Buntingford’s Green Party councillors passionately spoke up for residents, when a controversial planning application to relocate a medical centre and build 200 homes, was presented to the Development Management Committee this week (Wednesday 13 November).
The Development Management Committee is a cross-party group of councillors, who are tasked with reviewing all large-scale planning applications. The committee is apolitical, and members are not whipped on how to vote. Fundamentally, the Development Management Committee is not there to assess “is this a good application?” but rather “are there any reasons in planning law to refuse this application, and will these stand at appeal?”.
At the Development Management Committee, all three district councillors expressed their concerns, including the unsuitable location for the medical centre the lack of transport connections, sustainability, loss of agricultural land and drainage issues.
The application, for a residential development on an unsuitable edge-of-town site in Buntingford, was refused planning permission.
Cllr Vicky Burt (Buntingford): “As a Buntingford resident and councillor, I have always thought the development was unsuitable as it is unsustainable and inaccessible.
“The site is on the edge of town, located on a busy road, up a steep hill, with poor transport links.
“There has been a substantial amount of house building in Buntingford in recent years with few associated employment opportunities, thus forcing more people into their cars even more. The development goes against highways targets of half of journeys within a town being made on foot or by bicycle.
“In addition, both Edwinstree Middle School and Freman College, the town’s secondary school, are both oversubscribed in all year groups.
“I was also concerned about the foul water drainage system on the site, which depends on gravity for the western section and a pumping station for the eastern section. These ultimately feed into the foul water network on the adjacent site to the west. This site relies on a pumping station that pumps foul water into a manhole on Hare Street Road which feeds into the already stressed network feeding the Thames Water Sewage Treatment Works that does not have sufficient capacity.”
Cllr Sue Nicholls (Buntingford), said: “The major concern was not just the proposal to move our only primary care provision in Buntingford from the current site on an accessible, flat location in the centre of town, that is in easy reach on foot by a large proportion of local residents (even many less able residents) to a site at the top of a steep hill on the edge of town.
“It was also the fact that the application came with a proposal for around 200 houses attached to it. There are currently no strategic development sites in Buntingford as part of the District or local Neighbourhood Plans to reflect the detrimental impact of the scale of development that has already taken place in Buntingford – over 1000 since 2018.
“This, combined with the strain on drainage infrastructure and the sewage treatment works which, despite a £21M upgrade, does not have capacity to even meet the needs of the current population, loss of other facilities such as the swimming pool, adult day centre, youth club, banks, recycling centre and the strain put on other services including local dentists and oversubscribed middle and senior school meant that this application was unsustainable and would have caused significant harm to the community.”
East Herts District Council was keen for residents to ensure their concerns could be addressed and therefore held a Development Management Forum in July. The Forum enabled petitioners to present their views to councillors, planning officers and the applicant, prior to the planning application being determined. The forum provided early discussion of the planning issues raised by petitioners and explored the scope for building consensus and resolving concerns.
Cllr Sue Nicholls (Buntingford), added: “The Development Management Forum was the important first step in the process of engaging the Buntingford community in preparation for the planning application being considered by the Development Management Committee. It also played a really key role in bringing members of the community together and more importantly getting the rather reluctant town council on board to fight this application. All of this work has meant months of hard work and preparation but it was a crucial step to ensure local people have had opportunities to have their say.”