HARTHAM ART PROJECT

Seven local artists are competing to have their work placed at the western entrance to Hartham using up to £10,000 from the Section 106 money received from Sainsbury’s under the terms of their planning permission. 

 

The brief devised by East Herts Council was to design an artwork that showed innovation and originality, while also having reference to Hertford’s local environment and history. 

 

The seven contenders are: 

 

Angela Godfrey – four stainless steel screens 150cm high mounted on a brick plinth and depicting the four rivers, the brewery and Hartham with its wildlife, walks and sports. 

 

Lee Simmons – a sculptural bench consisting of one horizontal and two vertical interlocking discs cut to suggest the annual growth rings of a tree, made of Cor-ten steel which would weather to shades of brown and orange.

 

Sarah Bracey – a 3m high four-sided arched brick structure with moulded concrete panels depicting urban and rural aspects of Hertford. 

 

Sarah Dilley – a sculpture resembling parts of a mill wheel, made of steel which will weather to shades of brown resembling wood.

 

Leiselle Bristow and Karen Murphy – a cut-metal and kiln-fired glass see-through screen in the form of an ammonite spiral, rising to 2m at the centre and depicting the work of Alfred Russel Wallace on evolution and details of the history of Hertford. The installation would include a rill and a seat and be paved with the bottoms of McMullen’s beer bottles.

 

Maxine King – a 5m high steel rabbit weathered to brown, the title ‘Hops’ being a reference to the brewery, the historic function of the Warren and the installation’s proximity to the children’s play area.

 

C. Parfitt – a ‘woodhenge’ in the form of a circle of wooden posts up to 24m across with information on astronomical observations and calculation of time and geographical direction. 

 

The artists’ submissions were on display in Hertford Theatre during the last week in July and members of the public were invited to comment and to vote for their favourite designs. The final decision will be made by the local arts forum the East Herts Centre for Excellence and Innovation in the Arts and will be announced in the autumn

Strategic Land Availability Assessment (SLAA)

East Herts District Council has been assessing the suitability of sites suggested by developers. The SLAA takes into consideration factors such as access, industrial contamination and flood risk, but inclusion of a site within the SLAA does not mean that EHC is recommending development, only that they believe development there is possible. 

 

The chief sites (with maximum numbers in brackets) are:  

 

National Grid Site/Norbury Woodyard, Mead Lane (300)

 Dicker Mill (50)

Land west of Marshgate Drive (182)

Land south of Mead Lane (100)

Former Police Station, Ware Road (126)

Caxton Hill industrial estate (256)

Hertford Fire Station & HQ (40)

Bentley House, Pegs Lane (24)

Royal Mail Delivery Office, Greencoats (18)

Braziers Field (18)

Former Dolphin car park, Mill Road (14)

Chambers Street (18)

Waters Garage, North Road (14)

Bluecoats Avenue (12)

Elburt Wurlings, Pegs Lane (10)

West Street allotments (10)

 

These, along with some other smaller sites, have all been previously developed, with the exception of Braziers Field and West Street allotments.

PLANNING MATTERS - 64 Bullocks Lane

The proposal was to add a side extension and a front porch. We endorsed the representations about the porch made to the Council by Richard Henderson, a long-standing member of the Society, who carried out research some years ago into the work of the architect Louis Moore. Moore was responsible for this and a number of other houses in Hertford. The Council’s conservation officer agreed with Richard that the building is a fine example of Moore’s style combining Arts and Crafts with Scandinavian influences, and that the proposed porch would have been too large; indeed the officer was highly critical of the design of the proposed extension too.

 

The application was refused.

PLANNING MATTERS - Madford Retail Park

An application was made for some minor physical changes to the building now occupied by Wickes. As is usual on retail parks, there are conditions on the original permission for the building which restrict the types of goods that can be sold, in the interests of protecting the town centre. There have been recent examples in other parts of the country where developers have obtained permission for minor alterations to an existing building and then claimed that, as the new permission makes no mention of the pre-existing conditions, they no longer apply and the building may be used to sell any type of goods. 

 

We urged the Council to guard against this by reimposing the previous conditions when granting the new permission. 

 

They did not take our advice.

PLANNING MATTERS - Panshanger Quarry

Lafarge have applied to amend the details and phasing of the remaining work at Panshanger. They no longer intend to excavate any land to the south of the A414, which will enable quarrying and restoration of the site to be completed by 2020 instead of 2031 as provided for in the existing permission. But not working land to the south of the road apparently means that material will have to be imported from elsewhere to help with the restoration of the areas already worked.

We made a number of points to the County Council, who are responsible for deciding this application. We welcomed both the earlier completion date and the reduction in area though we urged that, in return for being allowed to import material, the terms of Lafarge’s overall permission should be changed to ensure that they cannot change their minds in future and revert to the original date and area. We did not object to the principle of importing inert fill material, but the history of bringing in such material to quarries around Hertford is not encouraging. All sorts of rubbish including asbestos, clay and huge lumps of hardcore have been dumped, sometimes in excessive quantities. We therefore urged the County to tighten up the wording of the relevant condition and insist on compliance with details of finished levels and landform.

The application also seeks approval of a plan showing public paths following restoration of the land. There is a need for a clear east-west route from Hertford and Hertingfordbury to Welwyn Garden City that could be used as an alternative to the B1000 by walkers and cyclists, but the proposed pattern of routes fails to achieve this because one section would be a footpath only. We asked for a clear route available to both walkers and cyclists. We also questioned why the proposed new paths are to be permissive, rather than dedicated as public rights of way in perpetuity, since the right to use a permissive path can be withdrawn at any time by the landowner.

At the time of writing the application had not been decided.

PLANNING MATTERS - Redevelopment Grehan’s Yard

We criticised the orientation of the terraced houses proposed for this site. They will back on to the gardens of the existing houses in Molewood Road, so that vehicle access, and the parking of vehicles, will be on the Beane Marsh side. As the Marsh forms the town end of one of Hertford’s green fingers, and is therefore worthy of special consideration when dealing with planning applications on its boundary, we suggested that it would be beneficial both to the appearance of the green finger and to the occupants of the new houses if the development were turned round so that the gardens faced the Marsh. However the officers took the opposite view, concluding that the proposed orientation would provide for a better frontage and outlook by keeping the residential gardens and their associated domestic paraphernalia contained. The application was approved.