Our formal submittal – South West Herts Joint Strategic Plan

We believe the proposed South West Hertfordshire Joint Strategic Plan is deeply flawed, and we have now formally submitted our comments. This plan matters a lot as it will set certain policies and projects until 2050.

The public consultation on the South West Hertfordshire Joint Strategic Plan entitled ‘South West Hertfordshire 2050 – Realising Our Potential’ is closing soon, on 4^th November 2022. It is tremendously important that as many local people as possible respond to this consultation. Detailed guidance on how to do this is included at the bottom of this web-page.

Our own submittal is available for reference; it contains broader context as well as specific answers to each question in the consultation document.

Which areas are covered by this Joint Plan?

The local authorities in Dacorum Borough, Hertsmere Borough, St Albans City & District, Three Rivers District, and Watford Borough, along with Hertfordshire County Council, are working together to create this Joint Plan.

The Joint Plan will directly affect everyone in these five local authority areas. It will be a formal, statutory document and carry significant weight in all key planning decisions. Each district or borough’s own Local Plans and policies will be subordinate to this Joint Plan.

An over-emphasis on growth at the expense of the countryside

The proposed Joint Plan assumes that there should be a very high level of growth in the local area over the next 30 years. We believe this is inappropriate for a mature local economy with very low unemployment such as that of Hertfordshire. It is also completely contrary to the government’s levelling up strategy to redirect growth away from over-heated areas like Hertfordshire, which according to ONS data has already grown more over the past 20 years than the UK average.

By contrast, the proposed Joint Plan effectively ignores the massive contribution made by the countryside and rural activities to economic and social conditions and to the overall quality of life experienced by residents and businesses. Most of the countryside in South West Herts is protected, and the lack of recognition of this designation and the role of the rural economy are major short-comings.

Most people share our concerns about growth at the expense of nature, the countryside and the environment.

In a poll commissioned by The Economist and conducted by Ipsos on 12-13 September 2022, “by 43% to 29%, respondents think more focus should be placed on environmental protection, even if that harms economic growth. By a margin of 57% to 24%, respondents favour giving priority to the views of local residents and protecting the countryside, even if that results in less new housing.”

The Joint Plan consultation asks respondents to make seemingly innocuous choices about where growth should be located, but omits many of the implications of what that will actually mean for local residents and for the countryside. How much more of the precious Green Belt and the wider countryside are we prepared to lose under an ocean of concrete?

Summary of our concerns

Our concerns are summarised below and briefly encapsulated in our earlier initial review.  Our much more detailed formal submittal is also available for reference.  Both documents can be utilised as a guide in preparing your own consultation response.

We believe there is

• unwarranted over-emphasis on growth
• insufficient focus on designated protected land including the Green Belt and the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
• insufficient focus on brownfield redevelopment
• silence on farming and agriculture
• insufficient focus on water resources including the need to address the high number of sewerage overflows and the need to protect our rare chalk streams
• inadequate approach to low carbon transport
• over-emphasis on the built environment rather than the natural environment, including the need for more support of existing and new community woodlands, local green spaces and public rights of way
• warm buzzwords about climate change that carry little credibility.

What you can do – how to respond

Please respond to the consultation and encourage friends and neighbours to respond as well. The more people who respond, the better. The deadline for responses is 5 PM on Friday, 4 November 2022.

The South West Hertfordshire Joint Strategic Plan consultation documents and response form are available at https://www.swhertsplan.com/consultation

There are three ways everyone can submit a response, by email, by post, or by using the online portal.

We recommend downloading the consultation response form as a Microsoft Word document, which will then allow you to make as many free-form comments as you wish.

You can then email your response to: haveyoursay@swhertsplan.com

Or if you prefer to post your response, the address is: South West Herts JSP, c/o Dacorum Borough Council, The Forum, Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire HP1 1DN

About us

CPRE Hertfordshire members, along with the 20,000 CPRE members across the whole of England, are a powerful voice standing up for the countryside.  We believe it is now more important than ever to protect the beautiful Hertfordshire countryside, and make sure it is still here for everyone in the future. Please become a CPRE member today – it’s quick and easy to join online.