19 Apr Public Inquiry – Wednesday 19th April
UPDATE FOR WEDNESDAY 19th APRIL
A summary of today’s events:
The day started from where it left off yesterday – Paul Stinchcombe v Steve Connell, still discussing the affordability of the Polo (Addison Park) discounted homes, with Paul producing various examples of how key workers could allegedly afford these homes.
Not very convincing.
After two hours it was the turn of Keep Chiswell Green.
Our transport expert David Walpole started and gave a good explanation of the lack of local infrastructure to meet the demands of the proposed developments, why the cycle mitigation proposals won’t work, how the bus stops are too far away, and why the bus is better than the Abbey Flyer to get to Watford.
After lunch Matthew Henderson (Charlie’s assistant) cross examined David, who would not agree with the proposal for traffic lights at the double mini roundabout. They had a long debate re sustainability, agreeing that Chiswell Green is a sustainable location with good bus travel choices, but little employment opportunity in the village.
Stuart Fray then gave an impressive illustrated presentation on local traffic congestion and air pollution, but Matthew got him to agree that new development could not solve pre existing traffic problems, but it could make them worse.
Finally John Clemow gave the example of what has happened at Colney Heath. There, an Inspector allowed a development on Green Belt. This has lead to a flood of applications for more development in the locality, using the Inspector’s decision as a precedent.
John’s point is that if Inspector Boniface allows either (or both) of the applications in front of him, a similar flood of applications would be expected from developers keen to build in Chiswell Green.
KCG continues tomorrow with Shirani first on.
Scheduled start time is 9:30am.
The link for the recording of today’s webcast is:
https://stalbans.public-i.tv/
Every day the Inquiry will be live-streamed so will be available to view online at:
https://stalbans.public-i.tv/
Further Inquiry details and documents are available on the SADC website at:
https://www.stalbans.gov.uk/
We hope to see you in the Council Chamber!
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