Yeah, we've received apologies from Councillor Darr and Councillor Britton.
Right, thank you very much.
Item two, leaders announcements.
As always, it is just a reminder to push the red button and
speak into the microphone, the usual thing.
Item three is minutes of the 26th of March,
24, which is on pages five to nine of the agenda pack.
So, comments, questions, thoughts, Miley.
Thank you, leader.
I propose that we accept these minutes as a true record of the last meeting.
Thank you very much, any seconders?
Okay, thank you Sarah.
So, the minutes have been proposed and seconded.
Can we have a show of hands, four please?
Thank you, anyone against or abstaining?
No, thank you very much.
So that's carried, thank you.
Item four is declarations of interest.
Are there any declarations of interest for tonight?
No, okay, thank you very much.
Item five is the Hertfordshire Development Quality Charter,
which is outlined on pages 10 to 31 of the agenda pack.
And I'm gonna hand over to Councillor Vicki Glover-Ward to present the report.
Thank you, leader.
The Hertfordshire Development Quality Charter was launched by
the Hertfordshire Growth Board in 2023.
It aims to raise the standards of construction in Hertfordshire.
The charter set seven pledges focused on both design and sustainability.
To date, seven local authorities within Hertfordshire and
two developers have either endorsed the charter or formally agreed for
it to be a material planning consideration in development management decision making.
Whilst the charter does not seek to replace or
require higher standards than current regulations allow,
it does encourage developers to be more ambitious to demonstrate
excellence in design and sustainability.
While it's not a mandatory requirement, but voluntary to sign up,
it continues to show the benefit of joint working and
shared views across our district, borough, and county neighbours.
In advance of the update to the district plan and
its associated district design code, it is important to ensure that
the council employs as many tools as possible to secure high quality
development and to set a benchmark for the standards expected.
The charter is a step on the road to demonstrate this.
I therefore propose to the executive that we recommend to council that
the Hertfordshire Development Quality Charter be agreed as a material consideration for
development management purposes and that developers, landowners, and
housing associations in East Hart's be encouraged to voluntarily sign
and commit to the sustainability and design pledges in the charter.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Could I have a second, please?
Thanks, Tim.
Comments, questions, thoughts?
Chris.
Thank you.
You say it's a material consideration, but not mandatory.
Could you sort of first explain how that works, if it's material, but not mandatory?
Second thing is I hope we have some ambition to be going further than
what in some cases is quite vague in some of those in that charter,
maybe necessarily so because we're looking at a rather large area, of course.
And I suppose finally, it's not compulsory, therefore developers
don't have to sign up to just to confirm that.
So taking the last question first, it's not compulsory.
Developers do not have to sign up to it, and it is entirely voluntary.
As something that it's entirely voluntary, it therefore becomes
something that is not necessarily enforceable.
As you are aware, we are looking to update our district plan.
In tandem with that, we are going to be producing a district design code,
which will be mandatory.
We are currently discussing the timeframes for that, and we hope
to be able to advise members of that shortly in the next few weeks.
And then on it being a material consideration,
I'm going to ask one of the planners to explain exactly what that means,
because they've got the degrees in it and I haven't.
Material consideration relates to the weight you can give it in the decision-making process
and planning applications.
So for the district plan, it's part of our development plan,
so that has the most weight you can give, because applications have to be in accordance
with the district plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise.
But there can be lots of other guidance that is produced that we can adopt
as material consideration that help provide guidance and direction of travel
as part of the planning process.
So we're at the stage, working with all Hertfordshire authorities,
where everybody's at a different stage of preparing their local plans.
We thought it was appropriate to have something in place as a benchmark across the county,
and therefore it's better to have some sort of guidance in place to push forward
to applicants rather than nothing at all.
And from our perspective, you know, actually it should be a no-brainer
to a lot of applicants and developers, because they should be looking to exceed minimum standards
anyway, particularly if they want to bring forward high-quality developments.
Thank you.
So just to clarify, so with a sort of an SPD, are they sort of new or are they kind of...
Yeah, we don't necessarily say exactly how much weight you give it,
but if you think about the district plan has kind of the most weight,
because that planning policy that's gone through a structured process
in terms of how it's prepared and it's been examined,
you can prepare SPDs or supplementary plans in the future
that hang off those policies in the district plan,
but other guidance can also be agreed as part of the process.
You wouldn't necessarily use some of that guidance to refuse a planning application,
though you'd say it was a helpful part of the assessment,
but you wouldn't necessarily rely on it to refuse a planning application
where you would with some policies in the district plan.
That's great, thank you.
Marnie?
Thank you, Leader. I welcome this most warmly.
I think it's a very good step in the right direction,
and when you consider the built environment is responsible for 25% of greenhouse gas emissions across our district,
anything that we can do to encourage more sustainable buildings which will reduce those emissions
and also make more comfortable houses for people, I think that is to be welcomed.
And I'm glad the things which are mentioned as the orientation of the buildings in relation to the sun,
things like that can be done, properly sealed windows can be done,
that there are many things which make buildings more sustainable,
and I'm glad they're all mentioned here, and we're encouraging builders and developers to aspire to these higher sustainability standards.
So I welcome it most warmly.
It does show intent, doesn't it?
And if it's across so many districts and boroughs, it makes sense.
Yeah, I mean, the sustainability standard is that the designs exceed minimum building regulations.
The primary document is probably partel, which sets out how much insulation and everything else is needed within the houses.
And because this sets the bar higher than building regulations,
that hopefully will mean that we get more sustainable buildings.
Very laudable.
Carolyn?
I have been asked to read this out as a sort of Labour group statement.
Hertfordshire Development Quality Charter seeks to provide a benchmark for high quality and sustainable development in Hertfordshire.
We support, fully support this, but there are some disappointing flaws in the charter
that we would like the council to take up with the Heart's Growth Board.
On page three, the growth agenda states that the Hertford County Council are planning to build 100,000 homes, et cetera,
but fails to make any reference to the local planning authorities in part,
which have the responsibility for planning and work with the developers.
The charter is largely intended for planning authorities, so this is a serious omission.
The charter fails to mention part's own design review panel, which has been mentioned already,
which is critical to a charter, and they're only, it's critical to the charter.
There are only two majors on design.
The first paragraph about the high quality design means, what high quality design means is inadequate.
It doesn't amplify what is meant by how development works as a place,
which should refer to access for all, connections with facilities, safety, sociability, play,
community services, the mixture of business and residential, robust buildings, adaptable buildings,
attractiveness, managing of waste, so it doesn't refer to any of those.
It doesn't explain what is expected in a master planning or urban design process.
It says developers may have their own in-house design standards.
Yes, the developers' standards are inadequate to ensure long-term place quality.
Developers' standards are driven by cost, costumers and construction,
and standards in flexible house types.
The charter does not refer to the National Design Guide.
Have I heard that referred to tonight already?
Not sure, which is a key document.
The national model design code is not the key reference.
This is a serious omission.
The need to submit a design and access statement is already covered by the MPPF requirements, so it's super to us.
The most important part of the design pages is as follows.
Major sites will be informed by community engagement and the design review panel
has part of the pre-application planning application process.
Major sites must explain the long-term stewardship strategy for their development.
That's a quote.
There should be much more about good practice community engagement to amplify this.
A pre-application design review panel is a critical requirement and is almost lost in this text that I just mentioned.
The heart that should design review panels is set up for this purpose.
There are other panels that can be used and none of this is mentioned.
Long-term stewardship needs amplifying with guidance.
The report to executive. The report has been written by the sustainability expert.
It lacks urban design explanation.
The report keeps putting greenhouse gases and energy first.
This charter is about quality of development in the round.
The report does not discuss design, nor the concept of place quality.
It does not refer to the district plan references to quality.
It should refer to the fact that we use the heart to design review panel
and that developers do not adequately address the independent advice.
I'm sorry, this is such a lot, but I'm perfectly happy to submit this in writing.
Nearly done.
It supports with the Easthearts Council planning agency.
But the charter should help to change the way that schemes are conceived
and negotiated before planning application.
The report should mention the Cambridge charter,
which is a model of the cultural chain of development.
Before the report goes to full council, the report should be amended to cover these points.
The recommendation needs to be stronger, not just a material consideration for local planning or quality,
but to help culture change and development processes.
The encouragement of developers to commit should be much more direct without stressing voluntarily.
And I'm finished.
And I know there's an awful lot in that.
As I said, I'm pretty happy to submit this paper, but I do think there are some good points in there.
Anyway, thank you.
Thank you for those very detailed points.
It's probably worth noting that the charter covers a whole of Hertfordshire and 10 planning authorities, not just one.
So specific references to each of the district plans would have made it a little bit excessive.
We will take those points into consideration, but I don't think that at this stage of the charter,
we can go back to the Hertfordshire Growth Board and get the whole thing rewritten.
And I would remind the member that we are doing a district plan review and we are doing a design code specifically for East Hearts.
And all of those points will be very material and a good consideration for incorporation in those documents,
which are specific to East Hearts and not to the whole of Hertfordshire.
Just to add to that, it was intentional not to be a detailed design document.
It was about setting a charter mark and working with not repeating material and working with local authorities in the existing material that they've got.
There were discussions with applicants and developers about how detailed you should go.
And it was thought that at this stage, for Hertfordshire as a whole, this was a good starting point.
It will be reviewed in the future, but it's not intended to be a detailed design guide that you would expect local authorities to produce.
And as Councillor Glover-Ward has said, a lot of those points will be picked up as part of us preparing a design code, district wide design code.
Thank you for the response. Yes, I think one of the main things that we wanted to emphasise was the fact that we wanted the public to be more involved,
which I think is the aim of the Green Council in any case. Thank you.
Thanks very much. Any other questions, comments, thoughts? No. OK. All right.
So thank you very much for the question. After any debate, we can ask for the recommendations for this item, which are detailed on page 10 of the Agenda Pack.
Can we have a show of hands for those in support, please? Thank you.
Yeah, a seconder. And anyone against? And anyone abstaining?
Thanks. Thank you very much. That's passed. Right. Item six on the agenda is the Walken Neighbourhood Plan first revision.
This is for adoption and it's covered in pages 32 to 156 in the Agenda Pack.
I've been told to remind everyone, please note the recommendation in the report needs to be amended to say to recommend to council that.
Now, Vicki, Councillor Glover-Ward, back to you again. Thank you, Leader.
The Walken Neighbourhood Plan was adopted in 2018, and this is the first revision of that plan that has been undertaken.
Walken Parish Council has submitted this alteration to take into account the adoption of the district plan and also the impact of growth east of Stevenage.
The changes to the plan focus primarily on protecting the character of the village and the natural environment,
including the identification of a countryside gap to the west of the village, new non-designated heritage assets,
two new local green spaces and the creation of a tree charter to protect important trees in the neighbourhood area.
The plan does not allocate sites for development because the district plan housing requirement has already been achieved in the village.
In the examination report, the examiner praises the neighbourhood plan revision for positively seeking to protect the environment,
for aiming to improve the amenity of local people and for conserving local heritage and landscape.
He concluded that the changes are not sufficient to warrant a referendum and recommends that the neighbourhood plan is adopted,
subject to some minor modifications to ensure the neighbourhood plan aligns with national guidance.
It is therefore considered that the neighbourhood plan will be a positive addition to the East Arts Development Management process.
As such, I propose that the executive recommend to council that the Walken Neighbourhood Plan first revision is formally made
and will replace the current Walken Neighbourhood Plan 2018.
Thank you very much, Vicky. Are you happy to propose that?
Yep, you do propose it, I'm sorry. Can I have a seconder, please?
Myne, thank you very much. Comments or questions? Thoughts?
No, I'm sure we all welcome it, don't we? It's got to be a very positive step forward for the community.
Every neighbourhood plan's really helped to kind of get over to developers what those residents and communities want.
So it's a very positive thing. Yeah, thank you very much.
So if there's no questions, so the recommendation for this item is detailed on pages 32 of the Agenda Pack.
Can I have a show of hands to indicate whether you support, please?
Thank you very much. Anyone against or abstaining? No, thank you.
So that's carried. The final item is Item 7, Urgent Business.
And I understand there's no urgent business. So this concludes tonight's meeting at 19.20, I believe.
[ Silence ]
