Policy information sourced from Three Rivers Core Strategy

PSP4 Development in Villages (Bedmond, Sarratt)

Development in Villages will:

  • Be strictly controlled in order to protect the character, landscape, heritage and wildlife of the wider countryside, and the openness of the Green Belt
  • Be well designed and inclusive, in keeping and in scale with its location and sensitive to the character of the countryside and local distinctiveness
  • Allow some limited small-scale development in or on the edge of the villages in order to meet local community and business needs, to maintain the vitality of these communities. This should help tackle deprivation in these villages, particularly in relation to access to housing, employment and services
  • Improve the viability, accessibility and community value of existing services and facilities, for example village shops and post offices, rural petrol stations, village and church halls, rural public houses and bus services that play an important role in sustaining village communities
  • Support public transport services to Rickmansworth and other centres within and adjacent to Three Rivers, enabling the increased use of more sustainable modes of transport
  • Allocate and release sites solely for affordable housing using a Rural Exception Site Policy approach to accommodate households which contain current residents or have an existing family or employment connection in perpetuity. These will be identified through a subsequent Site Allocations document
  • Provide approximately 1% of the District’s housing requirements over the Plan period to include affordable housing to meet local needs and as informed by the Strategic Housing Market Assessment (2010), Development Economics Study (2009) and Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment Update (2010)
  • Improve provision of and access to, services and facilities to meet future demands, specifically through:
    • Traffic management improvements to the C77 (Bedmond Road)
    • Extending provision at Bedmond Sports and Social Club site, Toms Lane, to include facilities for young people
    • Extending and improving facilities at Frogmore Meadow Site of Special Scientific Interest, Sarratt
    • Creating a play area in Sarratt to meet identified need
    • Expansion of existing schools and/or provision of new schools meet identified needs in the Villages.

For more information please see the Three Rivers Core Strategy