local plan

Second open letter responding to Gagan’s position from Joint Residents’ Association

Dear Gagan,

Thank you for your letter of 4th March. We note, however, that you have not addressed the central questions put to you in our open letter of 2nd March: why did you undermine the draft Plan by criticising the evidence that supports it and why did you publicly support the Housing Minister’s decision to block public consultation on the draft Local Plan? It should be noted that the Housing Minister did not say TRDC’s Local Plan evidence is inadequate; he simply said he wanted to read it, to see if it justifies the draft plan.

More concerning still is what happened after you received our letter. You had the opportunity to raise Three Rivers at Prime Ministers Question Time and rather than use it to robustly defend our Green Belt, to demand that the Minister reverse his intervention and to back the evidence supporting the Plan, you seemed to be more interested in scoring a party-political point You state that you have “consistently defended our Green Belt.” We would respectfully point out that the single most effective defence of the Green Belt is a sound, adopted Local Plan and you have just backed the Minister’s decision to prevent one from reaching public consultation. Without a plan proceeding to examination and adoption, the district remains exposed to exactly the speculative development you say you oppose. Your position is contradictory: how you can you claim to defend the Green Belt while supporting the action that leaves it most vulnerable.

You claim the plan “lacked the evidence required to be deemed sound.” As we set out in our original letter, this does not withstand scrutiny. Consider the Stage 4 Green Belt Review recently undertaken at considerable cost which analyses the Green Belt under the new rules. This was prepared by one of the most highly regarded major consultancies, with recognised experience in this area. This review clearly identifies that development in several areas of the District’s Green Belt would fundamentally undermine the purposes of the wider Green Belt and therefore must be protected from development.

Every week without a Local Plan increases the risk to our Green Belt. Since your first question in the House on 23rd February, a new application to build 333 homes on Catlips Farm in Chorleywood has been published and a new development on the Horsefield in Bedmond has been announced. Speculative applications are flooding in across the district precisely because there is no adopted plan in place. Your constituents are paying the price for this delay, and your support for the Minister’s intervention is making it worse.

We are not naïve. With local elections approaching in May, we understand that the Local Plan risks being used as a political football by parties of all colours. However, when it comes to this issue, we would urge everyone to put party interests aside and all get to together behind it. The future of our Green Belt and the communities we live in is too important to be reduced to electioneering. We would urge you and all elected representatives to treat this issue with the seriousness and honesty it demands.

We repeat our call: please withdraw your support for the Minister’s action and publicly back the draft plan proceeding to consultation and examination without further delay. That is how you defend the Green Belt, not by blocking the very process designed to protect it.

The Three Rivers Joint Residents’ Association represents thousands of residents across every part of the district. Since your first intervention in the Houses of Parliament on this we have asked repeatedly to meet with you about this vital issue, and we again offer to meet with you at your earliest convenience to brief you fully on the plan and on why Residents’ Associations across Three Rivers are united in calling for it to proceed. We trust you will not decline.

Yours sincerely,

Barry Grant
Chair – Three Rivers Joint Residents’ Association

Read more

First open letter to Gagan Mohindra MP from Three Rivers Joint Residents’ Association (JRA)

Full letter from Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook here: IMPORTANT: Local Plan Reg 19 Suspended

Response to Housing Minister letter from Independent District Councillor Rue Grewal

By R.D.R.A., ago

Open letter to Gagan Mohindra MP from Three Rivers Joint Residents’ Association (JRA)

JRA is a politically independent umbrella organisation for all Residents’ Associations across Three Rivers including RDRA, which allows us to work together on matters of common concern.

If you are not already aware, our MP Gagan Mohindra decided to come out publicly to support the Matthew Pennycookpost Housing Minister’s decision to place a hold on the new Local Plan. Below is an extract from Hansard of the debate on New Social and Affordable Housing:

“As the House will know, local plans are the method by which we can identify affordable homes and make sure that they are built in the right place at the right time. Since I was elected back in December 2019, I have consistently asked the Liberal Democrat Three Rivers district council to get on with the local plan. However, as the Housing Minister will know, the latest version of that plan did not have sufficient evidence. He has therefore rightly called it in. Does he agree that the Lib Dems need to get on with delivering the local plan and that they should not continue to fail my residents in South West Hertfordshire?”

This is despite knowing that the JRA and local Parish Councils all objected to the delay in getting a new Local Plan in place. One could suspect that this intervention was done for narrow party-political considerations with the May Local Council Elections in mind, without any consideration of the consequences for residents of his constituency, particularly as, within hours, his intervention had appeared on his Facebook feed.

In response to this, we have prepared the attached open letter to be sent to Gagan and local media in the name of the Joint Residents Association.

Dear Gagan,

Your question in the House of Commons on 23rd February, in which you expressed support for the Housing Minister’s decision to prevent the final public consultation on the draft new Local Plan for Three Rivers, will cause direct harm to your constituents. Without a new Local Plan, the District remains exposed to the current flood of speculative planning applications on some of the District’s most valuable Green Belt land, for example the application to build 333 new houses on Catlips Farm in Chorleywood published just this week. Every week of delay increases the risk to our Green Belt.

The Minister’s intervention is undemocratic. It prevents residents from having their say on a plan that will shape their communities for decades. You took this position despite being fully aware that Residents’ Associations and Parish Councils across the District had written to the Minister opposing his action.

In your comments, you cited a supposed lack of evidence supporting the plan. This does not withstand scrutiny. In early 2025, Three Rivers Council paused the plan following the publication of the new National Planning Policy Framework to gather additional evidence, which has now been delivered. Conservative Councillors opposed that pause at the time, arguing the Council should press ahead without the extra evidence. As recently as January this year, Conservative Councillors were arguing that housing numbers could be reduced further, again without providing any evidence to support this. You cannot credibly claim there is insufficient evidence when your own party’s councillors have repeatedly argued that no more was needed.

We call on you to withdraw your support of the Minister’s action without delay and to throw your full support behind the current draft plan proceeding to consultation and examination, giving Three Rivers residents their democratic opportunity to support or oppose the draft plan. The Three Rivers Joint Residents’ Association represents thousands of residents across every part of the District. They will remember.

We are happy to meet with you at your earliest convenience to brief you fully on the Plan and why Residents’ Associations across the District are united in their support for moving the draft plan forward without further delay.

Yours sincerely,
Barry Grant
Chair – Three Rivers Joint Residents’ Association

Read more

Full letter from Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook here: IMPORTANT: Local Plan Reg 19 Suspended

Response to Housing Minister letter from Independent District Councillor Rue Grewal here: https://rickmansworthresidents.org/2026/02/why-ive-written-to-the-minister-and-why-im-not-giving-up/

By R.D.R.A., ago

Draft response to the Government’s consultation on National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)

Message from Colne Valley Regional Park.

Click to view draft response to each policy.

Our key points are:

  • The Colne Valley Regional Park is a special landscape, nature and community resource which deserves an overall protected designation, but does not currently have one. Although it is within the Metropolitan Green Belt, this still makes it vulnerable to piecemeal encroachment without adequate compensation. In the absence of this, the NPPF should say more to protect the Park in other ways.
  • The NPPF should say more about the cumulative impact of speculative (as opposed to planned) development, both authorised and unauthorised.
  • Cross-boundary cooperation should be strengthened at all levels of plan-making, not only for housing and economic growth, but also for environmental protection at a landscape scale.
By R.D.R.A., ago

Why I’ve written to the Minister and why I’m not giving up

Independent District Councillor Rue Grewal responds to the Minister’s recent letter.
[See previous post: IMPORTANT: Local Plan Reg 19 Suspended]

I wanted to share the attached letter with you directly and explain why, as an Independent Councillor, I felt it was important to act.

Like many of you, I was deeply disappointed by the Minister’s letter on the Local Plan. I know how long this road has been, how much time, energy and goodwill residents have poured into this process, and how exhausting it can feel to face renewed uncertainty after so much hard work.

I have chosen to act independently because I believe in this community and in doing what I feel is right, not what suits a party line. Being an Independent means I do not have a political machine behind me, but it also means I have the freedom and responsibility to speak plainly, to challenge when needed, and to stand up for residents without hesitation. That is a privilege I take very seriously.

Over the past few years, this has been a long and demanding journey. I have dedicated a great deal of time and energy to protecting our green spaces and shaping a Local Plan that is evidence-based, collaborative and grounded in reality. I know many of you have done the same. What we have achieved together should not be underestimated, and we should all be immensely proud of the work that has been done.

More than that, I genuinely believe we have built something important along the way. We have strengthened relationships, worked constructively across communities, and, at least for me, made new friends. That matters, and it will matter even more in what comes next.

I am sharing my letter with you so that you know, clearly and unequivocally, that I am not giving up. I may not have a party behind me, but I have conviction, evidence, and a community I care deeply about. This moment may require a rethink, but it does not require surrender.

We have come too far for that.

Thank you, as always, for your trust, your partnership and your resilience. I remain committed to standing with you and continuing this work together.

With very best wishes,
Cllr Rue Grewal
Independent District Councillor for Carpenders Park
Independent Group Leader, Three Rivers District Council

Read her full letter here: https://rickmansworthresidents.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Letter-to-Matthew-Pennycook-MP-v3.pdf

By RDRA Web Admin, ago

IMPORTANT: Local Plan Reg 19 Suspended

On 5th February, a letter from Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook has been sent to the Leader of Three Rivers District Council Stephen Medhurst ahead of the Regulation 19 consultation on the new local plan.

The Minister raises serious concerns that the council’s emerging plan proposes to meet only 56% of its assessed housing need, leaving a shortfall of more than 5,000 homes, and that there is little public justification for this. He warns that the plan is therefore at high risk of being found unsound or legally non-compliant at examination.

Because of these concerns, the Minister is using powers under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 to issue a “holding direction,” preventing the council from taking any steps toward adopting the plan while the government considers whether further intervention is necessary.

He requests the full set of documents and evidence intended for the Regulation 19 consultation by 19 February 2026, and encourages the council to work constructively with government officials going forward.

Read Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook full letter here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/three-rivers-district-council-local-plan-holding-direction-letter/three-rivers-district-council-local-plan-holding-direction-letter

Read Independent District Councillor Rue Grewal’s response here:
https://rickmansworthresidents.org/2026/02/why-ive-written-to-the-minister-and-why-im-not-giving-up/

By R.D.R.A., ago

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 Web Admin, ago