This site with a proposal for 227 dwellings is the most sensitive for development as it is an area of great landscape value and has the highest point in Knebworth village at the Black Pits pond. The NHDC Land Sensitivity and Capacity Study Report - Planning Policy and Projects, November 2006 identified only three Knebworth sites with low sensitivity and high capacity. In each of the three cases the report states "these sites have been appraised as being able to accommodate new housing development without significant effects on their character or the surrounding landscape." KB1 is not one of these sites.

The NHDC Land Allocations - Additional Suggested Sites July, 2009 highlighted the site's weaknesses as:

i. Green field site as grade 3 agricultural land

ii. Adjoins a conservation area

iii. Site is groundwater source protection zone 2

iv. Site is located next to the A1M

v. Identified constraints on utilities and capacity of primary school

Council's weakness iv above has recently been reinforced by the Department for Transport in their A1 East of England strategic study: interim report of August 2016 which concluded, inter alia, that parts of the A1 are located unacceptably close to residential locations, causing unpleasant environmental conditions for local residents. It is hard to understand how moving Knebworth closer to the A1(M) is consistent with this very recent government finding.

The site has a mature hedge and tree line running north to south across the high point abounds with wildlife. In summary the site has the capacity for new dwellings but no other attributes and would be a highly visible ugly 'carbuncle' between the conservation area and the A1M.