Three Rivers publish their new Local Plan: Preferred Local Plan Lower Housing Growth Option - Protecting More Green belt Land (2023-2041) for consultation

In previous consultations, Three Rivers received over 20,000 responses with many people concerned that the level of sites proposed for development would cause significant harm to the district’s Green belt.

With 76% of the district being in the Green Belt, the Council has put together a new plan which recognises the Green Belt as a constraint and uses every brownfield site they have been able to identify. This means they are going forward with a much lower figure than the government target. This is an aspect of the plan that the KL&DRA and other Residents Associations within Three Rivers have been pushing for, for quite some time, and we are very pleased that the Council has listened.

In summary, the plan includes:

• Reducing the level of housing growth across the plan period to 4,852 dwellings against the government target of 11,466 dwellings, based on:

  • Recalculating the housing target using the Government’s standard method over an 18 year plan period

  • Using the Government target as a starting point and ensuring the required housing number is based on objectively assessed needs

  • A brownfield first approach

  • Deducting an allowance for windfall

  • Using the Green Belt as a constraint

• Grading the Green Belt so that areas where residential development is proposed are restricted to sites graded as Low to Moderate, in terms of the harm that would be caused to the principles of the Green belt

• Due to the revised approach and regarding Kings Langley specifically:

  • The removal of the Numbers Farm site from the plan

  • The retention of the Flower House site in the plan 

The council want residents to have their say on these proposed changes before they finalise and publish their emerging Local Plan.

The KL&DRA believe it is important for residents to respond to the consultation and support the revised approach for the following reasons:

• The Council has recognised the importance of the Green Belt and that the amount of Green Belt in the District is a significant constraint to meeting the Government’s housing target

• The Council has taken the right approach to housing need and used a far more realistic and achievable target than that provided by the Government

• The option put forward by the Council provides sufficient new homes and protects the Green Belt whereas other options would result in a far greater loss of the Green Belt to develop new homes that the local population do not need

• We need residents to make it clear to Government Inspectors that this is the right approach for Three Rivers to take

By responding to the consultation, this will help the Council demonstrate the strength of feeling from residents and will be taken into account by the Planning Inspector when, at a later stage in the process, the plan is Examined in Public. So, to help ensure the plan doesn’t get changed in the future, to the possible detriment of Kings Langley, it is important for residents to respond!

The closing date for responses is: Sunday 10 December 2023.

For further information and help in responding, please refer to our briefing note here

Please note that: Dacorum has also published its Local Plan consultation. Our village is divided physically by the Grand Union Canal, which also forms the boundary between Three Rivers and Dacorum, so both plans have a significant effect on the future of Kings Langley and we would urge residents to respond to the Dacorum consultation as well. Specific information on that plan can be found in our blog post here