Build the Homes We Need whilst Protecting our Green Belt

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As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, Chorleywood Residents’ Association, along with Residents’ Associations across the district, believes TRDC’s proposed Local Plan contains plans for significantly too much housing resulting in unnecessary damage to our environment and, in particular, Green Belt. 

Independent analysis shows that the Three Rivers district needs approximately 4,800 new homes over the fifteen-year period of the plan to provide sufficient homes for local residents including ensuring that there are enough homes to bring the proportion of the population in all age groups who are householders back to at least that seen at the start of this century. 

The plan put forward for consultation contains approximately double this amount, resulting in more land being handed over to development than necessary and, potentially, new homes being built without an obvious demand.

We call upon Three Rivers District Council to withdraw this plan and revise it to better protect our environment whilst delivering the homes we need.

If you agree, please sign the petition at: http://chng.it/2Rn7drtf 

(The petition uses https://www.change.org/ and after signing you are given an option to “chip in”.  This is optional, and if you choose to do this any money you donate goes to change.org and not to the residents’ associations)

The more support there is for this petition, the more likely it is that Three Rivers District Council will listen to our voices and protect our environment.

Some residents have asked if the Council withdrawing the current plan might result in a revised plan adding back sites that are currently excluded.  We believe the opposite is true. 

TRDC taking forward a plan with materially lower numbers of new homes is the most effective way to keep the excluded sites out of the plan.  If the Council is not fully committed to such a plan, to properly protect Green Belt with lower housing numbers, other sites might be added back before the plan is finalised – including the currently excluded sites around Chorleywood. 

The best way for us to protect Chorleywood’s countryside character is for TRDC to fully reflect the land constraints in a district which is 76% Green Belt, by using the government’s stated, and recently restated, policy to allow such adjustments to be made.