| The Parish Council has circulated an “Important Update” inviting residents to share views on whether the Neighbourhood Plan should be withdrawn, potentially leaving Hertford Heath as one of the few Group 1 villages in East Herts without an adopted Neighbourhood Plan. The briefing notes that, if the Plan is stopped, allocations would be decided through the District Plan Review and that this would reduce the influence a Neighbourhood Plan would have. If the Neighbourhood Plan is now abandoned, it can’t do its job anymore — meaning it will not allocate the housing sites for Hertford Heath, and it will not set the village-level planning policies that a Neighbourhood Plan can use to shape development (design, character, mitigation, local priorities and community benefits). So, the “next plan up” makes those decisions instead. If completed and “made”, a Neighbourhood Plan becomes part of the statutory Development Plan, meaning district-level plan-making and day-to-day planning decisions must take its site allocations and local policies into account. In practice, that means that without a Neighbourhood Plan, the District Plan Review becomes the route through which site choices and allocations are progressed. What “reduced influence” means in practice When the Parish Council says it “reduces the influence” of a Neighbourhood Plan, it usually means: 1) Less village-level control over which site(s) are allocated A Neighbourhood Plan is intended to be locally-led and can allocate sites (subject to lawful assessment and consultation). If it is withdrawn, the key decisions shift to district-level plan-making. 2) Less ability to shape how development happens locally Neighbourhood Plans can include detailed policies about what development should look like and what should be secured locally: (design standards, buffers/landscape mitigation, access principles, community benefits and local infrastructure priorities). Without a Neighbourhood Plan, residents are more reliant on district-wide policies and whatever the District Plan Review chooses to set for the village. In our view, however, the update does not clearly explain the practical consequences for residents of transferring site selection to district-level plan-making — i.e. that decisions are more likely to be progressed through an officer-led district process, with materially less village-level control than through a Neighbourhood Plan that proceeds via an SEA comparison of other reasonable alternatives and Regulation 14 consultation. More importantly, the update does not make clear the current status of Amwell Place Farm — including the scale at which it is now being promoted/considered through plan-making — and what that means for resdients. FOR A LIST OF ALL EAST HERTS SITES PROMOTED IN THE DISTRICT PLAN REVIEW – CALL FOR SITES Click Here That context matters because Hertford Heath still has to plan for a minimum of 84 homes. Abandoning the Neighbourhood Plan does not remove the requirement; it changes how sites are chosen and how much local influence residents have in comparing options and impacts. For that reason, we consider it procedurally unfair to invite or rely upon resident views on abandoning the Neighbourhood Plan unless residents are first given clear, accurate and complete information about: 1. Amwell Place Farm — its current status within plan-making and the scale/extent at which it is being promoted and assessed; 2. The alternative route if the Neighbourhood Plan is stopped— including what the District Plan Review means in practicefor village-level scrutiny, resident influence, and the ability to secure mitigation and community benefits alongside housing; and 3. Access to the existing evidence base — including all relevant site assessment material and any independent advice/recommendations on the lawful next steps for the Neighbourhood Plan, which residents should be able to review before any conclusion is drawn about “public support”. In particular, residents should not be asked to express a view on withdrawal while key independent technical material and recommendations have not been made readily available for public scrutiny. 1) The housing requirement does not go away Under the East Herts District Plan, Hertford Heath (as a Group 1 village) still needs to plan for a minimum of 84 homes. If the Neighbourhood Plan is abandoned, the housing requirement doesn’t disappear — it simply changes how and by whom sites are selected. 2) Two routes — two very different levels of local influence If the Neighbourhood Plan continues, the lawful route is: an updated Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) that compares reasonable alternatives properly across the full SEA themes; and thenRegulation 14 consultation, where residents can see the evidence, compare options, and comment formally before anything is finalised. If the Neighbourhood Plan is discontinued, housing allocations are far more likely to be progressed through district-level plan-making— meaning more of the assessment and site selection is driven by officer-led workstreams, with less direct village-level influence than a Neighbourhood Plan process provides. 3) Why Amwell Place Farm needs to be made clear before residents are asked for views For a long time, residents have been led to believe Amwell Place Farm wasn’t an option — mainly because it hasn’t been properly and openly assessed as one of the realistic alternatives in the Neighbourhood Plan evidence (including the Strategic Environmental Assessment 2021 (SEA). Because of that, the Neighbourhood Plan process hasn’t yet done what it is meant to do — namely:compare the main site options fairly and lawfully across the full range of environmental issues (traffic/access, ecology, landscape/Green Belt, heritage, drainage, etc.), including a clear, independent assessment of Amwell Place Farm. The result is simple: residents haven’t been given the information needed to make an informed judgement, particularly if Amwell Place Farm is now being progressed mainly through the District Plan Review instead of being properly assessed at Neighbourhood Plan stage. Because of that, the NHP process cannot properly move forward without first completing the lawful, side-by-side Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) comparing the reasonable alternatives. That was the independent advice in April 2023, yet the Parish Council has not progressed the required SEA update and allowed the available support funding to lapse in April 2025. East Herts Council has now confirmed the site is now being promoted/considered at a scale of around ~5 hectaresthrough the neighbourhood plan and district plan review. This is plainly material, and it will affect what residents think about: traffic/access and road safety landscape and Green Belt implications ecology and biodiversity heritage constraints and setting and how Amwell Place Farm compares to other reasonable alternatives. it’s important that residents have the full picture before any “public support” position is claimed. If you feel the Neighbourhood Plan should be completed with a proper, independent comparison of options and full resident consultation, you may wish to raise that with councillors at the 12 January meeting. |
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