News and Updates

17 September 2025

As the hearing sessions are in person sessions there is no requirement to live stream the hearings. The Council kindly offered to include a live stream for the hearings, but unfortunately there were some technical difficulties yesterday and on occasion it was not possible to hear all the discussions. The hearings were paused yesterday to try to resolve the issues, but if the technical difficulties cannot be fixed this morning, there will not be any further pauses in the hearings to try to resolve these issues. If you wish to be sure of hearing the discussions please come to the Council offices where you will be able to listen to the discussions in person.

16 September 2025

The Council's Opening Statement at the hearing sessions of the Examination of the Local Plan is available in the Examination Documents at DBC/ED34.

11 September 2025

An updated Hearings Programme including the participants for each of the sessions in the Stage 1 hearings is available on the Hearing Sessions page.

5 September 2025

Three Statements of Common Ground have been submitted and are available in the Examination Documents:

DBC/ED31 SoCG between DBC and National Highways
DBC/ED32 SoCG between DBC and David Lock on behalf of The Crown Estate (Hemel Hempstead growth area Hm01)
DBC/ED33 SoCG between DBC and Pegasus Group for Catesby Estates (Tr02)

5 September 2025

The Stage 1 Hearing Statements can be viewed on the Hearing Statements page.

29 August 2025

The Stage 2 hearings of the Dacorum Local Plan Examination will be a joint in-person hearings with St Albans City & District Council to examine the strategic issues relating to Hemel Garden Communities. The Stage 2 hearings will be held on Tuesday 21 October 2025 and will be held at the St Albans city and District Council offices. For further information please see the hearing sessions page.

The Stage 1 hearings of the Examination of the Dacorum Local Plan have now been arranged. These will be held in-person in Dacorum’s Council Chamber and will open at 10.00 am on Tuesday 16th September 2025. For further information on the hearings please see the Hearing Sessions page.

The Council’s response to the Inspectors’ further questions (DBC/ED5) can be viewed in the Examination Documents at DBC/ED6 through to DBC/ED11. There are also a number of Statements of Common Ground that have been submitted and are referenced DBC/ED12 through to DBC/ED24 in the Examination Documents.

The Inspectors have agreed to a short extension to the deadline for the Council to respond to their further questions (DBC/ED5) from close of business on Friday 27 June to close of business on Wednesday 2 July.

The Inspectors have written to the Council with some further questions. Their letter can be viewed at DBC/ED5 in the Examination Documents.