Somewhere New to Live

 In recent days two local news stories broke, and both were essentially about places to live, if not places where we live.

There is a general awareness of the huge shortage of accommodation to rent, and also the cost of houses to purchase has, as a matter of course, breached the one million pound mark in a number of districts.  That fact is down, at least in part, to the shortage of houses available for sale, which in turn is exacerbated by insufficient land on which to build, and is constrained by the noose of the Metropolitan Green Belt.  Such is not exactly news to anyone living in or around the city; it is one of life's consequences.  The District Council has attempted to complete satisfactory Plans previously – and each takes several years to complete and then submit to government for approval.

Work on the latest Local Plan which identifies land for future commercial and residential development is now complete and has passed through a public consultation phase.  Beginning in the New Year the Planning Inspector will begin his/her task before, hopefully recommending that St Albans' Council is free to adopt it.

Recent housing: Kestrel Way.

But of course it is not simply a question of identifying ground and thinking of a number.  Future development has to be sustainable and supportable by a meaningful amount of service provision and physical infrastructure.  Hopefully, the future provision will catch up with shortages experienced by growth in previous decades – and without forcing the end price of family homes beyond that which is tolerable.

New housing is not simply a matter of identifying open land on the periphery.  How many times have we walked along a road and convinced ourselves a tiny yard or a long rear garden with some road access will no doubt be converted into a single house, a pair of minuscule flats or a small row of slimline "town houses".

The second news break this week comes from the University, itself creating housing demands of its own.  Older buildings from College Lane are due to be demolished, although their number was not disclosed.  There is a hint that green space between individual structure will in future become an essential consideration of the university landscape, which had not always been evident in former piecemeal expansion projects.

One of the proposed future changes at the university.
COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE

A new medical school will be opened at College Road, while over at the de Havilland campus a business school will be developed.  It seems only recently that the new physics and engineering school building was opened.  Mindful that university buildings are not the only components of university infrastructure, UH has stated currently the number of students number 36,000 and staff total 3,000.  With the new departmental schools the number of additional students being catered for will be 2,000.  It seems clear that in numbers terms the proposals are part of an expansion rather than a change of departmental emphasis.  No mention was made of additional student accommodation on one or both sites.

Although the proportion of the total student population travelling to and from their own homes to Hatfield was not stated, there would be an increased requirement for commercially sponsored student blocks as are becoming more popular in and around centres of learning.

From the 1940s decision to locate the mid Herts secondary technical school in Hatfield, that little seed from the 1944 Education Act has brought forth a thriving university, but of course it does have a space implication!

... and from last week's blog post:

Rubble from the former reservoir tank which served a private water supply at Oaklands.
COURTESY TRIGPOINTINGUK

The  subject of providing a private water supply at Oaklands Mansion and its surrounding farm in the days when Oaklands was detached from the rest of expanding St Albans, has encouraged responses from readers who recall details of the wind pump and tank at the top of a hill on the Oaklands estate.  Comments have ranged from the tank being identified as a "home base" for local children and their games; triangulation markers/benchmarks fixed by map surveyors; and the method by which the disused concrete tank was demolished – recollections include physical breaking up and the use of explosives; perhaps both.  Although the rubble had remained at the top of the hill on the edge of Oaklands Grange housing development until recently, and I had therefore assumed was still lying in-situ, apparently a contractor undertaking clearance operations at the conclusion of building operations had removed the tank rubble as well.  So the last evidence appears to have ... disappeared!  It is also evident that members of an organisation called TrigpointingUK have been keeping watch over this site and regularly photograph changes in the location.  Another reader recalls television filming taking place at the site, and at least one other benchmark on the estate.  Many thanks to those who contacted me, but we are still searching for photographic evidence of the eight sail/blade wind pump atop its structure.  We'll keep looking.