Sal Jarvis

You may have seen that Croudace are holding a ‘consultation event’ about a proposal of theirs to build 350 houses on land at the top of Calder Way (Roundwood or NES3). They will be at the community centre between 2.00 and 7.30 pm on Wednesday 10th February.

They have not submitted a planning application yet and, as the land is presently in the green belt, this would be very likely to refused if they did. However, the land they are intending to build on is within the area of the SNAP proposals for Stevenage expansion which so many people responded to last year. Council officers at Stevenage and North Herts are working on options for SNAP development and there will be another consultation later this year.

Do go to make your views known about the Croudace proposals if you can.

Do go to the consultation if you can.

As you will probably have seen in the local press, this application has now been withdrawn - a victory for local voice - but the applicants are still saying that they are considering how to adapt it to make it acceptable. They also suggest there will be no impact on local residents! I think we can expect the application back in in the future and must be ready to react when it appears.

Liberal Democrat Councillors will propose that there should be no increase in North Herts Council Tax at this evening’s Council budget meeting. The Conservative cabinet is proposing a 1.5% increase. 

Liberal Democrat leader Steve Jarvis said, “At a time when many people are seeing their incomes stay the same or even fall the Council should not be increasing the tax it charges local people unless there is no alternative. We have identified that, mainly by cutting spending on yellow lines and traffic wardens, a zero rise is possible.” 

“In those circumstances I hope that other members of the council will support our initiative.”

County Council officers have confirmed that, while this application is currently on the agenda for the Development Control Meeting of 2nd March, there are ’several outstanding matters’ and that they expect the application to be withdrawn before then. It may, of course, be re-submitted later.

As there are two major applications in Chesfield Ward - the secondary school at Great Ashby and the waste management site application at Jacks Hill - that are being decided by the County Council’s Development Control Committee, rather than North Herts District’s Planning Committee, I thought it might be useful for people to be able to contact the County Councillors who sit on it. You can see a list of names, and click to see contact details, by following this link.  At the moment, both applications are scheduled to come to the Development Control Committee on March 2nd.

The County Council’s application to build a secondary school at the site of Tilekiln Wood was deferred by their Development Control Committee this morning (Tuesday 19th). Councillors decided that they needed more information on:

• Alternative sites
• Traffic and car parking
• The impact on the woodland.

There were about 30 people from Great Ashby and Weston there to object to the application. Three people spoke against. The application will now come back to the next meeting on 2nd March.

A number of people have commented on the very long gaps between the collection of brown bins.

The County Council have decided that they will only grit major (motorways and main trunk roads) roads in the County. For Chesfield ward this means that roads in Great Ashby, Great Wymondley, Little Wymondley and The Greens will not be gritted at all. The only road that will be gritted is the B197 through Graveley and Jacks Hill. This means that the Counties failure to organise and fill sufficient salf bins - despite saying that they would identify sites this time last year- is all the more regreatable.

I have copied below part of a County Council Press release, which sets out the government’s reasons for asking councils to restrict gritting.

“DfT asks authorities to reduce salt consumption – Reduced salting network contingency plan

As you will be aware, Hertfordshire Highways have now been gritting the roads almost continuously for past three and a half weeks, with a day or two’s easing over Christmas itself. The long-range forecast is for at least another fortnight of cold weather, making this the longest continuous cold spell for nearly 30 years.

The Department for Transport has therefore taken control of national salt supplies under their “Salt Cell” contingency plan. This means that national salt supply allocation is now being administered by the DfT, and salt supplies are being directed from suppliers to the areas of greatest need. In Hertfordshire, we currently have salt in stock and on order but are concerned that, with Salt Cell in action, the weather forecast staying so cold, and even more extreme conditions elsewhere in the UK, we may not get the deliveries that we need to keep our current effort going. With no apparent let up in the wintry weather for the near future, the Department for Transport on Friday evening also asked local authorities across the UK to reduce their grit and salt consumption by 25%. ”

The County Council’s Development Control Committee will make a decision on the plan to move Alleynes secondary school to behind Merrick Close in Great Ashby at a meeting on Tuesday 19th January at 10.00 at County Hall in Hertford. The meeting is open to the public, but only representatives of people presenting petitions will be allowed to speak.

The secretary of state has granted outline planning permission for 3,600 houses to be built on land West of Stevenage. The applications had been with the secretary of state for a long time, while developers submitted more details. The application for 5,000 houses has not been granted.

Since this permission is only outline permission, developers will need to submit a detailed planning application and for this to be granted before they are allowed to start building.