Category: Archive

St Albans City & District Council will be conducting the annual household voter
registration canvass from early July until the end of the year.
The canvass ensures that the electoral register is kept up to date. It is
important that residents make sure they can vote with District Council
elections taking place in May next year.

Every residential property in the district will be sent an email or letter during
July to check whether the details on the electoral register are correct.
Not all properties will be required to respond, and the email or letter will advise
whether a response is required. If you do need to respond, please respond
promptly. Reminders will be sent in the autumn to any properties which are
required to respond and have not done so.

During the canvass period (July onwards), information about the canvass will
be available at www.stalbans.gov.uk/household-voter-registration-canvass.

At St Michael Parish Council, we are keen to understand better the interests and concerns of the area’s residents and visitors, to help us in setting parish council priorities to focus our efforts in the coming years. A few moments of your time answering the questions in this survey would be very much appreciated.

Please follow this link, which will take you to an on-line survey form created with Microsoft 365.

Updated 30 September 2024

The Council is developing a new Draft Local Plan, which is like a blueprint for future development. It establishes the Council’s long-term planning strategy for delivering and managing growth and infrastructure, for environmental and heritage protection and enhancement, up to 2041.

This is an emerging Draft Plan, and people who live and work in the District, community groups and businesses have been encouraged to give their views. We want to hear from as many people and organisations as possible. The feedback received will help shape the final proposals.

Late September 2024 – Latest news from St Albans District Council Spatial Planning Team 

The draft St Albans Local Plan 2041 has now been published for its Regulation 19 consultation. The Plan will be available for you to make representations on between the following dates: 

Start Date: 26/09/24 10:00 AM  

End Date: 08/11/24 10:00 AM

The draft Local Plan can be found at https://www.stalbans.gov.uk/draft-local-plan-publication where you can make representations online. 

Paper copies of the documents can be found at the following locations during opening hours: 

• St Albans Civic Centre 
• St Albans Library 
• Harpenden Library 
• London Colney Library 
• Marshalswick Library 
• Redbourn Community Library 
• Wheathampstead Community Library 
• Hemel Hempstead Library 
• Leverstock Green Library 
• Radlett Library 

This is a formal, statutory stage in the preparation of a Local Plan. Following the consultation the draft Local Plan is sent, along with all duly-made representations received, to the Planning Inspectorate. The Plan will then be Examined by a government-appointed Planning Inspector who will consider if any changes need to be made to the Local Plan before it can be adopted. 

During the Examination of the Local Plan the Planning Inspector is only able to assess whether the draft Local Plan has been prepared in accordance with legal and procedural requirements, and whether it is ‘sound’. Therefore, all representations on the draft Local Plan must relate to a matter of legal compliance or a matter of soundness as follows: 

• Legally compliant – the draft Local Plan has been prepared in accordance with the legal and procedural requirements for preparing Local Plans 
• Positively prepared – the draft Local Plan provides a strategy which, as a minimum, seeks to meet the area’s objectively assessed needs; and is informed by agreements with other authorities, so that unmet need from neighbouring areas is accommodated where it is practical to do so and is consistent with achieving sustainable development; 
• Justified – an appropriate strategy, taking into account the reasonable alternatives, and based on proportionate evidence; 
• Effective – deliverable over the plan period, and based on effective joint working on cross-boundary strategic matters that have been dealt with rather than deferred, as evidenced by the statement of common ground; and 
• Consistent with national policy – enabling the delivery of sustainable development in accordance with the policies in this Framework and other statements of national planning policy, where relevant. 

There will also be unstaffed public exhibitions of materials in St Albans Civic Centre between 7 October – 18 October, and 28 October – 7 November. 

How do I make any representations? 

The best way to respond is by using the online consultation system which can be found through links on the Councils website at https://www.stalbans.gov.uk/draft-local-plan-publication.

You can send a response by Email to planning.policy@stalbans.gov.uk  or by post to: Spatial Planning Team, St Albans Council Offices, St Peters Street, St Albans, AL1 3JE. 

All representations must be received by 10am on Friday 8 November 2024. 

Yours faithfully,

Spatial Planning Team 

At our meeting this week were lucky to co-opt two new members to St Michael Parish Council. Extending a warm welcome to Gee Smedley and Damian Gaskin -we look forward to working with you!

Please see below the notices of election for the Harpenden and Berkhamsted, and St Albans parliamentary constituencies, which have been published today by:
The Acting Returning Officer, The Civic Centre,
St. Peters Street, St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL1 3JE

Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency

St Albans constituency

We have just made available the accounts for the year ending 31 March 2024, which were approved by Councillors at our meeting on 28th May. Please head over to our Finances page to view the documents.

We are sorry that the Annual Parish Council Meeting on 14th May had to be deferred. We now have a new date – 28th May, See our Meetings page for full details.

Welcome to the Chairman’s report for 2023/24.

Another year has flown by and I would like to express my thanks to Councillors and our Parish Clerk for their involvement and commitment over this past year.

As a community we continue to face challenges and uncertainty. With inflation remaining high, cost pressures remain for households, business owners and community facilities alike. Our District Council is facing budgeting challenges. Work on the St Albans Local Plan continues.

It can be no coincidence then that we have seen a notable pickup in attendance at meetings of late, with local residents seeking to take the opportunity to reflect their views and feelings; the stakes are high. We have welcomed members of the public, campaign groups and District and County Councillors who have made active contributions to discussions on a variety of subject matter including planning applications, development and enforcement, road condition and safety, and upgrades to local infrastructure.

The Parish of St Michael is small in terms of number of residents, but is rich in green belt land. Whilst there have been recent applications to build within the area, this has largely been limited to extensions or isolated individual residential dwellings. As it stands, the Parish looks like it will not be directly affected by larger site development under consideration in the Local Plan. However, any larger scale development in North St Albans, North Harpenden, Redbourn and Hemel would stand to increase road traffic and associated congestion, noise and pollution quite significantly within and on the boundary of our Parish and would affect residents during and after any development. As such, StMPC is taking an active interest in the progress of the Local Plan and will seek to comment where and when appropriate.

This past year at St Michael Parish Council (StMPC) has again been one of change. Whilst last year the focus was on a boundary change that had a marked effect on the Parish, over the course of this year we have had turnover in the panel of Councillors serving the StMPC. We saw two long standing members depart and I would like to take this opportunity to wholeheartedly thank Liz Rolfe and Liz Rose for their tenures on the Parish Council and express gratitude for their individual steadfast dedication and contribution, each committing their time over two decades to serve the interests of local residents.

It is with pleasure we have welcomed Jeremy Peet and Ian Hawking to StMPC. Both live locally and have a keen interest in the area and I very much look forward to their presence on the bench as we move forward.

At the time of writing, we have two vacancies for the position of Parish Councillor and would like to invite anyone in the Parish or local area who has interest in taking the position to please get in touch.

It has again been a privilege to chair St Michael Parish Council this past year and I wish the best for the upcoming year to all residents of the Parish, their family and friends.

Best,

David Meachin

Chair of St Michael Parish Council