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Stop Harlow North: Update!

Remember: despite extensive public consultation, culminating in the recommendation of a government appointed inspector against building homes north of Harlow - the government still plans a major development at 'Harlow North': as set out in the draft East of England Plan), We believe at least 5,000 individual submissions objecting to the current policy for massive expansion of Harlow have been sent to GO-East, including over 2,650 responses received via www.stopharlownorth.com. Well done and thank you - we have kept the pressure up and campaign profile high

So what next? We were due to receive the final version of The Plan by now, but the Government has been forced to consider The Plan in the light of the EU Habitats Directive:

'The main aim of the Directive is to promote the maintenance of biodiversity by requiring Member States to take measures to maintain or restore natural habitats and wild species at a favourable conservation status, introducing robust protection for those habitats and species of European importance'

We now understand this will result in an imminent further consultation exercise - so please stand ready - watch out for our emailings, posters and leafleting: Its vital we build on the good work and results already achieved.

The Harlow North and associated debates are very much alive - campaign committee members and our village treasures (such as the Hunsdon Meads on BBC TV) have received good coverage in the local and national media.

Please do get in touch if you want to help our campaign.

Christine Law – Parish Clerk – 01279 411646

Harlow North

The East of England Plan contains proposals for “at least 10,000” dwellings but Ropemaker Properties Limited (BP Pension Fund) have put forward a proposal for an urban extension to the north of the existing town of Harlow covering over 3,700 acres of greenfield land (some Green belt) with approximately 25,000 dwellings and 60,000 residents at densities of up to 40 dwellings per hectare equivalent to 20 houses on a single football pitch

It will engulf Eastwick and Gilston and come right up to the edge of
High Wych, Hunsdon, Sawbridgeworth and Widford.

Please visit the following sites for more detailed information and views.

www.speakuphertfordshire.org.uk - Provides information from Herts County Council to help you respond to the East of England Plan by 16 March.

www.stopharlownorth.com - Full background and information on STOP Harlow North group’s campaign - research, views, actions and the overall timetable of events.

www.cpreherts.org.uk - The Government's big review of house building suggests we may need to double the number of houses being built each year. The Campaign to Protect Rural England disagrees and thinks such house building will harm the countryside unacceptably, without solving our housing problems.

To see a map in PDF format showing Ropemaker Properties Ltd land holdings in our Parish please click HERE this requires you to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your PC. This can be freely downloaded from here www.adobe.com Note this is rather a large file and it may be more convenient to download it to your computer for veiwing offline. This is done by right clicking the HERE link and selecting “save target as” you can then select a folder to save to in the window that appears.