of the environment within Hertfordshire, to make it a better place to live, work, go to school or enjoy for today and tomorrow.  As part of this, we run a Children’s Art Competition.  We invite all the primary schools within Hertfordshire to enter and to encourage the children to express themselves through art. 

“CPRE Hertfordshire regrets that it has closed its office and its staff and volunteers are working from home because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Please do not telephone us. If you wish to get in touch, please email us atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

One of us will get back to you but it may take a  little longer than is usual.”

Speculative Development – Little Gaddesden

We at CPRE Hertfordshire became aware last year of an advertisement for the sale of plots of land at Little Gaddesden, in Dacorum Borough.

The site is within the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. We have seen similar plots of land for sale in other parts of the county.

The landowner or agent sells with the suggestion that, with getting planning permission for a house on one of these plots, the buyer will make a fortune.

To date, not one has gained planning permission. Someone has applied to Dacorum Borough Council for planning permission for a house on one of the Little Gaddesden plots. Not only have we objected to this application, we have pointed out the very poor quality of the application. We are sure as we can be that Dacorum’s planners will turn it down.

You can see our letter to Dacorum Borough Council here

This walk is a linear route linking stations on the Abbey railway line between Watford and St Albans, following the River Ver Trail. The shorter route between St Albans Abbey station and either Park Street station or How Wood station is 3 miles. The entire route to Bricket Wood station from St Albans is just under 7 miles.

Map and directions

View all CPRE Herts walks here

Sadiq Khan voices support for London's Green Belt,

Please read the letter here:

CPRE Hertfordshire Awards 2020 Nominations now open
Closing date: 31 May 2020

CPRE, both nationally and here in Hertfordshire is concerned about climate change.

The countryside is great at absorbing our carbon dioxide emissions and we campaign to protect it because of this and because of its other benefits.

Our President Sir Simon Bowes Lyon and his wife Lady Caroline are hosting an evening concert on Saturday 14 March to raise funds for CPRE Hertfordshire.   

It will be held in the Drawing room of their home at St Paul's Walden Bury.

The concert will feature beautiful songs, duets and piano solos by Clara and Robert Schumann performed by professional opera singers Carola Emrich-Fischer and Thomas Niesser accompanied by Margaret Johnson (Felici Opera Musical Director)  and with guest pianist Alicia Chaffey.

There will be an opportunity at the end of the evening to ask questions of the performers about the music and the lives of these two brilliant composers.

Tickets cost £25 (including wine and canapés). 

For further information about the event and to purchase tickets please go to:  www.feliciopera.com or ring 07712 530550

Please also find attached the e-flyer for this concert.

We hope you will be able to join us.

Kevin FitzGerald

Hon. Director

Several years ago we at CPRE Hertfordshire learned about what we call "plotlands". These are created by the land owner and are plots of land that are about 1/6th of an acre, enough on which to build at least one house.

Green Plots to Plots of Gold - Part 2

Somewhere over the rainbow

There is supposed to be a crock of gold at the end of a rainbow, I recall. Not that I have ever found such an end. And the chance of my finding one is probably only slightly more unlikely than is the chance of making a fortune out of a plot of land that you see advertised in a local newspaper.

Such an advertisement appeared just before Christmas. The plots of land were close to Much Hadham, a lovely village in East Hertfordshire.

It is when the owner of agricultural land gets planning permission for houses that the value or price of the land rockets. However, as I noted before about similar plots of land for sale on the other side of the county near Little Gaddesden, not all land is designated for development.

East Hertfordshire District Council’s Strategic Local Plan is set in concrete, for the next 15 years. The major focus of development according to that Plan is at the south of the District, around Eastwick and Gilston, north of Harlow.

Much Hadham is not in the Green Belt. Land there has the EHDC designation "beyond the Green Belt" and the Council is very careful about protection of the landscape and the small village communities in that part of the world.

No one can know the future, especially not in the detail needed to know when a particular plot of land will go for development. So, if you are thinking of splashing the cash just because a sign says it is it up for auction, tread carefully. Do your research. Talk to East Herts DC’s Planning Department.

If you live in or near Much Hadham and have concerns about land being up for sale, please contact the District Council’s Planning Department. There are actions that they can take that can make life harder for anyone who is being less than fully open about the reasons for selling land.