Our response: North Herts Submission Local Plan (Reg 19), November 2016

We believe that the Council has not justifed their proposals for the removal of land from the Green Belt. Such justification should have specifically included the demonstration of ‘exceptional circumstances’ for removing land from the Green Belt on a site by site, and settlement by settlement basis. Instead, the Council appears to have relied on a blanket assumption that all housing and other development needs, not just in the District but in Stevenage and Luton as well, must be met in full despite national planning policy and planning case law to the contrary. If the Plan is allowed to proceed as published by the Council, it would commit future generations to continuing development which would cause incalculable harm to the countryside.