BCC

Neighbourhood Plan Referendum Result

Message from The Batchworth Plan Steering Group.

We are really pleased to announce that 81.7% of those who voted in the referendum on 1st May 2025 have voted in favour of the Neighbourhood Plan being used to help determine planning applications in the Batchworth area.

The full results were as follows:
Electorate: 9242
Turnout: 31.1%

“Do you want Three Rivers District Council to use the neighbourhood plan for Batchworth to help it decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area?”

Response Votes
Yes: 2264
No: 505

Now that the Neighbourhood Plan has been adopted, Batchworth Community Council will be looking to take forward the projects outlined in the plan. If you would like to be kept informed of this work and other council news, please sign up to the newsletter at
https://www.batchworth-ecc.gov.uk.

Thank you for your involvement over the last few years – the adoption of the Neighbourhood Plan is a big step forward in bringing about the positive changes we would all like to see in our neighbourhood.
By Ash Pattni, ago

Batchworth Bridge Forum – BCC response & petition

Message from Batchworth Community Council (BCC)

Dear Resident,

Thank you for braving the cold and attending the Batchworth Bridge Forum, hosted by the Rickmansworth & District Residents’ Association (RDRA) on the Wednesday 29th January.

Batchworth Community Council (BCC) has collated your comments and met County Councillor Reena Ranger to discuss them.

Cllr Ranger said, “Thank you for taking the time to talk to RDRA and Batchworth Community Council – I will be discussing the feedback with Hertfordshire County Council.  These will be very helpful for improving Hertfordshire’s initial proposals sent to BCC along with the expert analysis I funded.”

Since the meeting, Batchworth Community Council and Cllr Ranger have raised the ‘small’ improvements with Hertfordshire County Council (HCC), to see if they can go ahead without a wider scheme.

In addition, a resident who attended the meeting has launched a petition for Three Rivers District Council to part-fund the works to the crossing using Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL): paid by developers to improve infrastructure locally. 

The petition can be found on the Three Rivers Website https://my.threerivers.gov.uk/ please search for “Make Batchworth Bridge Crossing Safe for all users”.  To sign the petition log in with your usual Three Rivers user name and password or register if you’ve not used the TRDC site before.

CIL was discussed at the forum last week.  In total, £3.5 million has been paid for developments in Batchworth – about half of all the CIL paid across the district. However, 85% of it goes to Three Rivers, and other bodies have to apply for it. 

BCC backed a Hertfordshire County Council bid to help fund the crossing, but this was refused by Three Rivers in December.  The petition is for Three Rivers to rethink its decision.

BCC and Cllr Ranger will be in touch as soon as we have some news to give you on this project.  Again, thank you for attending and your comments. 

In the meantime, please visit https://rickmansworthresidents.org/ to sign up for news from the RDRA.

Best wishes,
From all of us at BCC and your County Councillor Reena Ranger

By Ash Pattni, ago