'99 Update

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Land Use

Indicator 1: Land Used for Urban Activities

This map shows the increase in land used for urban activities in the county between April 1998 and the end of March 1999. The urban areas shown are towns with a population of over 7000.

The 12 months since April 1998 has seen a total of 51.47 hectares change in Hertfordshire, a considerable increase on the two previous years' figures of 12.16 and 9.43 hectares.

This total comes mainly from the change of agricultural land to housing on the edges of Stevenage at Great Ashby (19.5 ha.), West Cheshunt (10 ha.) and Bishops Stortford at St Michaels Mead (15 ha.). Other changes include development of a distribution centre at Hemel Hempstead Punchbowl Lane (1.5 ha.) and relocation of Bishops Stortford's urban football ground to the edge of town (5 ha.site) and development of the in-town ground for housing.

Two further changes to urban use, separated from the urban areas, are not included in the total. These are St Margarets Farm, Stanstead Abbots to housing (0.93 ha.) and the Arsenal training ground at London Colney (16.8 ha.).

Land use change is only recorded when development is started, in this case prior to 1st April 1999.

Indicator 2: Number of Households

The 1991 Census showed that there were 380,900 households in Hertfordshire. By 1997 this had increased by 8.3% to 412,400 households according to the Hertfordshire Mid Term Population Survey. Over the same period Hertfordshire's population had grown by 2.5% from 988,700 in 1991 to 1,024,800 in 1997, reflecting the continuing reduction in average household size.

The latest Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) trend based household projections suggest that between 1996 and 2021 there will be a growth of 89,000 in the number of households in Hertfordshire. 70% of these are expected to be single person households.

Structure Plan

The current Hertfordshire Structure Plan was adopted in April 1998 and covers the period 1991 - 2011. The County Council has commenced technical work on reviewing the Plan for the period to 2016, and the first public consultation document is likely to be published in 2001.

For further information contact: Rob Wright, Hertfordshire County Council Environment Department, (01992) 555287