Up to thirty minutes will be made available for questions from members of the public on issues relating to the work of the Committee and to receive any petitions.
Minutes:
The following question was received from Mr Russell Haggar and the Vice-Chair as Portfolio Holder responded with a response:
“An application to register Singlers Marsh in Welwyn as a Village Green was filed in 2020. The land is owned by WHBC and is designated in the current Local Plan as green belt, a local nature reserve and a local wildlife site (as confirmed by the then Head of Planning, Colin Haigh, in March of this year). None of these protections are sufficiently strong as to guarantee to preserve the land’s undeveloped nature indefinitely – these designations can be removed at the council’s instigation whenever it chooses.
At my suggestion, WHBC enquired of Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) last October about the additional safeguards conferred by becoming a registered village green. HCC confirmed to Colin Haigh that “the registration of land as Town or Village Green offers it significant protection” as stated in an email dated 8 October 2020.
HCC’s consultation on the application ran from 1 September to 12 October this year. Before, during and after the consultation period, repeated attempts to discuss the application with the council’s Head of Environment have been rebuffed. Rather than engage collaboratively, a decision was made to take an adversarial approach. An opportunity to work together to decide the best outcome for Singlers Marsh from an environmental standpoint has been squandered.
WHBC eventually filed an objection to the application, which will likely now lead to a public inquiry. Given that the flimsy evidence cited in the objection can easily be refuted, this inquiry will likely be a straightforward waste of taxpayers’ money. However, the underlying issue in its objection is that WHBC states that a village green will serve Singlers Marsh less well than being designated as a nature reserve. After extensive research, and having checked with HCC itself, I can find no evidence that this is an “either-or” situation. I have asked WHBC to unpack this statement, but they have declined.
It is clear that becoming a registered village green will give Singlers Marsh substantial additional protection from development, and will not interfere with its management as a nature reserve. Why does WHBC refuse to discuss the application with its local residents, and what is the basis for its claim that the lesser protection of not being a village green is the best situation for Singlers Marsh?”
Answer:
I would like to thank Mr Haggar for his question.
The statutory Registration Authority for the purposes of village green applications is Hertfordshire County Council. Once the Registration Authority receives an application it must follow the process which is set out within the legislation.
As Singler’s Marsh is owned by this Council, the Council has 2 roles to perform. Firstly, as local planning authority and secondly, as landowner. As landowner, the Council was asked to submit representations to Hertfordshire County Council as the Registration Authority. As landowner, the Council is under a legal duty to apply a separate set of considerations from that of the local planning authority, although the same organisation. Having considered the requirements of the relevant legislation this Council as landowner reached the view that these requirements had not been met and, in light of this, the application to register Singler’s Marsh as a village green should be objected to.
It should be noted that this Council’s representations are not the only representations which have been made to the Registration Authority and, therefore, a public enquiry would be a possibility even had this Council not submitted representations to the Registration Authority.
As this is a statutory process, it would not be appropriate for this Council to deal with other interested parties outside of the formal procedures. Ultimately, it will be a matter for the Registration Authority to decide if the application to register Singler’s Marsh as a village green should be granted or not.