There’s now less than a week left for residents to comment on a controversial planning application that could see 62 homes built in St Ippolyts.

The national housebuilder Countryside Homes has submitted plans to build 62 houses to the rear of Waterdell Lane.

Countryside held “pre–application meetings” with NHDC and Hertfordshire County Council officers as early as 2018, and submitted a formal application for its development last month.

Included in the application is considerations to build local play areas, complete associated highway works, and additional landscaping and open space renovation.

Now residents have just a week to respond to the plans via NHDC’s online planning portal – pa2.north-herts.gov.uk/online-applicationsThe site had been allocated for development in the 2016 proposed Local Plan submission, with North Herts District Council outlining proposals for 40 new homes to built south of Waterdell Lane.

But as we reported earlier this year, the Local Plan has been subject to delay and as of yet has not been ratified by Planning Inspector Simon Berkeley.

Further to this, a number of public representations have shown there are some objections to the plans.

One resident says the application reads “as an exploitation of the local area, with minimum investment for maximum profit.”

Another adds: “The proposed development is a major scheme in a sensitive green belt location that has the potential to change the character of the adjoining historic villages.”