An already built electricity substation near a new housing development in South Oxhey has been granted retrospective planning permission by Three Rivers District Council.
The substation is located on Foxgrove Path, at the entrance to a new development of 53 homes for Watford Community Housing.
While councillors unanimously voted to approve the substation at a planning committee meeting yesterday (Thursday, August 14), several expressed unhappiness that Howarth Contractors’ application was only coming forward retrospectively.
Cllr Oliver Cooper said: “Electricity substations are absolutely essential to be built, and therefore, as a result, I welcome it and put great weight on that.
“Clearly, it being retrospective means that the choice of site as to where it is built is non-existent.
“If this application had been made ahead of time, with the substation in that location, separating visually the development from the rest of the community, I think it would have been a significant material consideration against approving the application in the first instance.
“It’s incongruous, and it separates existing and new buildings in a way that we wouldn’t accept ordinarily. I will support it, but begrudgingly.”
Similarly, Cllr Chris Lloyd said: “It should be conveyed to the applicant that we are not happy. I would hope that in future … they do not put in retrospective applications.
“We will reluctantly support it because it’s obviously required, but the siting of it is probably … not where we would have chosen to put it.”
The application was automatically called into the planning committee for a decision because the site of the 2.4m-high substation includes land owned by the district council.
Council officers said that the development of the 53 homes is “well advanced, with many houses substantially complete externally”.
They recommended that councillors approve the application, stating that the harm caused by its appearance would be “very limited”.
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