A previous planning application was turned down in 2004

Welwyn Hatfield Council has, for the second time in two years, refused permission for an ecologically-friendly earth-sheltered house at Friday Grove, also known as the 20-acre fields at Bluebridge Road, south of Brookmans Park.

About a dozen local residents attended the Council's Planning Control Committee meeting on Thursday 6 April 2006 to hear the debate on this application.

The Chief Planning Officer, Chris Conway, presented the main points and then the applicant, Neil Bedford, gave his arguments for approval.

Mr Bedford was followed by four speakers who spoke against the application, namely Cllr. Bob Horrocks on behalf of North Mymms Parish Council, Clive Bennett, on behalf of the North Mymms District Green Belt Society, Ward Councillor John Dean and Cllr. John Mansfield.

They all stressed the harm this development would cause to the openness of the Green Belt. Nobody, not even the applicant, was able to give any precedent for a similar house which had been approved on Green Belt land. Cllr. Jill Weston spoke in support of the application on ecological grounds.

The subsequent debate revolved around whether or not this development was sufficiently exceptional that it justified overturning Green Belt policies in this location. At the vote, five councillors voted for the application and nine against it.

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6 April 2006