The Parish Council would like to draw your attention to a significant change of use being proposed for the land between Nettleden Road and Potten End Hill from the outskirts of Potten End down the hill almost as far as the Leighton Buzzard Rd. The land is currently agricultural and it’s proposed to become what is called a Suitable Alternative Green Space, or SANG; effectively it will become a publicly accessible park with a car park.

If you want to see the full documentation and/or comment on this application you can do so at the Dacorum Planning Portal by 16 July (later than the originally advertised 3 July).

The idea behind SANGs is that they provide a public space which will divert people from travelling to Ashridge which has been suffering from overuse. Any new development in Dacorum must provide more publicly accessible green space. This SANG is funded by developers who want to build 1,100 houses to the west of Hemel at the bottom of Pouchen End Lane – although for some reason the link between this development and the SANG which was made quite explicitly by the developers in early conversations is missing from the planning application.

To help orientate you on the map below, Potten End is at the bottom left hand corner with Frithsden and Nettleden above it. Great Gaddesden is top centre, the Leighton Buzzard Road and the River Gade are running from centre top to bottom right with the Water End Bridge the kink about half way along the road. The SANG is the hashed area between Nettleden Road at the top and Potten End Hill at the bottom running almost from the river at the eastern end to the outskirts of Potten End in the west.

The following is a detailed plan of the site but you may find it easier to download the original from the Dacorum Planning Portal.

The Parish Council will discuss its position regarding the proposal at its meeting on 18 July but the recommendation is that it should object for the following reasons:

The Borough’s strategic objectives would be best met by reducing the size of the proposed housing development to create green space onsite removing the need for offsite development and travel. If for whatever reason this isn’t practical then insufficient arguments have been provided to demonstrate how the proposed SANG will divert people from Ashridge which is the core objective of a SANG.

One of the key aspects of the SANG is a car park with 50 places located at the bottom of Potten End Hill with an entrance just up the hill from Willows Lane. There is a concern that this will result in increased traffic at the busy junction of Potten End Hill and the Leighton Buzzard Road as well as adding further pressure to the already highly congested single-lane bridge at Water End.

Having the car park in this location will lead to people leaving the SANG to walk along the (flat) footpath along the Gade water meadows toward Great Gaddesden rather than taking the (steep) footpaths toward Potten End, and that this will adversely impact the fragile ecology of the water meadows, particularly if dogs are allowed to roam freely. The absence of almost any refence to the possible impact on a globally rare chalk stream only 100m from the site is one of the more striking aspects of the proposal.

The car park is also in the setting of the Water End conservation area and a number of listed buildings.
The SANG is heavily focused on allowing dogs to roam freely, and the valley side running up from Nettleden Road provides breeding grounds for several ground-breeding birds, in particular the rare Corn Bunting and Yellow Hammer, which will be adversely affected by dogs.

Finally there is the impact on the view down the Nettleden Road valley. At the moment this is a dramatic, unbroken vista with no hedges or fences on either side for the length of the valley. The proposal introduces two hedgerows and a fence along the southern side of the valley splitting it into four compartments both because these reflect the field structure in the 19th century and because hedgerows are a valuable habitat. Even if you think those arguments are compelling, it will represent a significant change to an iconic view.

The Parish Council meets at 7.30pm on Thursday, 19 June in the Church Room at Potten End. The agenda can be downloaded and contains links to all the supporting papers.

Keep the date free – Dan Blesovsky from the Golf Club will be attending the council meeting on 17 July to update us on the club’s plans.

And if you get to the end of this email and think that there’s some interesting stuff going on and you’d like to get involved – Dina Westenholz-Smith has decided that she can’t continue as a councillor and so there is a vacancy for a new councillor. Dina was instrumental in undertaking surveys into parish life, was responsible for the recent survey into what infrastructure we should invest in, and has been the council’s go to person on planning issues; she will be missed.

Highways

The Highways Working Party had a very constructive meeting with Cllr Terry Douris who as the outgoing County Councillor has been our main contact with Hertfordshire Highways and Cllr Caroline Smith-Wright who has replaced him. The main issue Caroline will be looking into for us is how to take forward the recent report from Highways on the junction of Church Road, The Green and Water End Road, but we also touched on Frithsden Lane, DriveSafe, Trident Junction and general issues around traffic volumes, speeding and parking enforcement.

Roadworks in and around the parish over the next three months have slowed up a little after a few months when at times it’s seemed that the powers that be were determined to cut us off! Rather than list them here you can see them summarised here or for more up to date information please refer to Causeway one network.

Planning

The Council supported planning applications for 28 Rambling Way, Forge Farm, and Church Side. At its meeting on Thursday it will consider the following applications (reference numbers relate to the Dacorum Planning Portal)

• Highwood, Browns Spring – conversion of garage into habitable space and single storey front extension (25/01315/FHA )
• 3 Chestnut Close – work to trees (25/01377/TPO)
• Frithsden Vineyard – Variation of Condition 2 (Approved Plans) attached to planning permission 22/02538/FUL (Replacement Dwelling) (25/01407/ROC)
• Frithsden Vineyard – Variation of Condition 1 (Approved Plans) attached to planning permission 4/00737/88 added by 25/00177/NMA (25/01354/ROC)
• Old Kiln Meadow – Variation of condition 11 (Approved Plans) attached 22/02468/FUL (25/01428/ROC)
• Browns Spring Wood – two forestry storage buildings (25/01467/AGD)
• Malperdy, 8 Hempstead Lane – front entrance gates and railings (25/01487/FHA)

We have also been advised of two planning appeals:

• The Suitable Alternative Natural Green Space between Nettleden Road and Potten End Hill (see 25/00019/REFU). There is an option to add additional comments on this appeal.
• Cleft Oak Cottage where Dacorum refused permission for an extension. Because of the nature of this appeal it isn’t possible to add any further comments to what was submitted originally.

And we will be discussing an event scheduled to take place over last weekend at Highridge Farm, Frithsden for which Dacorum refused a license. 

Open Spaces

The Council will be discussing possible solutions to a problem that has arisen with footballs being kicked into the garden of Four Oaks which backs onto the Spencer Holland recreation ground. If your children use the goal on the recreation ground please remind them that it’s not very neighbourly to kick balls over the stop netting, and then climb up hedges and fences to get them back.

On a similar note, someone has removed the plaque thanking David Groom for his donation of land to the parish for a burial ground. This is the second time the plaque has been removed in the last two years and we will of course replace it, but it is a disappointing reaction to a very generous gift which is much appreciated by those of us who use it, and which will benefit residents for many years to come.

Infrastructure investment in our Parish: Have your say!

We had nearly 180 responses to the survey about how you think the council should spend the money it received, largely as a result of the Valerie Way development. This is a fantastic return and the council is very grateful to everyone who took the time and trouble not just to rank the short-listed proposals but also to put forward other suggestions. The results of the survey and comments on all of the suggestions can be found here.

Highways

It looks as though the worst of the road closures are behind us at least for the next three months, although Cadent are returning for their third attempt to sort out the gas mains along Church Rd in the May half term. 

The parish council has submitted a grant application to the Police and Crimes Commissioner to trial new technology that will make speed monitoring much easier and will be replacing the batteries in the speed monitoring device along Water End Rd to see if that can be re-commissioned.

Open Spaces

The Council will be considering a proposal to commission the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust to produce a pond management plan to form the basis of future maintenance activity. It will also be considering a proposal to clear approximately 5m of the undergrowth on the Conservation Green (that part of the Green to the west of Hempstead Lane – the Martins Pond side) where it has encroached over recent years and to repair the sleepers that protect the edge of the Green along its boundary with The Green (the road), along with installing wooden posts at the corner of The Green with The Common and Hempstead Lane.

The new village sign has now been delivered and will be installed shortly on the Conservation Green, i.e. the opposite side of Hempstead Lane than it was previously because that location is prone to vehicles missing the turning and hitting it.

For many years the village has benefitted from a series of committed residents who have run football clubs for varying ages on the sports field; we are extremely grateful to everyone who has been involved. Unfortunately no-one has stepped forward to run a team for the 2026/27 season. If this is something you think you might be able to help us with, please get in tocuh.

Planning

Our thanks to Cllr Eamonn Brennan who missed the last parish council meeting because a planning application for Four Acres Farm on Nettleden Rd was scheduled to be discussed by the Dacorum Planning Committee. Unfortunately the entire meeting was taken up discussing a major development at Tring and the discussion about Four Acres was deferred to this coming Thursday – which means that Cllr Brennan will miss another meeting so he can argue the case for why the Parish Council objected to this proposal.

There have been a number of references in recent news letters about the risk of the government’s definition of grey belt to Potten End. The Parish Council would like to thank Borough Councillor Terry Douris for co-sponsoring a debate at Dacorum which has led to Dacorum writing to the government on this subject.

At the meeting on Thursday the Council will consider:

i. 26/00944/FHA – Cleft Oak Cottage, Hollybush Close, Potten End, HP4 2SN – Demolition of existing side garage and rear extension and construction of single storey side and rear extensions and two storey front and rear extensions and associated works.

ii 26/00979/FUL – Bakery Flat, 21 Water End Road, Potten End, HP4 2SH – Extensions to and conversion of existing dwelling and ground floor disused shop to create 1 x 2 bed and 1 X 3 bed self-contained dwellings with private amenity space.

iii 26/01034/LDP– Roseheath Wood, Bullbeggars Lane, Potten End, HP4 2RS – Construction of timber vehicular gates, brick piers, and a pedestrian side door to a maximum height of 2.0 metres, situated 17.5 metres from the site boundary and 24.0 metres from the edge of the adopted highway. Installation of 1.0-metre high brick flanking walls at the property entrance and the creation of permeable gravel driveway and visitor parking bay.

iv 26/01095/TPO– Williams Wood, Vicarage Road, Potten End, HP4 2RA – works to trees

Finance

The Council will consider a grant request from the Potten End Pre-school for £250 to support it’s summer fete.

May is the start of the Council’s year and as a result there is a lot of administration to get through, signing off the accounts for 2025/26 and agreeing the core elements of the council for 2026/27 – we’ll aim to get through these important but frankly slightly tedious processes as quickly as possible.

Following on from the pond clearance carried out in May, two further days of work have been carried out on 4th and 5th August.  The main reason is to try to reduce the amount of crassula helmsii (known as swamp stonecrop or New Zealand pigmyweed).  The parish council puts a high priority on maintaining Potten End village pond as it is one of the parish’s most picturesque features.

A police surgery will be held outside Potten End Village shop between 13.00 and 13.30 on Friday 27th January.  If you have concerns about your security or any other matters this is an opportunity for a face to face talk with a member of the Berkhamsted and Tring Safer Neighbourhood Team.  If you would like to read the full police report, which includes details of crimes in Berkhamsted, you can do so here.