NEW OWNER FOR BIRCHERLEY GREEN
The sale of the whole site to Chase New Homes Ltd is expected to complete at the end of August. The firm is building houses in Welwyn Garden City and Stevenage. The approved planning application for the site has not been withdrawn.
MEMBERS IDEAS for BIRCHERLEY GREEN
Members were emailed, seeking their ideas for how best the central area could be developed, both short and long term. Read the ideas for the town here, and for Bircherley Green here. They will guide the committee. You can send your views to the Society by clicking here.
PUBLIC MEETING - mid October
An open non-political meeting is planned to consider campaigning for what local people want the new Bircherley Green to offer. It may well be supported by but not organised by the Civic Society. Return here for more news.
DO YOU CARE ABOUT HERTFORD?
Hertford Civic Society is a charity which has since 1969 acted as a focus for residents interested in shaping the future of the town.
OUR AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ARE:
* To stimulate the interest of residents in the quality of the environment in Hertford and the surrounding area and to maintain its character as a small market town.
* To encourage central and local government, companies and private individuals to adopt high standards of architectural design, town planning and management of the environment.
*To encourage appropriate development, improvement and conservation so that we and future generations can benefit from the good which we have inherited and safeguard Hertford’s life as a community in which we can live and work.
for MORE ABOUT US click here
BLUE PLAQUES
In 2017 we erected blue plaques on buildings of historic importance around the town, in partnership with the Town Council. Free leaflets to guide you round the Hertford Heritage Trail are available from the Tourist Office, opposite the theatre. For more on the plaques project click here.
For further background on any places or buildings on the trail, buy one of our publications described here.
click here to view Tramways video
Cross-county tramway meets objectives of
Hertfordshire's A414 Corridor Strategy
Sustainable travel at the heart of Hertfordshire
County's carbon footprint reduced by Herts Orbital Transit proposal to view click here
Trams are highly efficient public transport. Trams are electric, so no fumes. On May 1st MP's declared a climate change emergency. How will HCC respond?
Trams are fast reliable comfortable
Easy and attractive travel.
Trams avoid road congestion with their own routes and priority at road junctions. .
Trams make places attractive for people
Routes through town centres. Integrated with local buses. Links to where most people want to go.
Trams reduce car journeys and road traffic
Trams change travel habits. Because trams are attractive and reliable, car use drops dramatically and so does road traffic. Air quality improves.
Leave a message for Reg Harman, our tram expert in the video above, to learn more about trams or Herts Orbital Transit click here
A414 CORRIDOR STRATEGY - A NEW
BYPASS FOR HERTFORD?
Hertfordshire County Council consulted the public on its ideas for the A414 corridor, see here. Amongst these is a possible by-pass for Hertford, estimated cost "up to £500 million".
On January 16 Councillor Derek Ashley addressed over 200 people in the RC church - see report. Everyone was encouraged to give their feedback on a simple slip. The Civic Society committee noted these, and views posted on our blog, when making the Society's formal response, see here.
Give your views on the by-pass by posting a comment on the Society's blog here
Find & contact your own HCC councillor here
See this video of some members' views
STOP BENGEO QUARRY success
We congratulate the Stop Bengeo Quarry campaign on their considerable success - government has refused permission for sand and gravel extraction at Bengeo. The Civic Society has worked to achieve the same result by making our own representations to both the County Council and the Planning Inspectorate opposing this extraction. We have contributed to the HCC consultation on the county's long term mineral extraction policy, and continue to monitor and oppose the application to re-open Rickneys, right next door to the Bengeo site.
OTHER PLANNING CONCERNS
We have reviewed a number of planning applications recently, and in particular these:
- Gasworks site, Marshgate Drive
- Hertford Mill site, Tamworth Road
These raise concerns of: high density development in the form of flats, parking space, affordable housing, and the loss of employment land. They are some of the first developments to be judged under the new District Plan. It is important that the council stand firm on policies set out in the new Plan.
We have written to HCC about a requested extension to the time allowed for the operation of Rickney's Quarry to be re-started.
See the latest Newsletter for more details.
new MINERALS PLAN
The County Council have now finalised the new Minerals Plan, and it will shortly be submitted to the Secretary of State. The Plan sets out the Council’s policies against which future applications for quarries will be assessed. An Inspector will be appointed to examine the Plan, and will hold public hearings and consider written objections. At an earlier stage we welcomed the fact that there are now no areas around the town designated as suitable for further quarrying, but said the Plan should make it clearer that the County Council will resist quarrying applications outside the designated areas. See our comments here and, more technically, here. Officers have agreed that an additional Policy is needed to address this matter; but have not so far said how they think the Policy should be expressed.
BIRCHERLEY GREEN
Work has ceased on the site, after much demolition and clearance. The car park and toilets are closed. Some shops remain, empty, but with no public access. The previous developers said they intended to proceed with phase 1, building the corner hotel. However they withdrew their last application for planning permission for phase 2, blaming the downturn in retail and planning delays.
DISTRICT PLAN now adopted
The new District Plan for East Herts was adopted in October 2018. It sets out planning policies and proposals for the District until 2033. We objected to several aspects of the Plan at the draft stages (e.g. loss of Green Belt, no consideration given to new settlements), but now that an Inspector has found it ‘sound’ and it has been adopted, any opposition to future planning applications which comply with the Plan would be futile.
We remain concerned about the Plan’s support for the principle of a Hertford by-pass when the long-term consequences for the town of building, or not building, a by-pass have not been critically assessed. We particularly welcome the determination expressed by some Councillors that developers should be obliged to deliver their full quota of affordable housing in accordance with the Plan. We shall also be looking to the Council to enforce the stringent new provisions on air quality which were inserted into the Plan partly in response to our objections.
For more information, study the end of the Projects page.
HERTFORD MARKETS
The Society believes that the markets are an important part of the town's street scene, and would like to see them flourish. With this in mind we have engaged with the markets' new supervising authority: East Herts Council. Three markets run in Hertford: one on Saturday, a monthly farmers market also on a Saturday, and a monthly street food market. We carried out a set of interviews with traders, and sent the results in a letter to the Council.