King Harry Lane Playing Fields
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.
Residents contributed most generously to legal costs.
All the Reasons for Refusal submitted by the Council Officers to the Inspector could be satisfied by financial contributions from the developer, except one which involved a modification to a building. None of the Reasons produced by the Residents Association were included by the Officers in the Appeal Document.
Bus services on Verulam Estate
Changes were made to the estate’s bus services from 3 September 2007. The revised route is a clockwise circuit around Abbey Avenue and Mayne Avenue. The Committee contacted Keith White, the County Council Manager responsible for bus services and feedback from bus users is requested.
The Tree Warden for the Verulam Estate is Sue Frearson who has volunteered to take on this monitoring role. Any further volunteers should contact Sue on 01727 761878.
Neighbourhood Watch Scheme (NHW)
Residents should be aware that the local Ward Constable has changed from PC Jodie Dalzell to PC Phil Snook. At the present time our PCSO (Police Community Support Officer) remains as
Jill Brown but she is due to join the Hertfordshire Constabulary in the near future. Who will be allocated to our area is unknown at present.
Crime on the estate continues to decrease (from 2006 to 2007 it went down by some 18%) and we are now classified in 8th position out of 20. This is good but with a figure of 77 crimes recorded in this area we can do better. The OWL (Online Watch Link) has developed very nicely on the estate with many households signed up to the system. However there are still 5 roads which do not have an NHW co-ordinator and several roads need more households on the scheme:- Abbey, Corder, Crossfields, Glevum, Icknield, Jerome, Netherway, St Stephens and Lower Westfields. The messages and guidance of Ken Lane, Area Co-ordinator have been well received. He has been supported by Bob Adams, Trading Standards, who has designated part of Rowlatt Drive as a ‘No Cold Calling Area’ and mounted suitable explanatory Notices. The first local NHW Conference was held in February 2008; there were 5 hours of presentations and workshops which 3 members of the VRA Committee attended, together with the Police and PCSOs.
Recycling Plans
The Council in leaflets notified residents of substantial changes in domestic waste and recycling collections. The garden waste collections will be resumed on 14 March 2008.
‘Core Planning Strategy for St Albans’
The above St Albans Council consultation paper caused considerable concern locally in September 2007. In this document “Area of Search
No. 1: South West St Albans” contained a proposal for a major expansion of the Verulam Estate into the area bounded by the A4147 and the M10. This included up to 900 new homes and a new road linking Blue House Hill roundabout to the M10 along Bedmond Lane to form a St Albans western by-pass.
Special meetings of the VRA Committee were held on his proposal and members of the Committee personally delivered to residents a copy of the leaflet on this issue prepared by Sam Othen of Samian Gate. As a result the number of objections to the proposal sent to the council’s website drastically increased. We must be vigilant in the future as to what happens to this proposal.
Subscriptions
Subscriptions for the year 2008/9 are now due. The Membership Secretary has a group of collectors who will be collecting subscriptions throughout the year or they can be paid direct to the Treasurer, Les Hull, at 7 Claudian Place.