CONSULTATION on plans to build 10,700 homes in North Herts began this week.

A drop-in exhibition is being held today (Thursday), at Royston Town Hall by North Herts District Council, which is asking residents to give their views on where the housing, which the district council is required to provide by 2031, should be located.

As reported in the Crow in December, several sites around Royston are up for discussion after they were named in the district council’s Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment.

These include green belt land between Garden Walk and Newmarket Road, and Royston Town Football Club’s Garden Walk Stadium.

Cllr Tom Brindley, responsible for North Herts’ planning, said: “This consultation is an incredibly important one for the future of North Herts.

“A number of sites have been identified by developers and landowners and now the council will need to choose between them as it prepares its new Local Plan – the document that sets the planning policies for the years ahead.

“I would urge everyone to find out more about these proposed sites and get involved with the consultation in whatever way they can. We want people to help us identify how many new homes we need, and where they should be built. The homes will need to go somewhere, and we hope that people can provide us with as much information as possible about why they support one particular site for development over another.

“Clearly that will be more useful to us than just saying why they think one of the sites is not appropriate.”

Seven large strategic sites, which could accommodate more than 1,000 homes, have been identified, but none of these are in Crow country. The exhibition at Royston Town Hall will run from 6.30pm-8.30pm, with others being held around the district over the next three weeks.

You can respond to the consultation online at the district council’s website, www.north-herts.gov.uk or by post. As reported in the Crow earlier this month, South Cambridgeshire District Council has just finished consulting residents on its own plans for the future of housing.