Verulam Residents Association

To keep this front page short, please find the newsletter here.

The Association’s Annual General Meeting for this year will be held on Friday 3rd April 2009 in the hall at Prae Wood School. The meeting will commence at 7.30 pm and the Committee invite members to join them for refreshments from 7.00 pm.

The agenda is available here.

The minutes of the previous AGM - on Friday 18 April 2008 - are available here.

The findings of the appeals hearing are published by the council here, but to save you time we have an extract of the relevant pages here. These “Appeals Digests” were released on Monday 7th April 2008.

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To make this blog shorter, the newsletter has been stored here.

The Association’s Annual General Meeting for this year will be held on Friday 18 April 2008 in the hall at Prae Wood School. The meeting will commence at 7.30 pm and the Committee invite members to join them for refreshments from 7.00 pm.

The agenda is available here and the minutes of the previous AGM - on 27 April 2007 - are available here.

On 21 February 2008, the Planning Inspector announced his decision on the appeal lodged by the developers Hallam Land against the St Albans Council’s refusal to allow building on King Harry Lane Playing Fields. The Inspector said that, following the hearing held in St Albans on 16-18 January 2008, he had decided to allow Hallam to build their proposed so-called ‘Retirement Community’ on the part of the site adjacent to King Harry Lane (approximately one-third of the total area of the site.) This overturned the two unanimous decisions by the Council’s Planning Committee in February 2006 and March 2007.
The ‘Retirement Community’ will consist of:
- a 40 bed Care Home
- 45 extra care/assisted living units, being 1 and 2 bed flats
- 65 houses, restricted to purchasers aged 55 and over (all leasehold) and consisting of seven 4 bed units, twenty six 3 bed units and thirty two 2 bed units
- 16 key worker units, being 1 bed flats
- Community facilities including swimming pool, gymnasium, day centre and therapy rooms.

At the Meeting of the Council’s Plans Central Committee on 26 March, Hallam Land’s proposals to develop KHL Playing Fields were unanimously rejected.

The Association’s Annual General Meeting for this year will be held on Friday 27 April 2007 in the hall at Prae Wood School. The meeting will commence at 7.30 pm and the Committee invite members to join them for refreshments from 7.00 pm.

The agenda is available here and the minutes of the previous AGM - on 21 April 2006 - are available here.

Changes were made to the estate’s bus services at the beginning of September without warning causing inconvenience to a number of residents including school children. The services are paid for from Council Tax and it was the decision of the County Council. They have explained that the reduction in expenditure was the cause but have not justified the lack of consultation. They say the lack of notice was due to the changes being ‘minor’.

At a meeting held with a number of residents in late February, including bus users, the County Council manager responsible for services on the estate stated that residents could also use the 861 service despite it appearing to be a scholars’ service. The 320 also is routed through the estate on a few journeys.

Due to the poor timekeeping the County Council is proposing a new timetable which would see services operating one way entering the Estate via Abbey Avenue. This approach was tried previously and abandoned after protests.

A new application to build on the King Harry Playing fields was made on 11 December 2006. The reference number is 5/2006/2729 and can be found on the Council’s website.

Only a third to half the field is planned in Phase 1 - this is the part nearest to King Harry Lane. A care home and residential homes for over 55s plus 16 key worker units are planned. This should put less traffic onto King Harry Lane at rush hours than in the previous applications.

However it is phase 2 and particularly the lack of information about it which gives cause for concern. Phase 1 leaves two roads in place for Phase 2 to be added.

The three week period for objections expires on Friday 16th February. Objections are only taken into consideration on certain grounds.