Land at Castle Hill adjacent to BCC
As members may be aware from September last year, Taylor Wimpey have agreed to purchase land from the farmer that sits immediately adjacent to BCC. The cricket field and the car park immediately adjacent to the pavilion are not part of the application but as the driveway provides for means of access, Taylor Wimpey as the new owner of the land need to reorganise the way it operates to provide access to the cricket field. Without going into too much detail, a planning application in Chaulden in HH requires that TW provide land for a site of alternative natural greenspace SANG. The land adjacent to BCC is the site chosen by TW for this purpose.
SANG require provision of a car park and as may be noted from the attached, the car park will be situated in the field to the rear of the pavilion and access will share the roadway from Castle Hill. The changes will result in about 12/15 car spaces being lost to BCC usage at the Castle Hill end of the driveway.
I suspect most members will be curious about how a car park could be built in a site of AONB but it does pose the risk of increased traffic, possible anti-social behaviour (witness previous issues on land off New Road) and likely changes to the parking regime on Castle Hill.
BCC rights on the field are unaffected but the loss of some parking spaces and changes to the junction will have an impact.
Should members wish to lodge any comment on the application, comments may be accepted up until the 10th January so time is limited.
The link for the planning application is here: https://planning.dacorum.gov.uk/publicaccess/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=S5M54AFOH9I00&activeTab=summary
For the document that accompanies it, click here: 6667_115_C_SANG Landscape Strategy.pdf
Tim Buckley - Chairman BCC
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