Hertford Town and District Councillor Sarah Hopewell unpicks the latest planning decision to be made in East Herts (HERT4 in Bengeo), explaining its fate was sealed to some extent by the government’s high housing targets and when the previous Conservative District Council administration agreed to open up the site for developers.
Bengeo field is a much-loved area of land, on which a planning application for 118 dwellings was approved on Wednesday 18th September, taking approximately 10% of the current land. Many have campaigned against this proposal, including the three Green Bengeo Ward Councillors, Cllrs Alex Daar, Ben Crystall, and Vicky Smith, all of whom attended the Development Management Committee meeting (where planning applications are discussed) as ward councillors to speak against the proposal. [Link to meeting speakers against the application].
While many people feel deeply upset, disappointed, and angered about the decision to approve the application, I wanted to take a bit of time to explain more broadly the planning process – all information I have only learnt myself since getting involved in the council!
Housing targets for the UK are set by the government, and despite there being a million empty homes (according to census data in 2021) and a million homes that planners have allowed but developers haven’t built (according to Planning Portal data in July 2024), the new Labour government announced in July that all councils in England are to be given new, mandatory housing targets to pave the way to deliver 1.5 million more homes. In Hertford, one example of a site that has already received planning permission for more than 300 homes but that developers appear to have abandoned is the Gas Works in Marsh Lane.
Once these national targets are set, all local authorities are legally required to follow national planning policy, which is skewed heavily in favour of developers. The government requires councils to provide a minimum number of new homes based on a housing-need calculation and are required to demonstrate an adequate supply of land (5-year land supply). More info from the government on 5-year housing land supply. If a council can’t demonstrate this adequate supply of land for housing development, the government’s rules are clear – planning applications are decided based on a “tilted balance”, which is slanted even more favourably towards developers. The main tool at a council’s disposal is a district plan, and, for individual wards, to have local neighbourhood plans. The district plan will include a series of strategic development sites, along with areas for biodiversity, infrastructure plans, climate mitigation and any other wider objectives for the area. Refreshing a district plan is a huge process and typically takes seven years to complete.
In East Herts, the current district plan was created and approved by the then Conservative-led District Council in 2018. It included part of Bengeo field (Hert4) as a strategic development site, along with various others across the district. [Link to East Herts District Plan] As such, you could argue that its fate was already sealed, in that some form of development would happen there sooner or later, and it was just a matter of which one and when.
All developments and larger scale planning applications are brought forward to the Development Management Committee, a cross-party group of councillors, who are required to be apolitical and as objective as possible when making decisions on applications. Decisions are to be based strictly on planning rules and material considerations. Essentially, the committee is not there to answer the question “is this a good plan?”, but rather “are there sufficient planning reasons to refuse this planning application, and would these reasons be upheld at appeal?” Politics and personal feelings are to be left at the door.
I remember hearing this before being elected, and thinking “what’s the point in that then? Surely people are elected to be political?!” I still partially think this, but at the same time can appreciate that the alternative is councillors likely to pretty much not approve anything, which arguably creates wider housing issues. The reality, however, is simply that developers would appeal and win, and if there are too many appeals, councils will just lose any say at all.
The Bengeo Field planning application was discussed at length over three hours at the Development Management Committee meeting on the 18th September and there were points raised about transport, infrastructure, water, and affordable housing. Not being on the committee myself, it really isn’t my place to comment on the particulars of how people voted. However, I do know that these decisions are never easy, are heavily constrained, and are rarely taken lightly. It is easy to blame the planners, or blame the councillors (or more generally “the council”), but the wider system is weighted heavily against local councils – an example being Vistry’s recent successful appeal after the council refused permission to build 350 homes near Buntingford. In this case, despite loss of agricultural land, loss of countryside, and poor accessibility of services, the Planning Inspectorate found these insufficient reasons to refuse the application, and overruled the council’s decision.
For Bengeo field, those who have campaigned so passionately are now looking at potential next steps, and you can follow their story on the Love Bengeo Field Facebook Page. More broadly, the new Labour government is currently looking at national planning policy and there is a public consultation on their proposed approach, open until Tuesday 24th Sept. While the national policy is still in discussion, now is also an excellent time to contact your MP, share your concerns and views on how to improve planning policy and make any suggestions for what you’d like the future of national planning policy to look like.For more on the Green Party’s manifesto on providing fairer, greener homes for all, check out the Green Party Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter.
More about Councillor Sarah Hopewell:
Councillor Sarah Hopewell is Executive Member for Wellbeing at East Herts District Council. Sarah graduated from Bath University in 2005 and spent the first 9 years of her career in a variety of community support worker roles working in housing, mental health and drugs/alcohol. When working as a drug and alcohol support worker she studied for an MSc in Addiction Psychology and Counselling. Since then, she has spent five years working as a Research Assistant at the University of Cambridge and four years as a Research and Evaluation Officer in Public Health at Hertfordshire County Council. She now works at Campaign for Better Transport and is a Councillor for Castle Ward on Hertford Town Council.