Bank Mill, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire

Application No. 20/01370/MFA

Construction of 16 apartments with landscaping at Bank Mill, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire.

CPRE Hertfordshire object to this proposal for development in the Green Belt and within the Berkhamsted Conservation Area, which is contrary to policies in the National Planning Policy Framework, The Dacorum Core Strategy, 2006 – 2031 and the emerging Dacorum Local Plan.

Despite the address above, this site is not in Bank Mill. It is the northern bank of the Grand Union Canal beyond the eastern boundary of the Heron Place development.

The site sits entirely in the Green Belt which forms the buffer between Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead and, in accordance with Green Belt Purposes, prevents the coalescence of those two settlements. It is not, as the Applicant maintains, a ‘satellite piece of land’. In this location the Green Belt extends across this site and up to the A4251 and then wraps round the eastern boundary of the town. Rather than being a satellite, the site forms an integral part of the urban fringe of the Green Belt. Its development would constitute encroachment into the countryside, in effect resulting in ribbon development along the bank of the Grand Union Canal.

The site is sensitive given the potential impact of development on the Conservation Area and, as it is located at the periphery of the town, the council has previously stated, in the preparatory documents for the emerging Local Plan, that such sites have limited accessibility to services and facilities.