Diary dates

Monday 3^rd March 2008 at 8 pm.

Our AGM at Brookmans Park United Reformed Church. Details overleaf

Saturday 11^th Oct 2008 at noon

NM Memorial Hall. Our 23^rd Michaelmas Lunch. Tickets available via our Secretary in September.

Gypsy and travellers site on

Bulls Lane, Bell Bar?

The Government requires all local authorities to provide more pitches for gypsies and travellers – one pitch per family with up to two caravans. The East of England Regional Assembly recommends 17 more pitches in Welwyn Hatfield by 2011.

In 2007, consultants reported to Welwyn Hatfield Council that they could recommend only one site in the whole borough to put the required 17 pitches, and that was on Green Belt land at Bulls Lane, Bell Bar.

In Spring 2008, the council is expected to consult everyone about this. Please ensure that you make your views known to us so we can pass them on.

East of England Plan

The adopted EEP is due to be published early in 2008. We wait to see how successful our campaign and the ‘NoWayTo10K’ campaign have been. Welwyn Hatfield Council estimate that any figure above about 5,000 will have to be built on Green Belt land. Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield may be designated Key Centres for Development and Change.

At the time of writing, it seems that the sewerage system is already working at near capacity. The QE2 hospital is being downgraded with many services being transferred to the Lister Hospital, Stevenage. On top of that, no money is available to widen the A1(M) near Stevenage to cope with the extra traffic.

STOP PRESS

We had to stop the printing of the original version of this Newsletter in order to include this item

Waste handling site at New Barnfield, Travellers Lane?

EU directives require more waste recycling by 2020. Herts County Council must provide 12 new waste handling sites. Some will be used to consolidate waste from several vehicles into one huge skip for handling elsewhere. Some will be for sorting waste, and some will have an incinerator.

48 possible sites have been identified including one at New Barnfield, Travellers Lane. This is in the Green Belt.

It is premature to even guess which use would be made of this site if it is selected.

The County Council has just started consulting everyone, with comments required by 10^th March 2008. The papers and response forms are available at County Hall, all district & borough council offices and all Herts County libraries.

See overleaf for more details.

This Society thinks that the New Barnfield site could create tremendous traffic problems. At our AGM we will provide response forms.

Our successes in 2007

Planning applications - In 2007 there were 191 applications in the parish. We objected to or commented on 25 of them (13%), with 14 refused or withdrawn,

6 approved and 5 still to be decided.

In 2006 Welwyn Hatfield Council refused a second application for a ‘country house’ at Friday Grove, Bluebridge Road (south of Brookmans Park). At the appeal inquiry in 2007 we spoke as did a Parish Councillor and a Gobions Woodland Trustee. The appeal was dismissed. The Planning Inspector included several of our comments in his report, showing that due notice was taken of our opinion.

Herts County Council

Waste management to 2020

Your comments must be received at County Hall by Monday 10^th March 2008.

Hertfordshire County Council is consulting all residents on how best to manage waste in the period to 2020. You can:

· use the appropriate on-line response form on www.hertsdirect.org/wasteplanningconsultation.

· send you comments by email to cdu@hertscc.gov.uk, or

· use a copy of the paper response form available on the internet or at libraries etc.

The various documents and response forms are available at County Hall, District and Borough Council offices, and all Herts County libraries. This Society recommends that you concentrate on the ‘Waste site allocations preferred options’ documents.

Background

In 2006/7 the county handled 600,000 tonnes of household waste, of which 360,000 tonnes (60%) went into landfill, 109,000 tonnes (18%) were recycled, 89,000 tonnes (15%) were composted and 37,000 tonnes (6%) were incinerated. Commercial waste was over 1 million tonnes, and construction and demolition waste was over 1.5 million tonnes.

Existing landfill sites may be full by 2009 and there are few suitable new sites. The Council aims to increase recycling and composting from 33% to 50% by 2020. Currently the figure is only one third in this county. Local authorities have been set limits on the amount of waste sent for landfill and will be fined £150 for every tonne over that target. Waste is expected to grow by 2% a year, so the county must reduce landfill and provide new facilities for handling this rubbish.

Possible sites

The county needs up to 12 new sites by 2020, and the consultation document lists 48 possible sites, with six in Welwyn Hatfield and five in Hertsmere. The potential Welwyn Hatfield sites include council-owned land at New Barnfield on Travellers Lane, Welham Green. A map of the site is overleaf. The potential Hertsmere sites include Cranborne Road in Potters Bar, and Tyttenhanger Quarry on Coursers Road near London Colney.

There is a need for both small and large sites, with priority being given to extensions of existing sites. No decision has been made on what use might be made of each site but it could be for waste transfer, or sorting, or incineration. Waste that cannot be recycled will be mechanically sorted, some of it burned to produce energy, and some incinerated, with the residue going into landfill.

Council Taxes will rise even more if we do not reduce the amount of waste produced, recycle more, and alternative means of disposal are not produced. This consultation will give everyone of us the opportunity to make our views known about recycling, excess packaging, plastic bags, etc.

New Barnfield, Travellers Lane

The advantage to the county is that it already owns this land. It is not next to housing.

The main concern of this Society is that use of this site for waste handling will cause a significant increase in the number of very heavy vehicles using South Way, Hatfield and all surrounding roads. Although South Way was deliberately built to become a dual carriageway, there would have to be an upgrade of the junction with the A1(M) to enable traffic to and from the north to get off and back on the motorway. Roads to the east of this site are not designed to carry this weight of heavy traffic.