FAQs
Purpose: SPDs expand on existing planning policies rather than introducing new ones. They help explain how policies will be applied in practice.
Content: They often cover topics like design standards, affordable housing requirements, parking guidelines, or developer contributions.
Status: SPDs are not legally binding in the same way as the Local Plan, but they are a material consideration in planning decisions.
Consultation: Before adoption, SPDs go through public consultation to gather feedback from residents, developers, and stakeholders.
Pillar 1 - Green Network helps us to move around and live in a healthy and sustainable way.
Pillar 2 - Integrated Neighbourhoods aim to make our communities safe, walkable, well-designed and connected.
Pillar 3 - Self-sustaining Economy seeks to create a vibrant and diverse local jobs market, supported by innovative and sustainable industries, with thriving high streets and local centres.
Pillar 4 - Engaged Communities aim is to ensure local people, their heritage and culture, shape the town’s future.
The HGC Growth Areas: DBC Local Plan Allocation Hm01 North Hemel Hempstead and SADC Local Plan Allocations H1 North Hemel Hempstead, H2 East Hemel Hempstead North, H3 East Hemel Hempstead Central and H4 East Hemel Hempstead South;
Strategic Sites: DBC Local Plan Allocations Hm11 Land at Shendish Manor and Fairfields and Hm13 Polehanger Lane;
Town Centre Opportunity Area sites: DBC Local Plan Allocations Hm02 Civic Centre; Hm03 Hemel Hempstead Hospital; Hm04 Paradise; Hm05 Market Square; Hm06 Riverside and Town Centre Opportunity Area windfall sites;
Two Waters Opportunity Area sites: DBC Local Plan Allocations Hm07 Symbio Site, Whiteleaf Road; Hm08 Hemel Hempstead Station Gateway; Hm09 - National Grid 339-353 London Road; Hm10 Apsley Mills Retail Park and Two Waters Opportunity Area windfall sites; and,
Other sites which fall outside the above categories: DBC Local Plan Allocations; Hm14 Marchmont Farm; Hm15 Old Town; Hm16 Site to the south of Green Lane; Hm17 Jarman Park and windfall sites.
Green and Blue Infrastructure – ensuring that nature, resilience, and biodiversity are embedded across the town, creating a common landscape identity and accessible networks that connect communities.
Transport and Mobility – to deliver the physical and behavioural shift needed to unify neighbourhoods, centres, and employment areas, making sustainable travel the default choice and strengthening connectivity across the Programme Area and to the surrounding area.
Placemaking – putting people at the heart of transformation, ensuring that social infrastructure, cultural identity, and stewardship mechanisms bind new and existing communities together into one cohesive town.
Transport
Education
Community Facilities
Green Infrastructure
Sports and Leisure
Transformation
Health and Social Care
Utilities
Waste
What is Hemel Garden Communities?
Hemel Garden Communities is a strategic cross-boundary project, within St Albans City & District and within Dacorum Borough, which will deliver approximately 11,000 homes and 10,000 jobs up to 2050.
Collaborating as a partnership St Albans City and District Council (SADC), Dacorum Borough Council (DBC), Hertfordshire County Council (HCC), Hertfordshire Futures and the Hertfordshire Enviro-Tech Enterprise Zone, known as Hertfordshire Innovation Quarter (Herts IQ), are working together, alongside stakeholders and landowners.
For more information visit our website here.
What is a Supplementary Planning Document?
A Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) is a type of planning guidance used in England to provide additional detail and advice on policies contained in a Local Plan.
The purpose of this SPD is to clarify, illustrate or provide detail on how Local Plan policies should be applied in practice, and they will help to inform future development across the town.
Why is a Framework & Transformation (F&T) Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) needed?
The F&T SPD is being prepared jointly by Dacorum Borough Council and St Albans City & District Council to support the delivery of strategic growth within the HGC Programme Area. It provides detailed planning and design guidance to support the implementation of policies set out in the respective Local Plans.
The F&T SPD has been prepared in accordance with the Councils’ adopted and emerging policies and guidance. It builds in particular on the Hemel Garden Communities (HGC) Spatial Vision and HGC evidence base, and the St Albans City and District Council Local Plan policies LG2 and LG3, alongside the equivalent Dacorum Borough Council Local Plan policies HGC1, HGC2, HGC3, HGC4 and HGC5.
What is HGC's Spatial Vision?
The HGC Spatial Vision and Evidence Library have informed the Framework & Transformation SPD. HGG Spatial Vision, together with HGC Evidence Library including relevant DBC, SADC and HCC guidance, have informed Framework & Transformation SPD. The Spatial Vision is organised into four thematic pillars and two overarching themes of Climate Resilience and Healthy Lifestyles:
What is the spatial coverage of Framework & Transformation Supplementary Planning Document (SPD)?
The spatial scope of the SPD extends across the entire HGC Programme Area, including the existing town and the designated Growth Areas. The SPD provides guidance on both strategic delivery requirements and detailed, site-specific considerations. The HGC Programme Area comprises:
What are the draft HGC Framework and Transformation delivery objectives?
This SPD objectives consider two central aspects to the HGC Programme: Delivery and Implementation set out in section A2; and the Delivery Transformation section A3. The strategy has been developed to support the delivery of the objectives relating to One Place, Governance and Community, and Placemaking.
What is the 'One Place' concept?
Hemel Garden Communities Programme is based on the concept of ‘One Place’, with the aim of sharing the benefits of growth and transformation of the town across both existing and new communities. The concept aims to make sure that new communities in the Growth Areas, Opportunity Areas and Strategic Sites are integrated into the town’s social, cultural and economic life, and that the new facilities and opportunities opened up by the growth of the town are accessible and usable by all. The Four Pillars of the Spatial Vision set out the key principles that will make this happen.
Are delivery requirements set out in the Supplementary Planning Document?
The F&T SPD plays a coordinating role in guiding the delivery of development across multiple sites within the HGC Programme Area. It draws upon the HGC Evidence Base, relevant local authority SPDs, and Hertfordshire County Council guidance to establish a consistent framework for growth.
The SPD sets out the strategy for delivery and implementation and includes ‘Delivery Requirements’ for the applicant, and for the authorities. These requirements are specified as either a ‘Must’ have requirement or a ‘Should’ have:
‘Must’ have indicates a requirement. Applicants and Authorities must comply with these elements to be considered policy-compliant. These are essential to delivering the intended quality, functionality, and character of development.
‘Should’ indicates a strong recommendation. Applicants and Authorities are encouraged to incorporate these elements wherever possible. Deviation may be justified, but only where it can be clearly demonstrated that the intention of the code is still being met through alternative approaches.
How will Transformation be delivered?
The SPD supports the integration of new development with existing communities and infrastructure, contributing to the long-term transformation of Hemel Hempstead.
The SPD sets out a vision and objectives for achieving comprehensive change across the Hemel Garden Communities Programme Area. It identifies infrastructure priorities, Applicant and Authority requirements and defines delivery into three core themes:
Where are the infrastructure requirements set out?
Infrastructure requirements are set out within the Local Plan Policies (DBC/SADC); the Local Plan IDPs (DBC/SADC); the Hemel Garden Communities (HGC) IDP to 2050; the North Hemel Garden Communities Growth Areas Infrastructure Phasing and Delivery Strategy and HCC Developers Guide to Contributions.
The HGC IDP to 2050 categories infrastructure into 10 categories:
What is the difference between the Local Plan IDPs (DBC/SADC) and the HGC IPD to 2050?
The HGC IDP to 2050 builds on the findings of the district IDPs, identifying the specific infrastructure requirements within them that are also relevant to the planned growth in the Garden Communities Programme Area. Infrastructure has been identified where it supports the delivery of specific sites, as well as the wider growth and transformation of the Programme Area.
What is strategic infrastructure’?
Strategic infrastructure serves more than one development parcel. Examples of strategic infrastructure include the Sustainable Transport Corridor (Growth Areas), playing pitches, SANG, School provision, any other potential district-wide assets like a Country Park.
How will infrastructure phasing be set out?
This Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) sets out principles for phasing and infrastructure delivery. This SPD does not seek to prescribe a fixed phasing plan, but the Authorities will be responsible for setting the overall framework for phasing and infrastructure delivery. Further detail is contained within the HGC IDP to 2050 and the North Hemel Garden Communities Growth Areas Infrastructure Phasing and Delivery Strategy.
How will infrastructure be funded?
Planning obligations and developer contributions form a central part of the funding framework. External funding will also be sourced such as from Homes England or government programmes. Securing external funding does not remove the requirement for developer contributions; rather, it enables forward funding and creates opportunities for a revolving infrastructure fund.
How does the SPD deal with with the management of additional traffic, in particular the ambitious sustainable transport targets and future levels of car parking?
The SPD has been prepared in accordance with the Councils’ emerging policies and guidance, including transport and infrastructure policies. It builds upon the Hemel Garden Communities’ evidence base and the St Albans City and District Council and Dacorum Borough Council Local Plan policies.
The F&T SPD sets out strategic expectations for the routing, delivery and phasing of key networks, including of the Nickey Line, the Green Loop and Sustainable Transport Corridor. Developers should take account of this guidance to support their masterplans.
The Nickey Line Vision & Strategy study has informed the transformative guidance in the F&T SPD. This work has been coordinated with related studies, led by HGC partners including HCC and Hertfordshire Futures.
The authorities plan to develop further detail on the Green Loop to support appropriate masterplan design development by developers. Currently, developers with live applications would be expected to deliver the sections within their own sites, in line with the draft guidance included.
The F&T SPD sets out strategic expectations for Strategic Transport Corridor (STC) routing, delivery and phasing. Developers will take account of this guidance to support their masterplans.
As part of the Local Plans, and HGC SPDs consultation, there has been further supporting documents on transport infrastructure. The Local Plan teams at both councils engaged with National Highways as part of the Local Plan consultations to help address any strategic highway network matters. Transport evidence has been considered in development of the F&T SPD. Extensive Local Plan COMET modelling and the emerging draft HGC Infrastructure Delivery Plan (IDP) apportionment modelling was undertaken to support both processes.
One of the key transport evidence documents that informed the F&T SPD is the HGC Transport Vision & Strategy (TV&S) with ambitious active travel targets of 60% of all trips within the growth areas to be obtained by sustainable means of travel, and 40% of all trips in existing town to be obtained by sustainable means of travel by 2050.
To support these targets, several technical background work studies were completed or will be undertaken by HGC partners, including the Hemel Hempstead Transport Study (HHTS), IDPs, LCWIP[PZ1] , as well as further behaviour change technical work, and plans for updating the current car parking strategy.
Aside from the SPD content, development proposals would need to demonstrate that any additional traffic can be supported on the network, which may include highway works to mitigate any impacts. This would be considered as part of any future determination of planning applications.
View DBC Draft Local Plan full evidence library which contains Transport documents
How will modal shift be supported?
The next stages of work include studies on Behaviour Change, Parking and Bus strategies, and a feasibility study to support the proposed Green Loop.
What is an active frontage and how will this improve the shop fronts in the high street / Marlowes?
'Active frontage' in design codes refers to building ground floors designed to encourage interaction between the interior and public space, fostering vitality and safety. Key elements include frequent doors/windows that attracts more people, increases visual interest and improves safety.
What does Part B of the Supplementary Planning Document (SPD), Site-Specific Strategic Design Code support?
Part B provides strategic design guidance for individual sites to support the delivery objectives for ‘One Place’ and Community and Placemaking. While it’s not a detailed masterplan, it establishes design principles aimed at ensuring high-quality distinctive places. It helps developers follow a structured design process, encourages continuous dialogue and sets the design standards for new developments (‘Must’ and ‘Should’ haves).
How will each development be monitored to ensure compliance with the design code?
Wide engagement and training with Development Management Officers is planned. The design codes are strategic in nature and should inform any future planning applications, and these will be reviewed by officers. The accompanying applicant checklist will support this process.