Decision on 84 homes on Sandridge Green Belt postponed

ACRE SA Ltd and The Salvation Army want to build the homes on land near Shottfield Close, and a decision was due to be made at a meeting of St Albans City & District Council’s planning committee yesterday (Monday, August 3).

But the chair of the meeting, Edgar Hill, told councillors: “It has come to our attention this evening by the applicant’s agent that there is some doubt over whether skylark mitigation can be delivered in the location identified.”

Councillors at the meeting – which was attended by many members of the public – agreed to defer a decision until they have “certainty over the location of that mitigation”.

A report by council officers before the meeting said that any skylark habitat lost through the building of the new homes could be made up for by providing two “skylark compensation plots” at Pound Farm, which is 500 metres from the proposed development site and owned by The Salvation Army. 

Campaign group Save Our Sandridge had raised concerns about whether there was “sufficient evidence” to show that the new plots “can be provided”.

A visit to the site by an ecologist in June found “multiple calling male skylarks” to the north of the site, which, according to the council report, “appeared to offer…suitable nesting opportunities”.

No skylark “territory displays” were spotted within the site itself, but officers concluded that “It is still possible that breeding territories are present on the site”.

Planning officers recommended that the development should be approved, giving “very substantial weight” to the building of 84 new homes, including 42 affordable homes, and finding that the site would be “appropriate development within the Green Belt”.

They concluded that the site should be classed as Grey Belt on the grounds that it did not make a “strong” contribution to checking the unrestricted sprawl of built-up areas and to preventing the mergers of neighbouring towns.

St Albans currently only has a deliverable supply of 1.2 years of housing, well below the required five years, meaning it is more difficult to block new developments.

The Sandridge plans are opposed, however, by organisations including Sandridge Parish Council and the St Albans Civic Society, and by the residents of around 100 nearby homes.

Objectors believe that the development will harm the Green Belt and wildlife, change Sandridge’s character, and increase traffic in the area.

A final decision will be made by the city & district council’s planning committee at a future meeting.