15/02/2025
Dear Residents
East Herts District Council Call for Sites
I’m aware that there are some understandable concerns about the sites submitted for the recent Call for Sites, so I am writing to give you some context.
As you may know, the District Council is in the process of creating a new District Plan – this is the plan for the next 5-10 years which sets out how development should take place in East Hertfordshire (The current 2018 plan is 7 years old and effectively out of date). One aspect of this is to identify sites which could be locations for new development. Without a plan, where housing is built would be completely up to developers and landowners. The Council owns very little land of its own, so has to put out a call to landowners for appropriate sites and this is what has recently happened with the Call for Sites. Landowners have submitted a whole number of sites which they would like to be allocated for development in the District Plan. However, all of them, including the Queen’s Road site, have to be carefully assessed against a number of criteria including
• Physical constraints, e.g. flood risk, contamination, access
• Environmental constraints e.g. biodiversity implications
• Heritage setting
• Land use - adjacent, previous, and current use
• Location within the district
• Sustainability - proximity to education, employment, services and infrastructure e.g. public transport
before any decision on whether they are suitable to include can be made. Whether or not they are in the Green Belt is obviously a very important consideration. There are two rounds of public consultation for the plan as well, in summer 2026 and summer 2027. If you have any specific comments on any of the sites, which you would like to draw to the attention of the officers, you can let me or the office know.
For comparison, 4 sites including 950 homes and some employment space were allocated to the whole of Hertford in the last (2018) District Plan. (Councillor Henson will be aware of this, as he was a District Councillor at the time that the plan was approved.) While the total of homes is likely to be higher this time round, because the Government requires more homes to be built, there is still a clear limit that can be set. Over 20 sites have been submitted this time, so it is likely that only a proportion of those will be approved and only then if they are considered suitable.
Keeping informed
Please do get in touch if you have any further questions. If you would like to be kept up to date with developments, the officers have advised that you can email [email protected] and request to be added to the mailing list (there is also a form for the same purpose on the East Herts Council Local Development Scheme page).
If you would like to find information about the Call for Sites on the Council’s website, it is here: https://www.eastherts.gov.uk/planning-and-building/planning-policy/call-sites
The main planning policy page is here: https://www.eastherts.gov.uk/planning-and-building/planning-policy. It’s quite busy, but both the current adopted plan and a district plan update can be found from this page.
You may also be aware of the Castle Plus Neighbourhood Plan which is being developed by a steering group made up of local residents. The steering group will be looking in detail at the sites put forward and doing what it can to protect local green spaces. You can find more information about the progress of this work on the Town Council’s website here Castle Plus Neighbourhood Plan. If you would like to be involved, contact me or the project officer, Claire Costello at the Town Council ([email protected]).
With best wishes
Rachel
Cllr Rachel Carter
East Hertfordshire District Council (Hertford Castle Ward)
[email protected]
[email protected]
This consultation is now closed.The outcome of the Call for Sites is being reported to the Council’s Executive on the 11 February 2025. The report provides a summary of the sites that have been submitted and sets out the next steps in relation to the assessment of those sites. The report is availa...
