How To Object 2025
Everyone’s individual objections are important:
the more that the council receive the louder our voice is…
Application Reference 25/01708/OP
Land Opposite Heath Farm Briary Lane Royston Hertfordshire
The public consultation for the 2025 proposal is now open with a deadline for comments from the public to be received by 17th Aug 2025. Details can be found on the NHDC Planning Portal Reference. This page provides details of how to register your objection and specific objections you could consider including.
On this page:
- List of key objections
- Submitting your objections
- Guide to using the NHDC Planning Portal
- Objections that aren’t considered valid
- If your property borders the site
- Tickbox letter
List of key objections
Suggested detailed reasons for objections for are as follows – click on each item for more details:
- Housing Supply and Local Plan – The development site is not identified in the existing Local Plan for North Hertfordshire District Council (NHDC) and is outside the settlement boundary identified in the plan. Royston is already contributing a significant number of dwellings towards the NHDC 5-year housing land supply
- Landscape and Visual Impact – as with the reasons for refusal of the 2018 and 2020 application the proposed development will have a significant negative impact
- Living Conditions – the proposed development will adversely affect living conditions both during construction and once complete
- Highways and Transport – The development site is fundamentally unsustainable due to the location of the site in relation to services, constrained access route to the local primary school, undeliverable proposed site access and constrained nature of the highway network around Briary Lane
- Ecology – The proposed development will have an ecological impact to at-risk species, as specified in the UK’s Biodiversity Action Plan and the RSPB Red list, and other protected species
- Flood Risk and Water Quality – Due to the steep topography of the site, the overland flows generated from the access road presents a flood risk to the existing wider highway drainage network of Echo Hill, as the existing system is already struggling to cope with the surface runoff generated.
- Environmental Impact Assessment – It has not been made clear if an EIA screening Opinion has been requested or obtained for this application and no Environmental Statement (ES) has been submitted
- Health Capacity – There is no capacity within the local health providers to accommodate speculative development
- Agricultural Land – The development of the site will result in the loss of high-quality agricultural land.
Please note these are just suggestions and residents are to personalise their responses and raise concerns that they are most upset about. However, we recommend your objections are made on a number of issues, as this will make for a stronger case and will give a higher weighting against the site when it is assessed against the requirements of Sustainable Development in accordance with the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
We have also provided an outline objection letter which you can use as a template for writing your own.
Gladman has used terminology that reflects NHDC and Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) own wording in policy documents, and the NPPF to illustrate their compliance with these policies. We need to do the same with our own objections wherever possible. Therefore either within the main objection text we have provided these or as listed in the conclusions, which allows residents to make reference to the appropriate policy either listed within the NPPF, Local Plan or /and design best practice guidance.
North Herts Local Plan is unfortunately in a weaker position since the 2018 Application. Therefore RSNtG have employed a number of technical experts (consultants) to help support our objections. We have drawn upon the conclusions from these experts and the technical reports, to help inform this text.
Submitting your objections
You can register your objections in one of three ways:
- Online using the NHDC Planning Portal
- By sending a formal letter to the NHDC council offices (Ben Glover, Senior Planning Officer, NHDC, Council Offices, Gernon Road, Letchworth Garden City, Herts, SG6 3JF)
- By sending a formal letter as a PDF attachment to an email to the NHDC Planning Officer in charge of the case – Ben Glover (ben.glover@north-herts.gov.uk)
We suggest registering your objections using at least 2 of these methods above. In particular, the NHDC Planning Portal is limited to a maximum of 3000 words, so this won’t work for lengthy objections.
Every adult in your house is entitled to send their own objection, even if living at the same address, please consider doing this as one factor that the council will consider is the overall number of objections.
Guide to using the NHDC Planning Portal
If you’ve never used the online planning portal before either to comment on or submit a planning application this guide here is a step-by-step guide.
Objections that aren’t considered valid
Comments from residents which are NOT material planning considerations are as follows:
- Loss of a private view
- Loss of value to your property
- Loss of private access rights
Please therefore avoid these issues and any recommendations for alternative access points or reallocation of the housing to different locations within the site, as this will only weaken the argument against the development.
If your property borders the site
Echo Hill residents will be contacted separately regarding some additional site-specific objections beyond those listed here. We therefore urge these residents to await a few more days for this sensitive information to be provided.
Tickbox letter
It’s important that objection letters represent your individual perspectives so it is best to write the letter yourself – below a list of key objections you may want to consider using, and an outline letter, and a short guide on how to use the NHDC Planning Portal. If however you want to object and are short of time please use this “tickbox” letter – download it, print it, fill it in and post it to NHDC.