After reviewing the full electronic version of the questionnaire, a task which was both time consuming and awkward, we suggest that all respondents should complete the hard copy questionnaire (all residents should have received a copy from East Herts District Council) and return it to the address shown on the questionnaire.
We suggest that Question 1: Development Strategy Options is answered along these lines:
None of the options above is appropriate because they distribute a housing target which has been scrapped. Demand, and its distribution, should be based on population forecasts, infrastructure, the Green Belt and prospects for local employment.
For Question 2: Towns, do not rank the options and complete the comment box as follows:
In the case of Bishop’s Stortford, none of the options is suitable. The strategy proposals for at least another 4,000 homes, with most on the Areas of Special Restraint and the Green Belt, is unacceptable
For Question 3: Villages, make no comment.
For Question 4: Harlow North, tick the 'disagree' box and complete the comment box along these lines:
The coalition government has abolished regional housing targets and specific policies for their distribution. Therefore, the East of England Plan proposals are redundant and no development should take place at Harlow North.
The Civic Federation consider that the basis of the population forecast is unclear, particularly the balance between the resident population and inward migration.
The primary purpose of additional housing should be to meet the needs of the resident population. It seems unlikely that this would require the provision of anything like 12,000 new homes over the next 20 years. Furthermore, the core strategy should not be based on centrally imposed housing targets set by the previous government, which have now been abolished for East Herts and Harlow North.
None of the options identified in the document are acceptable because they take a top down estimate of housing numbers and then attempt to spread it about the district. There should instead be a more informed bottom up calculation of the housing demand which the local population of each major settlement will generate.
This should be accompanied by an assessment of the additional population which each settlement could support in relation to:
Such an assessment is likely to conclude that Bishop's Stortford neither needs nor can support a further 4000 dwellings, as well as identifying that our past share of housing provision has probably absorbed the district’s entire inward migration population movement.
Bishop's Stortford has absorbed over 40% of East Herts housing over the last twenty years, way in excess of the amount needed for growth in households among the residual population. Of the total of 12,000 houses to be provided to 2031, the Local Plan identifies 4000 – a third of the total being provided by Bishop's Stortford. Our town has borne the brunt of new housing, and it is the universal view of our population that this cannot continue.
Given the importance of East Herts Core strategy consultation is to Bishop's Stortford, the Civic Federation would urge all local communities and residents associations to respond to the questionnaire before the closing date of the 25th of November.
Please make sure all your family, friends and acquaintances know about this consultation and ask them to respond as well. Also, please note that each member of a family or each individual resident is entitled to respond. If you need any further copies of the questionnaire, these can be obtained from the Town Council offices.
We need to maximise individual responses so that we send a clear message to East Herts District Council that Bishop's Stortford does not want any more houses.