The Council’s Development Control Committee has twice deferred a decision regarding the application by developers to erect 45 houses on the Rounton, Nascot Wood Road site.
Last week, and despite threats to take the application to appeal, the Committee threw it out, now satisfied that the woodland close to Birch Tree Walk is indeed ‘Ancient’, i.e. up to 400 + years old.
Councillor Andrew Mortimer assisted Watford Museum in their research on this area, which is part of what used to be Callowland Farm. He addressed the Committee and emphasised that Natural England, the Government authority which sets up and keeps the Ancient Woodland data base, was adamant that a 1735 map held by Merton College, Oxford proved the presence of ‘39 oaks and 35 ashes’ in the coppice on what is now the Rounton site.
This means that there is every chance that the development plan for Rounton will have to be re-thought, with the necessity to put fewer houses on a smaller footprint.
With planning, ‘the show is never over until the fat lady sings’, but local residents who have worked very hard to preserve the ever dwindling woodland in Nascot, are optimistic that a scheme more in keeping with the area will eventually emerge.
If anyone is interested in looking at the Merton College photos, contact Andrew.