East Herts District Council - Council rejects development plan for north of Harlow

The development proposal is included in the East of England Plan which allows for at least 32,000 new homes in East Hertfordshire including up to 20,000 north of Harlow and 12,000 in the rest of East Herts. The final version is due to be published early next year and will run until 2021.

The council has called on the government to remove the proposals for land north of Harlow from the Plan and reconsider them, following more detailed studies, in the next Plan that will run to 2031.

This is in part because the council believes the government has failed to carry out an infrastructure study into how the Rye Meads water treatment plant would cope with the massively increased demand.

The council has also said it believes the Plan will have adverse effects on sites of European and international importance for nature conservation, in particular the Lea Valley Special Protected Area. The response to Government has been made as part of a further eight week consultation, which ended on December 18, about protected habitats.

The council's comments come after the government published its further proposed changes to the Plan in October.

Mike Carver, East Herts Council's Executive member for planning policy and transport, said: "We have tried to be helpful in our response to Government. We've focused our objections on the north of Harlow, rather than other parts of the Plan. We still maintain our opposition to the development north of Harlow, and we don't see how that area can even be considered for development without a relevant infrastructure study."

ENDS

Note to editors: The council's comments, which come in the form of recommendations, are due to become council policy on Friday, December 14. They are then subject to a five day period during which they can be called in for re-examination, on the request of at least four councillors, by a scrutiny committee.

The full report can be found at Response to the Secretary of State's Further Proposed Changes - October 2007.

Council rejects development plan for north of Harlow

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