Local Plan 2011-2031 Proposed Submission Draft

Whilst adjustments to the longstanding Green Belt boundaries are, along with the exclusion of some previous washover settlements, very welcome, the plan is unsound in that it fails to acknowledge that there is the capability for infill in remaining washover settlements. It would appear to justify this failure on the basis that "the vast majority of land in North Hertfordshire is rural in nature" and "restraint on unsustainable development in rural areas is a well-established policy".

Any assessment of what is "rural" and "locationally unsustainable" is a relative and somewhat subjective assessment and it fails to identify settlements which, whilst they may, for example, be detached from the main towns and larger villages which are administratively within North Hertfordshire district, are both identifiable entities and may relate well to neighbouring urban areas. Policy SP5 should include a clause concerned with "Rows in Green Belt". It should recognise and identify groups or rows of dwellings washed over by the Green Belt, wherein infill development would not occasion any harm to the openness of the Green Belt. Other local planning authorities with a similar geography have such a policy (Chiltern, South Buckinghamshire and South Oxfordshire for example).

Such a policy may not be appropriate for all such settlements and discretion is required, but a perfect example is Todd's Green, it sits right at the edge of, indeed is partly within, Stevenage and has easy and ready access to all the facilities in that town. It comprises a tight knit group of suburban style development and infill in the form of one or two dwellings, would occasion no harm and importantly not undermine the openness of the Metropolitan Green Belt. Attached is a Google Earth image of Todd's Green and an extract from the Draft Local Plan Proposals Map. The area where a Green Belt infill Policy should be applied is edged in red.

See attached