Hatfield Garden Village Expansion
- by: Garden Village Preservation Society
- recipient: Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council
To stop development on green belt land and avoid additional stress on an already over-stretched local infrastructure.
This petition is to oppose the proposed development from Welwyn and Hatfield Council to build 2,000 new properties along with a Gypsy and Traveller site of sufficient scale to accommodate 15 pitches, a new neighbourhood centre and more.
This will have a devastating effect on not only our local community but other surrounding areas.
We would appreciate as many signatures as possible. You may also contact Welwyn and Hatfield Council as well as local councillors to voice your concerns.
Thank you.
http://consult.welhat.gov.uk/portal/planning_policy/local_plan_consultation_november_2012/lfhoua?pointId=s1348066028948#section-s1348066028948
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Dear Cllr Perkins
We the undersigned strongly object to the proposed plans to build on the green belt land surrounding Hatfield Garden Village. The following are just some of the objections we have to this proposal:
· Our village has already tripled in size in recent years. This expansion would see it triple again.
· The loss of surrounding greenbelt land, something that attracted our residents when looking to buy in the area. Even our MP has promised that there would be no building on Green Belt sites.
· Loss of valuable farming land (this country cannot feed itself - why would we reduce our available arable land).
· The loss of wildlife on green belt (including bats).
· The loss of valuable recreational spaces.
· Destruction of local footpaths and bridleways.
· Already inadequate local services (doctors, dentists, police, transport, etc) will be stretched even further..
· Trains into London are already overcrowded. This expansion would add to an already over-stretched public transport system.
· Disruption to local primary school. Green Lanes School will not completely recover from the last influx of new students until 2016 - and that was with an additional 700 houses.
· Massive increase in local traffic on totally unsuitable roads. Approximately 3000 additional cars on our local roads would increase the risk of accidents, add to the pollution and noise created by the traffic on the A1 and increase the congestion on what are already very busy roads.
· The population in Welwyn Hatfield has dropped by approximately 4000 people in the past few years. Why do we need more houses.
· Houses will be bought to rent to students. As has already been proven by the exodus of families from Salisbury village, this doesn't work.
· A traveller's site is not wanted by either the locals or the travellers themselves. 60% of the traveller community would prefer to live on an expanded existing site (as per the council's own research.
· To quote our own MP in a BBC interview, Hatfield is a 'broken town'. We all know this to be true and adding an additional 6-8000 new residents will place terrible and acceptable stress on our 'broken town'. We need a new town centre, one that can stand alongside its far richer cousin in Welwyn Garden City. Something that will make the residents proud to live in the town and attract more businesses, thus encouraging economic prosperity in an area that needs it more than most in the county.
We don't need these houses. We have a falling population and enough brown sites to cope with half the so called requirement. Leave it at that. If it's the student population that needs catering for, do not put them in amongst the local community - they do not mix well and you will destroy the communities that have existed here for years. Hat1 is an easy option because it's a big one-stop site - but it's not the right option and you will find overwhelming opposition from the residents.
We would appreciate it if the above objections were taken into account when considering the proposal.
Yours sincerely
Paul Ward
Chairman
Garden Village Preservation Society
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