Green Belt plans for 100 homes at Stanborough and 35 at Cuffley wait until 22 October. The committee has not met since July, and call-in rules change.

Welwyn Hatfield’s Development Management Committee was due to sit at 7.30pm tonight and decide two Green Belt housing schemes. It did not sit. The council’s meetings calendar now lists the 10 September meeting as MEETING CANCELLED, with no reason given on the page.

It is the second cancellation running. The 19 August meeting was called off too. Item 2 of tonight’s agenda confirms the committee last met on 23 July 2026. The next scheduled date is Thursday 22 October.

The papers had already gone out. The agenda frontsheet is dated 2 September, and the full 3MB reports pack is still published on the council’s website.

What was on the agenda

Two outline applications, both on Green Belt land, both recommended for approval by the Assistant Director (Planning).

Land north of New Road, Stanborough, Welwyn Garden City (6/2026/0108/OUTLINE). Up to 100 homes on 9.19 hectares of agricultural land, of which 3.96 hectares would be built on and 5.23 hectares kept for biodiversity. The applicant is Stanborough Estates Ltd, care of Dandara Northern Home. The site is washed over by the Green Belt and sits in what the Local Plan classes as a “Small Green Belt Village and Settlement”. The officer report records 129 representations, including 120 objections.

Land east of Colesdale Farm, Cuffley (6/2025/2131/OUTLINE). Up to 35 homes on 2.25 hectares, with a new vehicular access from Northaw Road East. The applicant is Brosnan Developments Limited. A minimum of 51% of the homes, 18 units, would be affordable, which the report notes exceeds the 50% ceiling in the NPPF’s Golden Rules for Green Belt release. It drew 35 representations, including 32 objections.

Neither is decided. Both register entries now read “To be Considered DMC-Date to be Agreed”. One small detail shows how long this has been rolling: the New Road officer report still carries the header “Development Management Committee, 18 August 2026”.

We covered both schemes in detail on 6 September: New Road, Stanborough and Colesdale Farm, Cuffley.

Timeline showing the Welwyn Hatfield Development Management Committee last meeting on 23 July 2026, cancelled meetings on 19 August and 10 September, the next scheduled meeting on 22 October, and the new planning regulations coming into force on 31 October 2026.
Graphic by Welwyn Online. Meeting dates from the council's own meetings calendar; the commencement date is in regulation 1(2) of SI 2026/854.

Why the delay matters more than usual this autumn

The route that put both applications in front of councillors is about to be replaced.

The Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026, made on 15 July and signed by housing minister Matthew Pennycook, come into force on 31 October 2026. That is nine days after the committee’s next scheduled meeting. They split planning applications in two:

  • Schedule 1 applications must be decided by an officer. Councils have no discretion. The list includes householder applications, minor commercial and minor residential applications, lawful development certificates, non-material amendments and most reserved matters approvals.
  • Schedule 2 applications go to an officer by default. They reach a committee only if a nominated member and a nominated officer both agree that the application raises “one or more issues of economic, social or environmental significance to the local area” or “one or more significant planning matters”.

Regulation 7 also caps any committee determining applications at 13 members. Welwyn Hatfield’s committee currently has 12, so that part changes nothing here.

Full Council is asked to rewrite the constitution to match at its meeting on Wednesday 16 September. The report by the Executive Director (Place) is blunt about what goes. At paragraph 3.17 it says the current call-in process “will need to be replaced by a process that is consistent with the statutory gateway”, and that a request for committee consideration “will need to explain why the application meets the relevant statutory criteria for referral, rather than operating as an automatic or locally discretionary call-in mechanism”.

The council’s cross-party Constitution Review Group put it more plainly on 12 August. Its minutes record that “Parish Council’s would not be able to call in decisions as they were currently able”, though they could still comment.

Both of tonight’s applications got there by a route that is closing

This is not abstract. Look at how each of the two schemes reached the committee at all.

  • New Road, Stanborough is at committee “because Councillor James Broach requested for the application to be called-in”, the officer report says at paragraph 3.1. Councillor Broach is a ward member for Hatfield Villages and vice-chairman of the committee.
  • Colesdale Farm, Cuffley is at committee “because Northaw and Cuffley Parish Council have submitted a Major objection and the proposal is recommended for approval”, at paragraph 3.1 of its report. That is precisely the parish route the Constitution Review Group recorded as going.

It runs wider than two sites. The future applications report written for tonight’s cancelled meeting lists 19 more applications queued for committee. Ten are there because a parish council lodged a major objection: six from North Mymms, three from Northaw and Cuffley, one from Welwyn. The other nine were called in by borough councillors. Among them:

  • 437 homes, a cycle bridge and a two-form-entry primary school west of Brookmans Park railway station, expected at committee in November 2026
  • 127 homes north of Dixons Hill Road, Welham Green
  • 317 homes with outline for up to 404 more on the south side of the former Shredded Wheat factory on Broadwater Road, called in on 31 March 2021
  • 169 homes at Panshanger Aerodrome, a reserved matters application called in in 2025

Under the draft constitution the default nominated officer is the Assistant Director (Planning) and the default nominated member is the chairman of the Development Management Committee, or the vice-chairman in their absence. The committee’s chairman is Councillor Jean-Paul Bernard Skoczylas and its vice-chairman is Councillor James Broach.

The regulations run to eight regulations and two schedules. They contain no transitional provision for applications already referred to a committee, and the council’s own report to Full Council does not address what happens to the queue.

What it means for you

If you have objected to a scheme in the borough, or you were planning to ask your councillor or parish council to have it heard in public, three things follow.

  1. Nothing is decided yet on either Green Belt scheme. The next chance is 22 October, and no new date has been set for them. Both register entries say the committee date is “to be Agreed”.
  2. Written representations still count, and always will. The council’s report is explicit that the new rules do not stop councillors, parish councils, statutory consultees or residents making representations, and that those remain material where they raise planning considerations. What changes is the route to a public hearing, not the right to be heard on paper.
  3. If you want an application heard by councillors rather than an officer, the argument you make now has to be a planning one. From 31 October a referral request must explain why the application raises issues of economic, social or environmental significance to the area, or significant planning matters. “A lot of people object” is no longer a route on its own, though it may still be evidence of significance.

Both Green Belt schemes carry one more step even if the committee approves them. Each officer recommendation requires referral to the Secretary of State under the Town and Country Planning (Consultation) (England) Direction 2024 before any permission is issued, because they are Green Belt departures. Each also requires a section 106 agreement and, tellingly, “the agreement of any necessary extensions to the statutory determination period”.

You can check the status of any application yourself on the council’s planning register, and we track the borough’s bigger schemes on Welwyn Hatfield planning news. The 16 September Full Council also takes the Regulation 19 Local Plan, which sets out where the borough proposes to put roughly 14,796 homes to 2043.

Frequently asked questions

When is the next Welwyn Hatfield planning committee?

Thursday 22 October 2026. The 19 August and 10 September meetings were both cancelled, and the committee last met on 23 July 2026.

Have the Stanborough and Cuffley housing schemes been approved?

No. Neither has been decided. Both were recommended for approval by officers, and both register entries currently read “To be Considered DMC-Date to be Agreed”.

Can I still object to a planning application after 31 October?

Yes. The new regulations do not change anyone’s right to make representations. What changes is how an application reaches a committee rather than an officer: a nominated member and a nominated officer must agree that it raises issues of significance to the area or significant planning matters.

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