local plan

Joint Residents’ Association (JRA) news on Green Belt Review

Message from John Bishop from JRA.

The TRDC Green Belt Review is to be discussed at next week’s Local Plan Sub Committee. If you have not already looked at it, the report is attached. The outcome is probably more favourable than we had feared and looks to make sense. It should be noted that it will be hard to challenge the conclusions of the independent consultants unless we have very solid grounds as they are experts in this matter.

Link to access the next online meeting:
(Before next meeting is held, this link will show the last meeting where John Bishop talks from 4:30 to 10:32 minutes.)
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_YzA2ODA0N2EtNDhmZS00OTI4LWE4NjAtZDE3OTBjOGJhMDli%40thread.v2/0?context=%7B%22Tid%22%3A%2258420664-1284-4d81-9225-35da8165ae7a%22%2C%22Oid%22%3A%22af1e2ce5-2a72-4c4f-aa26-781a4d347ddf%22%2C%22IsBroadcastMeeting%22%3Atrue%2C%22role%22%3A%22a%22%7D&btype=a&role=a

The overall view from the Joint RA Working Group is that even if TRDC use all the sites in the ‘new’ grey belt, they would still get nowhere near the 13,800 that the government demand. The achievable number based on this report could be well short of this, although we do not yet know the site specifics or numbers.

There is also a Site Hierarchy Document on the same agenda. Whilst the overall conclusions of this document make sense, there seems to be a large number of errors/inaccuracies in the detail of this document, and the Joint RA will be asking for it to be checked and corrected. Please do refer for your areas and come back with any items of particular concern.

We will be speaking at the LPSC meeting this Wednesday with the key points being based on the above. Hopefully this makes sense but, if you have anything else, can you please come back to me as soon as possible.

We also had a meeting with Gagan our MP. Some time ago Gary wrote to him about the disastrous Grey Belt definition. End of last week we got an email saying he was over this way and would we like to meet. He gave us half an hour on Tuesday. We invited along Jon Bishop from the Joint RA and Chris Berry from CPRE Herts.

Gagan thinks the picture is bleak and Labour will push Grey Belt and their required numbers to the n’th degree. He also thought there is a very strong possibility that if Local Plans are not found sound (DBC), or in TRDC’s case – submitted with Labour’s numbers, the plan process will be taken over and sites imposed in order to reach the higher numbers. Note – up to now Gov’s have threatened but not actually done it, but Labour may make an example of TRDC to ‘frighten’ other councils with no Local Plan. It was quite a depressing meeting.

However, a request was made to Gagan that if we got the Joint RA together, would he be prepared to be in a photo showing that he had met with us. This then grew into an idea of getting a cross party, apolitical meet together with Hertfordshire MPs and as many local community RA’s and groups as we can find, but not local councillors. Gagan asked that due to MP’s diaries, this could better be achieved at Westminster.

So we will now try to get together all the MP’s which cover DBC, TRDC, Watford, St Albans and Hertsmere, CPRE Herts, and community groups/residents’ associations. This group may also reflect those covering the new Unitary authority if Herts is split into two, which is possibly the most sensible cost saving option.

We are not sure what good, if any, such a meeting will achieve, but raising the issue of the loss of so much green belt in South West Hertfordshire, and aiming to get consensus across all the MP’s by showing we represent the views of thousands of Hertfordshire residents (and voters!), surely can’t do any harm.

By R.D.R.A., ago

Local Plan update & Reorganisation survey. Deadline 30 September.

Message from Jon Bishop.

Stage 2 Review is here: https://www.threerivers.gov.uk/services/planning/planning-policy/new-local-plan#Evidence%20base towards the bottom of the page. They are long documents, so summary lists and maps are extracted below but the documents themselves contain more detail on each area.

  • All areas that were categorised as either Very High or High impact in the Green Belt in the Stage 2 Review will not be categorised as grey belt,
  • Areas categorised as Moderate-High impact in the Green Belt in the Stage 2 Review will only be categorised as grey belt if they are already developed to some degree,
  • Areas categorised as Moderate impact in the Green Belt in the Stage 2 Review will mainly be categorised as grey belt, and
  • All areas that were categorised as either Low-Moderate or Low impact on the Green Belt in the Stage 2 Review will be categorised as grey belt.

You have probably seen the recent publicity from Stephen Giles-Medhurst about the fact that there are not enough “acceptable” sites to meet the Government targets. From what I can gather, I think we will be very short of the target which is good in terms of Green Belt defence but it does worry me that, if the figure is too low, we could end up with the Plan being found unsound by the Examiner. In the worst case, the Government could then step in and taking over all planning, including defining the Local Plan. This is the Armageddon scenario as residents will get little or no say in which sites are accepted for development. Let’s hope that a happy compromise can be found by the Council to both protect Green Belt and deliver enough housing to keep the Government happy. Together, we will need to work to make sure that residents views are properly heard in this.

Local Government Reorganisation Survey: https://www.hertfordshire-lgr.co.uk/

(deadline 30th September)

The traffic lights on the options in the briefing note are based on a combination of information from TRDC and some analysis of available information. The Strategic Alignment category is the alignment to other high level strategic management in Hertfordshire – health, police and strategic planning.

It would be helpful if you could give me your views on:

  • Which of the three options for unitary councils do you feel is best?
  • What are the key risks / opportunities that you see from the creation of unitary councils in Hertfordshire?
  • Are there any responsibilities, services or assets that you feel should be delegated to Town or Parish Councils as part of this?
  • Do you think we should submit a TRJRA response to the survey?

This is the biggest change to council organisation in over 50 years and could have a material impact on the quality & cost of running councils for the foreseeable future.

Timelines are very tight, with the survey closing on 30th September.

Extracted summary documents:

https://rickmansworthresidents.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/LGR-Consultation-Briefing-TRJRA.pdf

https://rickmansworthresidents.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Green-Belt-Assessment-for-Three-Rivers-District-and-Watford-Borough-Summary-List-and-Maps-.pdf

By R.D.R.A., ago

Local Plan Regulation 18 Consultation: Newly Submitted Sites and New Policies (Part 5) – Deadline 31st August

This message from Three Rivers District Council is what we’ve all been waiting for! It’s important that our members contribute to this consultation on any sites or development in our area.

Three Rivers District Council is preparing a new Local Plan that will guide and manage future development in the district up to 2041. Following on from the previous Regulation 18 consultations which took place in 2021 and 2023, we are now carrying out a supplementary consultation on newly submitted sites and new policies. This Regulation 18 Newly Submitted Sites and New Policies (Part 5) Consultation contains new sites that were submitted for the Council’s consideration following a call for sites exercise earlier in 2025. Individual site assessments for these potential site allocations for housing have been undertaken as part of the Strategic Housing & Employment Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA) which is used to identify sites and broad locations with potential for development. This consultation also includes policies which have not yet been consulted on.

It is important to note these sites are in addition to those consulted on in 2021 and 2023. We are asking for your views on these potential new sites so we can consider them together with the previously submitted responses to previous Regulation 18 consultations. This will help us in drawing up a final proposal. To view and respond online to this consultation please visit the Council’s Have Your Say consultation platform, link below:

Link to Consultation Survey (scroll down to ‘Take Survey’ button):
https://haveyoursay.threerivers.gov.uk/local-plan-newly-submitted-sites-policies-consultation

Hard copies of the consultation document and supporting documents can also be viewed in the Council’s offices in Rickmansworth and at the public libraries located in the district. Written responses can be submitted by post to: Planning Policy, Three Rivers District Council, Three Rivers House, Northway, Rickmansworth, Herts, WD3 1RL

The consultation period starts on Wednesday 16th July 2025 and ends at 11:59pm on Sunday 31st August 2025.

Further reading

The Local Plan Regulation 18 Consultation Documents, accompanying Sustainability Appraisal Working Notes and the evidence base studies which have been completed so far can be viewed on the Council’s website at: https://www.threerivers.gov.uk/services/planning/planning-policy/new-local-plan

By R.D.R.A., ago

Planning and Local Plan

Following conversations with residents at the last Sunday Market, it’s always a good idea to keep an eye out for planning developments in your local area. To do this simply go to the Three Rivers website and search planning or click link below: 

https://www.threerivers.gov.uk/services/planning/search-comment-planning-application

Local Plan

The Government target of 11k houses to be built in Three Rivers was reduced down to 4k houses and now called New Local Plan.

Sites earmarked for development in Rickmansworth are on pages 44-48 of this document:
https://cdn.threerivers.gov.uk/files/2023/10/98854f00-74b5-11ee-b56c-7b53d1ba03b1-_Regulation%2018%20Part%20Four%20Consultation%20Document.pdf#page=44

Earmarked developments are marked as green on this map below (red=rejected):
https://cdn.threerivers.gov.uk/files/2023/10/eec2fc90-74b6-11ee-b56c-7b53d1ba03b1-Appendix%203%20-%20South%20West%20Area%20Map.pdf

Futher information on New Local Plan can be found here.

This New Local Plan will be formerly published in Sept/Oct 2024, then submitted to Secretary of State in Feb/March 2025, then adopted in March 2026.

By RDRA, ago

Local Plan

Due to the vast number of responses to the second Regulation 18 consultation, the District Council have four members of staff working on a third revision which will be published in the Autumn.

It is not clear if this will be a third Regulation 18 consultation or a Regulation 19 – this is the last list which is produced before a Public Enquiry.

This will put off the finalisation of the Local Plan for a few years with two possible adverse implications for the residents of the District.

The first of these is that the Government may impose a Local Plan on the area, the second is that, without a Local Plan to refer to, developers could develop sites without District Council Planning approval.
The next document could well call back in sites which were taken out of the first list in 2018 many of which we objected to due to them being on Green Belt land or on a flood plain (in some cases both!).

By RDRA, ago