The Forum

To the Kingsmead Neighbourhood Plan at the Referendum on the 4th May Please vote YES to vote for: 1. Better policies on parking and traffic 2. Support for developments for industry and offices to provide local employment 3. Get extra protection from development for our green spaces such as Foxholes Woodland, Cromwell Road allotments and The Pines Woods. 4. Protect our local playgrounds and recreation areas such as Pinehurst recreation ground, Foxholes Avenue and Rowleys Road Playgrounds 5. Protect our beautiful views of areas like The Meads from being obscured by excessively high buildings. 6. Protect Heritage Assets such as the bowl barrow and industrial heritage on the New River and River Lea 7. And much more! Full details are in the KNP Plan which is available to download here: A Yes vote will also show your support for the Action Plan which includes many ideas to improve our area. Everything from better walking routes to schools and places of interest to parking improvements to reducing risk of flooding to installing hedgehog highways and swift boxes. Just say YES to the Kingsmead Neighbourhood Plan becoming part of the planning regulations on Star Wars Day at the Local Council Elections*! * May the 4th be with you If it gets a YES vote what happens next? The policies in the plan will be used to inform planning decisions in Kingsmead and KNP organisation will continue to exist to push for the improvements in the action plan, possibly to review and revise the plan and comment on policies being followed for planning decisions. What area does it cover as there are new boundaries for Kingsmead Ward this Election? Showing the area covered by the KNP The plan covers the original area of Kingsmead, not the new addition to the electoral ward ie Caxton Hill plus streets from Raynham St to Hertford East. Only people in the original boundaries will be able to vote in the referendum but if we get the majority of Yes at the referendum it may be possible to revise the plan to include the new 'bit' later What is the Vision for the Plan? To develop a sustainable, safe and prosperous neighbourhood by promoting a range of good quality, sustainable developments, including residential, small business, local shops and local services that meet the needs of Kingsmead residents & organisations, whilst protecting and enhancing biodiversity, and enhancing the green spaces of Kingsmead. To provide new and diverse leisure /recreational activities enabling safe, healthy and crime-free lifestyles, for all generations. To promote alternative methods to vehicular transport within and across Kingsmead coupled with local services to reduce car journeys thereby reducing traffic intensity, improving air quality and promoting a healthy lifestyle for residents. What are the Objectives for the Plan? 1. Provide a Biodiversity Net Gain for all new build and refurbishment projects in Kingsmead 2. Include energy and water efficiency standards for new build and refurbishment projects that are enhanced compared to existing legislative norms to meet or exceed the LETI Climate Emergency Design Guide 3. Provide services, employment and housing in navigable clusters for new developments in line with the principles of the 20 minute neighbourhood (See Glossary) (Town and Country Planning Association) 4. Increase the provision of 3 bed houses and 2 bed bungalows on brownfield sites 5. Retain / attract small business ventures wherever practicably possible to promote a mixture of use and reduce commuting 6. Design in crime prevention measures to reduce anti-social behaviour, petty crime and illegal drug littering 7. Ensure the community is enabled to access primary healthcare 8. Develop community facilities to meet the current and future needs of all demographics of the community 9. Protect and enhance current green spaces, increase biodiversity and eco system services and provide new green space to improve climate impact adaptation and mitigation 10. Enable Kingsmead Residents to live more sustainable lifestyles 11. Improve all modes of travel but particularly sustainable travel conditions, road safety and mitigate the impact of development on local roads 12. Enhance commuter, shopping, school and other walking routes via pavements and/or off road footpaths to attract more pedestrians for short journeys within and across the borough 13. Provide commuter, shopping, school and other cross borough cycle routes including cycle parking to improve connectivity to transport hubs; extending and connecting the existing cycle network to join up routes and thereby increase levels of cycling to reduce vehicle traffic; particularly the school run 14. Provide realistic improvements to affordable, local, public transport to make it a preferred option over cars 15. Implement a residential and business car parking schemes together with communal car charging points to free up road space, reduce inappropriate parking on pavements and optimise travel 16. Ensure that development in the area is catered for by appropriate, local, educational provision. So, we the committee at KNP ask: Please vote YEA YEA and THRICE YEA to the KNP being approved at referendum! It is the culmination of a lot of hard work and will only succeed if everyone turns out to vote YES! Thank You! KNP Policies Map

Back at the end of July the 'Regulation 16' version of the Kingsmead Neighbourhood Plan (KNP) was submitted to East Herts District Council (EHDC). They have reviewed and cogitated and the KNP is now available on the EHDC website. How do I take part in the consultation? The consultation will run for a 6 week period between the 22nd September and 4th November 2022. A full set of consultation documents can be viewed on East Herts District Council website, alongside an online comment form at www.eastherts.gov.uk/kingsmeadnp. Paper copies of the plan can be viewed at East Herts Council, Hertford Town Council and Hertford Library. What's Happens after the Regulation 16 Consultation? Once the Regulation 16 consultation has been completed the KNP will be submitted to an Independent Examiner for review (probably after a few tweaks resulting from the consultatation). Once reviewed and passed by the examiner (probably after a few more tweaks) it will then be subject to a referendum where every adult in Kingsmead can vote. Assuming it gets a majority (ie over 50%) voting yes then it is passed and becomes part of the planning regulations for Kingsmead. While all of the plan is important it is a long document so please make sure you read the policies (all in green boxes) and also the Action Plan (in the appendices) as these are the most important sections. Kingsmead Residents Association have been working on implementing various of the actions from the Action Plan with assistance from local councillors, the Herts and Middx Wildlife Trust and others, but it is over 70 items long so they do have their work cut out! As we said in our previous post there is still work going on in the background to research and track down particularly elusive bits of information (see our posts on how far Kingsmead residents are having to travel to get to a GP) but all of our main sources have been found, read and implemented. Supporting information for the plan can all be found at the following URL - just tap on the post and all information and references for the Neighbourhood Plan can be downloaded from: https://www.knphertford.org/references

The GP surgery on Ware Road in Kingsmead closed a few years ago; when it was closed it had around 5,500 patients registered. KNP has been unable to discover from the NHS how many of these were reallocated to a GP surgery in Hertford as the NHS does not hold these records (see FOI request link at the bottom of the article). What we do know from the information provided by NHS England is that there are 6,075 Kingsmead residents registered with a Hertford GP surgery ie who are registered at a GP surgery in the nearest town. A further 3,450 people are registered at surgeries in Ware and 212 are registered at surgeries in Hoddesdon. NHS England was unable to confirm how many people in total from Kingsmead are registered at GPs surgeries outside of Hertford, During our consultations with local residents we were made aware that there were people in Kingsmead that were extremely unhappy as they had only been offered a GP place in Hoddesdon or Ware as a replacement for their previous GP in Ware Road. The figures provided by NHS England in response to our FOI request support this anecdotal evidence as a high percentage, around 30% of Kingsmead residents, are registered outside of Hertford. It's worth noting that the total number of Kingsmead residents having to travel outside of Hertford to visit a GP is over 3,650 ie under 2,000 people less than the 5,500 people that used to be registered at the Ware Road GP surgery. So, why is this a problem? When Ware Road surgery was open Kingsmead had a GP surgery that was within a 20 min walking distance of most of Kingsmead in line with the 20 minute neighbourhood principle which is a key tenet for the Kingsmead Neighbourhood Plan. During our consultation we have received a number of complaints that elderly people are now forced to take two buses to get to Hoddesdon or Ware to visit a GP rather than being able to just ‘get a bus down the hill’ from Pinehurst/Foxholes to Ware Road. Public transport to both Ware and Hoddesdon for people without a car from either Pinehurst or Foxholes presents a tortuous route due to the topography as direct public transport is limited to a bus to Hertford and this is particularly tricky for those with mobility issues. Walking and cycle routes from both Pinehurst and Foxholes to Ware and Hoddesdon involve either ‘travelling the long way around’ on busy roads with poor or no pedestrian/cycle provision or attempting to cross over Rush Green roundabout (see other articles on the opportunity to reconnect three historic Rights of Way that used to connect but that were truncated by the construction of the roundabout) to reach the Restricted Byway over the A10 slip roads or walk along the gutter at the side of Hoe Lane, dodging the oncoming traffic. While we cannot obtain the data to show how many of the third of people living in Kingsmead were registered at the Ware Road surgery it is evident that there are nearly the capacity of the Ware Road surgery now registered at surgeries in Ware. Ware has plans for a large development to the NE of the town; by planning an additional GP surgery in Kingsmead this could backfill to provide an accessible GP surgery and free up places at surgeries in Ware which would benefit patients from this new development rather than cramming them into already over loaded local surgeries. Kingsmead is a highly polluted area (see other articles) which has a huge detrimental impact on health. Transportation issues are recognised as the number one barrier to healthcare. Providing local healthcare not only removes the transportation barrier it will also reduce the number of car journeys as a surgery or pop up healthcare located within Kingsmead would facilitate active travel for those that can and reduce travel distances for those with mobility issues. The closure of Ware Road surgery has been part of the reduction of services and infrastructure to Kingsmead that has been allowed to occur over the past few decades; Kingsmead has lost pubs, a vets surgery, a community centre and various employment areas until a respected Hertford councillor characterised Kingsmead as 'just housing there's nothing of interest there'. Freedom of information request answer can be seen here: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/hertford_kingsmead_gp_surgery_al_2#incoming-2125935