Land Allocation – Additional Suggested Sites Pirton Parish Council Meeting
These are my personal notes (rather hurried) to the meeting held on the 20th August 2009. They have no official standing and facts, if important to you, should be checked - Jonty Wild
The meeting was organised by Pirton Parish Council (PPC) and chaired by David Saunders (PPC chairman). The meeting was in reference to site 64 (the very large area off Priors Hill / Shillington Road) which has been proposed for development and was to enable Pirton residents to understand the process and discuss their concerns.
In attendance was Andy Beavan (AB) - a planning officer for North Herts District Council, Clare Strong (CS) - NHDC councillor, Nigel Brooks - Hertfordshire County Councillor and approximately 70 to 90 local residents.
In a general introduction by CS, she explained the general background, i.e. that the need to find sites and build houses was driven by the government and NHDC was required to comply and that NHDC preferred to target brown field sites (previously developed sites) where possible.
AB then gave a more detailed description of the requirement and the process, but explained that he could not guide residents in their views or on planning matters.
 | Under the governments direction the East of England Plan has identified the need for housing and 15,800 are to be built in North Herts between 2001 and 2021. |
| NHDC has to comply with this requirement. |
| 9,600 are to be built in North Herts, but bordering Stevenage, leaving sites for a further 6,200 to be identified. |
| NHDC have identified 159 sites for development, the public (anybody else) were invited to suggest others. |
| 125 additional sites were proposed, including the one in Pirton, which was proposed by Barker Parry on behalf of Court Homes. |
| The original 159 sites would have satisfied the need, but NHDC are required to consult, seek public opinion and consider all the sites before publishing their preferred list of sites. |
| It is quite possible that sites proposed by others may take precedence over the NHDC original choice, depending on their qualities including, sustainability, environmental impact and public opinion. Hence the need for all interested parties to make representations. |
| Anyone can comment on any of the 125 newly proposed sites - the others have already been through consultation. |
| To count, comments must relate to material planning matters, e.g. no one has a right to a view (comment - some guidance will be provided at the end of these notes). |
| The site is large, 7.32 hectares, which allowing for its rural location and removing its on site infrastructure (roads, verges, play areas) a rough guide for its development would be 40 houses per hectare, giving a total of about 145 houses *1. |
| Government guidance is that 35% should be social housing. |
| If the site remains an option after consultation, then there will be another opportunity to comment on it and all the sites before they are adopted as part of the Core Strategy document, which will be adopted as policy in 2011 (comment - much better to get the matter settled earlier) |
| Pirton residents are urged to give their full views on any or all of the 125 sites (comment - you may wish to object or support the Pirton site and / or suggest which others, are better, but only from the 125 that should be preferred and why - to see the full list click here). |
Questions and answers from the open session:
Representation?
CS explained that, as our councillor she is unable to come to any decision
before the consultation was complete. To do so was against guidance and would
prevent her from taking part in the Council debate and voting on the matter., as
she would be deemed to have made a decision before the debate. This effectively
means that she can listen to views and receive information, but not come to a
decision.
The local infrastructure is adequate who
pays for improvement?
The utility providers, Herts County Council or the developers.
What is social housing and it different
from affordable housing?
They are basically the same thing. They include rented properties, such as
those of housing associations and shared equity properties
How are representations counted?
10 letters counts as 10. A letter signed by 10 people doubts also as 10, but
they also report on the number of representations received , so added together
that would be 20 people commenting in 11 representations and an independent
inspector would give the difference some weight.
Comment by Jonty Wild, I thought I understood the answer, but now I'm not so sure! However, in order of the most effective is:
- Individual, personalised representations.
- Individually signed standard letters (an example may be provided by the Parish Council and given in this website, if there is time).
- A standard letter with multiple signatures.
- A petition.
Parish Council Action
The Parish Council are proposing to circulate guidance and possibly a standard letter within 10-14 days. They will add information to their website www.pirtonparishcouncil.org and provide it to the Pirton website (this one!) to be circulated by email to those this website's email circulation list (join the list).
Other information:
The East of England plan is being rolled forward to cover 2011
to 2031. Its consultation will start in early September. It is
important to consider its proposals and make representation if you do not like
them, as they will include proposals which will drive future developments (comment
- I will try to provide links from the planning pages and to the website's email
circulation list)
*1 Background Information:
| It is 7.32 hectares, which I estimate represents an increase of about 20% of the current built area of Pirton. |
| It was suggested that a housing density of 40/hectare would be considered reasonable on land in this type of location. After land is used for the necessary infrastructure, that would around 145 - there are currently around 470 so that would be an increase of 31%. |
| At a conservative estimate of 3 per house that would be 435 - I think that the current population is about 1200 so that would be an increase of 35%. |
| At a conservative figure of 2 cars per household, that would be an additional 290 cars. |
Possible grounds for objection and how to submit yours
These will be added
very soon! Please email your
suggestions