27th March 2023

The Colne Valley Regional Park held this event in Iver Village Hall on 9th March 2023 to help the 50 people who attended:

A draft Planning Toolkit was shared to help organisations.

Download Toolkit

You can view the detailed agenda here.

Speakers – presentations and perspectives

We were very grateful to all our presenters – see below.  Click on the links to view their presentations in detail:

Welcome with scene setting – Stewart Pomeroy (Managing Agent, CVRP).

Main presentations:

Feedback from local experience (short commentary without slides):

  • Janet Crame BEM, Planning Lead for Horton Parish Council
  • David Brackin, Chairman of Fulmer Parish Council
  • Leigh Tugwood RIBA, Planning, Environment & Ecology Lead for Iver Heath Residents Association

Workshop discussion

There were 6 workshop tables, each with a facilitator. Discussion centred on two issues:

  1. Significant things learnt from making comments on planning applications and local plans and
  2. Top tips for making effective comments.

The ‘top tips/ top ideas’ for making effective comments that came out of the workshops were:

  1. Start early and be on time.
  2. Collaborate with others to have one voice – local people, organisations and residents (the ‘Heathrow Villages Hillingdon’ example was cited).
  3. Gather support, in writing if possible.
  4. Identify the planning reasons but use simple language and be constructive.
  5. Research and highlight the local conditions/ environment as well as addressing policy issues.
  6. Reference the 2019 Colne & Crane Green Infrastructure strategy wherever relevant.
  7. Evidence comments with facts and figures.
  8. Avoid emotion.
  9. Try and respond to all applications for major developments.
  10. Seek to influence the councillors/ politicians – lobby and use them to talk to planners.
  11. Publicise and use social media.

Click on the links below to find out more thoughts fed back from the tables…

  1. Better communication of the plan-making process and better engagement with local communities at the plan making stage.
  2. Councils to foster a better understanding of planning process.
  3. Join-up with others e.g. parishes to share professional resources as well as opinions etc.
  4. Use of Planning Performance Agreements to foster better engagement.
  5. Better use of Development Briefs.
  6. Make the CVRP a statutory body.
  7. CVRP to consider a section on plans and policies on its website.
  • Non-environmental (economic) considerations seem often to prevail.
  • The Green Belt protection does not feel as special as it used to.
  • Don’t feel listened to
  • Neighbourhood Plans can be ignored and hard to get developers and planners to care about them.
  • The ‘technical’ reasoning used in planning reports can be obscure.
  • Lack of technical expertise available to communities – an unbalanced situation.
  • The cumulative erosion of the Green Belt in the CVRP seems overlooked.
  • It can feel like trying to make the best of a lost situation.

Open Questions

At the end of the meeting a few questions of the speakers came from the floor.  These covered:

  • Frustration with the level of developer interest in building within the Colne Valley’s Green Belt and how some developments are agreed to by the Councils.
  • Difficulty by Parish Councils and local organisations making contact with, and obtaining advice from, officers on development proposals.
  • The value of this event and a desire for more similar meetings.
  • A desire for the CVRP to have a statutory role and status and how that could be achieved.
  • The importance of the Councils recognising the incremental erosion of the Green Belt/ CVRP and taking steps to halt that.

Download Toolkit

A draft toolkit, designed to assist organisations when making comments on major development or local authority plans, was shared before the workshop with all organisations invited and that attended the event.  The updated Toolkit (reflecting comments received) can be downloaded here.

Attendance

We were delighted to see that so many cared sufficiently to turn out on a wet March evening and to contribute so enthusiastically to this event.

50 people attended and the organisations represented were:

Buckinghamshire Council – both officers and ward councillors,

Chalfont St Giles Parish Council,

Chiltern Open Air Museum, Chiltern Society,

The Colne Valley Regional Park – directors and friends,

Croxley Green Parish Council,

Denham Parish Council,

Friends of the Great Barn at Harmondsworth,

Fulmer Parish Council,

Harmondsworth Allotments,

Hayes Community Development Forum,

Horton Parish Council,

Inland Waterways Association (Middlesex Branch),

Iver & District Countryside Association,

Iver Heath Residents Association,

Iver Residents Association,

Iver Village Residents’ Association,

Northwood Residents’ Association,

A representative of Joy Morrissey MP,

Richings Park Residents’ Association and

Staines Town Society

Thank you

Thank you very much to everyone who spoke, facilitated, attended, gave feedback and, last but not least, Iver Village Hall who hosted the event.

Thank you also to the Heritage Lottery for providing the funding to make the event possible.

Anyone who wishes to feedback on any of the issues raised at the meeting, or on the Toolkit, please email [email protected]

Conference Invitation

If you are interested in the issues discussed at this workshop you may well want to attend this Conference on 18th April: ‘Improving how the Green Belt Functions on London’s Fringe’.  Find out more and sign up here