A Legally compliant
The plan as it stands does not appear to be legally compliant as there have to be exceptional circumstances to build on Green Belt and the plan does not state what the exceptional circumstances are. In particular the proposed KB4 site plan would result in the encroachment of Knebworth on Stevenage and with the proposed separate development for Woolmer Green on the latter.

B Positively prepared
The plan should objectively assess the needs of the Village of Knebworth and for the reasons set out below I consider it fails on multiple counts.

C Justified
It is clear that there is a need for increased housing in South East England. However increased housing in a particular area, even when legally compliant, has to consider the implications on that area. Furthermore no significant consideration has been made for affordable housing which is I believe is almost universally agreed to be required.

D Effective
General comments
The plan would seem incapable of being delivered in its present form, even if legally compliant, due to it's failure to address multiple issues which are now discussed.
The plans for the Village of Knebworth involve building 663 houses. This is a massive expansion of the Village by about one third. Despite this size of development, there appear no plans for any changes in the infrastructure of the Village apart from the statement that there will be a need for a new primary school. However, it would appear that NHDC have overlooked a number of critical issues.
Knebworth Village is split in two by the East Coast Railway line. The two bridges which link the two halves are not built for today's traffic let alone a massive expansion of the Village. However more serious is the fact that they are hazardous for pedestrians. Walking young children under the bridges is a nightmare. Furthermore, there is not room for two people to pass and pedestrians run the risk of being hit by wing mirrors of passing cars as the road only just accommodates two cars, let alone anything bigger. The bridge by the station needs to be used by all those on the East of the railway line to access the station and also the Village Hall, and all those to the West of the line to access the Village shops and doctors surgery. NHDC appears to be continuing to have total disregard for the safety of the residents of Knebworth.

The plan proposes increasing the size of Knebworth Village by about a third and yet decreasing employment by removing a local employer and decreasing farm land which may also have an impact on local employment. This would result in Knebworth developing even more into a dormitory area. This will result in more utilisation of the railway, roads with implications for car parking.
a Railway: no consideration has been given to car parking around the station and the current consultation on the railways involves decreasing the service from Knebworth Station.
b The A197 has major traffic flow problems, particularly at peak times and not just past the shops as implied in the plan. In addition the rest of the roads in and out of Knebworth are country lanes such as Watton Road.
c Other car parking issues: the proposed expansion of the Village will result in more people using cars to access the shops on London Road. No consideration has been given to a solution to this, no doubt because there is no obvious solution.

In conclusion there appears to have been absolutely minimal comments in the plan about the infrastructure demands required for increasing the size of the village by about one third.

E Consistent with National Policy
Destruction of Green Belt land is against National Policy unless there are exceptional circumstances and these are not addressed.

F It would appear through failure to address the well recognised issues mentioned above that NHDC have not complied with their duty to co-operate.