Sele Ward Neighbourhood Association (SWNA)

Public Meeting held at The Sele Community Hub on Thursday 24 August 2023 at 19.00

To discuss the outline planning application to build 342 dwellings on Archers Spring

The meeting was attended by approximately 30 members of the local community, including Cllrs Redfearn and Clements.

 Adam Leaf (Chair of SWNA) outlined the situation and members of the public contributed by discussion and questions throughout the meeting:

·        This is an outline planning application and is a re-submission; the original application was made in 2019

·        Comments from members of the public and SWNA must be received by 01.09.2023, although this date may be extended

·        Since the original application in 2019 a lot has changed, there is now an approved application for a large development on the Panshanger Airfield and another in the pipeline for Birchall Garden Suburb (in the area adjacent to the Cole Green roundabout on the A414 through towards the Essendon RAB) these will both add to greatly increasing urbanisation of the local area

·        The political complexion of East Herts and Hertford Town Councils has also changed since the original application

·        The East Herts Local Plan and the Sele Ward Neighbourhood Plans have both been adopted

·         The outline proposals for Archers Spring are deficient in terms of compliance with the Sele Neighbourhood Area Plan (SNAP)

·        There is a loss of the green corridor 15M wide between the rear gardens of Bentley Road and the new property boundaries

·        There is the loss of a protected view

·        Education - expected s106 funds would be used to expand the size and/or facilities at Hollybush/Hertford St Andrews/Sele schools (all of which could provide the extra capacity needed) but it appears it may go to fund a new secondary school in Ware

·        There is a planned bus route through Perrett Gardens, which is not wide enough for a bus and car together, reduces parking spaces at the Community Centre and for residents in Perrett Gardens and would be a significant loss of amenity to existing residents, including increased noise/traffic in what is currently a no through road

·        There are no community facilities planned in the new development whatsoever

·        There has not been a new biodiversity survey of the site since 2019, however as the site has been left uncultivated/developed for an additional number of years biodiversity has increased and should be reassessed

·        Building heights – some are four storeys, whereas the maximum should be three stories

·        Details of the outline planning application, with a template letter of comment will be published on the SWNA website and with a link from the Sele Community FB page 

·        Original objections to the 2019 application are still valid and will have to be taken into consideration

·        The current outline application may not be a good representation of the final application

·        Objections/comments made now can influence East Herts to place conditions on the development (for example – restricting the maximum number of stories in height)

·        East Herts planning policy says there should be 40% affordable housing in each development but this site only has 20% of affordable and there are various definitions of affordable, not all of which would necessarily be helpful to people in housing need in the locality

·        The land is owned by London and Regional which bought the land about 10 years ago

·        Potential issues with phasing were raised – it seems unusual that the development starts as far away from the edge of Sele Farm as possible.

·        On Tuesday 29 August there will be a second public meeting at the Community Centre starting at 19.00 which will be attended by a representative of the developer

·        Hold ups in the development have been due to a disagreement between the developer and East Herts Council regarding the percentage of affordable housing and the amount of s106 funds that should be generated by the development. The matter had to go to adjudication.

·        It was clarified that affordable housing might be for shared ownership or for rent at below market levels (although can be up to 80% of market level)

·        It is not clear whether there will be any socially rented housing in the development

·        Council Planning Officers choose when this goes to the Planning Committee – SWNA has indicated that more time for comments to be made and for officers to consider objections would be appreciated

·        By the time the matter reaches the Planning Committee it will have been considered by officers and at that stage only very strong legal reasons can lead to refusal of permission. Councils always fear that if they refuse and the developer appeals the Council may incur enormous legal expenses

·        It is possible that re-inclusion of the 15M wildlife corridor and issues around Perrett Gardens and the Community Centre may make the scheme unviable; the 15M corridor is shown on the outline plan as being occupied by a significant number of properties

·        The Community Centre lease does not appear to allow the Council to change the boundaries of the Community Centre grounds      

·        The developer can be asked to do actions of benefit to the community before they start building

·        The decision that the s106 funds go to Ware is taken by Herts County Council, which seems to regard Hertford and Ware as a single entity; Hertford Councillors have objected to this decision. The developer of Ware North provided the land for the new primary and secondary schools, so they did not have to also fund the building of those schools, therefore the s106 funds for the building had to come from a Hertford development

·        Because East Herts has not met its housing target there is a ‘tilted balance’ towards approval of all house building applications

·        The Archers Spring site was previously subjected to unauthorised gravel extraction and then used for unauthorised landfill and as a result the land is contaminated with a lot of precautions needed when disturbing the ground; this is of obvious concern to Sele Farm residents with the danger of airborne contaminants

·        There was a query about how it is ensured that only native tree species are planted as the plan currently specifies – this would be an element of planning control during the development

Meeting closed about 20.00

Date of next meeting: Tuesday 29 August 2023 at 19.00 at the Sele Community Centre