Council approves plans for 13,000 new homes in Watford
The local authority claims its Local Plan will promote news businesses and keep waterways clean
More than 13,000 new homes will be built across Watford between now and 2038 after councillors approved a major housing blueprint last night.
Provision has been made for a net gain of 13,328 new homes in the Watford Borough Council area due to its new Local Plan which sets out the policies which its members will use to rule on planning applications.
Councillors claimed in a borough council meeting on Monday evening (October 17) that the plan will promote new businesses and keep waterways clean, before applauding the Local Plan’s approval.
The majority Liberal Democrat group voted in favour of the policy, which has taken five years to put together, at the meeting yesterday.
Labour group members abstained and told council leaders they will need to prove the plan has enough “teeth” to prevent developers from going ahead with plans which Watford residents oppose.
Mayor of Watford Peter Taylor (LD) presented the local plan to council members.
He said: “The Local Plan is essential if we are to ensure that decisions about how Watford evolves and grows over time are decided locally.”
Mayor Peter Taylor added: “As a Liberal, I believe that decisions made as close as possible to communities will be better for those communities than those made in the centre.
“Upon adopting this Local Plan, all of its policies will have full weight applied to them.
“In addition, the Local Plan policies will provide ammunition for our planning officers when they are defending members’ decisions at the National Planning Inspectorate in Bristol.”
Councillor Glen Saffery (LD, Woodside) said the plan aims to support new businesses, keep air clean, bring rivers and watercourses “back to life” and give residents better opportunities to stay healthy and active.
Cllr Saffery said: “This plan will not only protect but accentuate our cultural and heritage facilities.
“We will keep the thriving High Street as the lynch pin of our community, and support our hospital’s business case for the refurbishment and expansion we know it so desperately needs.
“It will help us keep our football stadium, the home of the original family club, whose values reflect our community so well in the borough.”
Cllr Saffery urged members to accept that “change is, of course, natural and inevitable” but said after nearly 35 years growing up and living in Watford, the town’s “heart and soul has not changed”.
Across 14 chapters, the Local Plan sets out ambitions for “a sustainable town” between 2021 and 2038.
Included are promises of “a strong economy” and a “sustainable travel town”.
The plan makes provision for a net 13,328 new homes and 110,514 square metres of employment floorspace, which will be centred on three areas – Watford Gateway near Watford Junction station, the town centre, and Colne Valley in the area near Watford General Hospital and Vicarage Road stadium.
The plan notes 94 per cent of the housing built in the borough over the past decade has made use of brownfields land which reflects the “scarcity” of greenfields sites for leisure and nature.
“Early in the stages of the local Plan it was recognised that this trend of brownfield development would continue given the constrained nature of the borough,” the document reads.
Members of both parties in the chamber praised planning officers for their work on the plan.
Cllr Asif Khan (Lab, Leggatts) said: “I have great aspiration that this plan has some teeth when it comes to developers – that it stops developers from overriding social housing, overriding building huge developments or towers while providing very little infrastructure.”
Cllr Nigel Bell (Holywell), Labour group leader, said: “The test of this new plan will be if our residents feel they have more say over planning than they do now.”