The Government has announced that the Gardens Trust’s role as a statutory consultee in the English planning system is being removed
You can read a full statement from the Gardens Trust on its website at https://thegardenstrust.org/removal-of-statutory-consultee-role/. The Government announcement will be published at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reforms-to-the-statutory-consultee-system
While this is a worrying development, the position of Hertfordshire Gardens Trust (HGT) remains the same. HGT has always commented on planning applications in Hertfordshire, even before the national Gardens Trust (GT) was formed. We continue to comment on planning applications affecting undesignated sites, conservation areas, Neighbourhood Plans, and emerging Local Plans. In addition, we evaluate sites on the Historic England Register. Currently we feed these comments on Registered sites to our designated GT Conservation Officer, who incorporates them in the GT responses as statutory consultees. With the loss of statutory consulteeship, we are unsure of the procedure which the GT will wish to follow. HGT will continue to monitor and comment on ALL planning applications affecting our 200+ historic parks and gardens, whether we submit any comments through the GT, or not.
