Hertfordshire Charrette - an eye-opening step in the right direction

12.22.46pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 23rd Jul 2008

Nigel Quinton, Parliamentary Candidate for Hitchin & Harpenden, has spoken enthusiastically about the University of Hertfordshire's contribution to the debate on how to fit a quart into a pint pot - or in other words, how to fit another 100,000 houses into Hertfordshire under the East of England Plan.

"I am fully behind the decision by the County Council, and that of St Albans City & District Council, who have lodged separate appeals for a Judicial Review of the East of England Plan (or the Regional Spatial Strategy, RSS for short). However, we also need to be realistic that the appeals might fail. In that case we will have to accommodate the extra housing and the Charrette's conclusions show how this can be done in a way which is least damaging to Hertfordshire and our existing communities."

The University ran a "Charrette" recently, aimed at brainstorming some possible development solutions led by inspirational American planner Andres Duany, who is a champion of integrated planning, sustainability and, above all, good design.

The fruit of their labours will be two "books". The first is a presentation of six options identified as potential solutions to the development "problem". The second is a new "planning guidance document" to be titled "Getting it Wrong - How NOT to build in Herts" containing 70 or more examples the team has gathered of planning mistakes across the county. Nigel believes that both of these documents should be required reading for anyone with an interest in the future of our county.

The exercise has highlighted three of the six options as better, more sustainable, ways of building housing in Hertfordshire. Two of these three will be controversial as they will mean building on greenbelt land but under the RSS loss of some of our green belt is inevitable. One long term solution could be a new garden city, located in the eastern half of the county where there is space available, and a project of this size would by its nature force government to provide the new infrastructure that would be necessary to support it. A more interesting idea is the development of "garden villages" close to but clearly distinct from existing settlements, with an emphasis on the village as a means of increasing local food production, with allotments, smallholdings, market gardens even. These would be a far better alternative than letting the developers simply bolt on extensions to the edge of our existing towns.

The best solution according to the study is to intensify our existing town centres through urban renewal. Stevenage and Hatfield were identified as two "failed" new towns that needed redevelopment, and a convincing case was put that housing density could be significantly increased at the same time as the urban environment is improved.

Nigel summed up: "Unfortunately these ideas have no chance of coming to fruition under the current system whereby each district is simply charged with somehow finding a way to build the numbers laid down in the RSS. It will need a coherent, planned approach at a scale that is appropriate - at county rather than district level. It is to be hoped that Herts County Council, who sponsored the event, can show some leadership."