Reader’s letter: East Herts Council has declared a climate emergency – but also a war on heat pumps

This reader’s letter was first published in the August 14 print edition of the Bishop’s Stortford Independent...

Shortly following the district council elections in May 2023, East Herts Council (EHC) declared a climate emergency, calling on all levels of government “to do everything within their powers to limit the negative impacts of climate breakdown”.

Yet the council has declared war on those who want to replace their gas boiler with a heat pump, one of the most effective ways an individual can combat climate change. Cllr Eric Buckmaster’s question to council highlighted this (“Tory quizzes Green-led council over blocking heat pump plans”, Stortford Indie).

The war has, until now, been visible only to those unlucky enough to seek planning permission. The recently published policy makes it plain for all to see.

The council’s ‘noise rating calculator’ requires a standard 50 times more demanding than the Government’s national standard, unless you live in an area classed as ‘urban’, in which case it is a mere six times more demanding.

Either way, your garden may need to be the size of your dreams to comply. The leader of the council, Cllr Ben Crystall (Green, Hertford Bengeo), is lucky to have such a garden (and has recently received permission), but most folk need not apply.

In a concrete example, a planning application for a house (not mine!) directly under the flight path and just 20m from the busy A-road between Harlow and Bishop’s Stortford was recently refused.

The site was considered ‘rural’, not ‘urban’, and the heat pump, independently certified as one of the quietest on the market, would need to be located 56 metres (184ft) from the neighbouring property to meet the East Herts criteria (roughly the same volume as rustling leaves).

This could be reduced to 18m (59ft) if the heat pump were surrounded by a costly 2m (6ft 7in) high barrier or an expensive acoustic enclosure. How many people have the space and/or can afford either of these?

So far as I have been able to tell (from Freedom of Information requests), the policy has been devised by an individual, unelected officer without public engagement or consultation with the elected EHC councillors.

The officer in question has, on repeated occasions, refused to explain their reasoning fully or engage in meaningful discussion.

Nevertheless, Cllr Vicky Glover-Ward, EHC’s executive member for planning, was prepared to defend the policy at the recent council meeting. Cllr Buckmaster has requested a full review, but as yet there is no news on when, or even whether, a review will take place.

Some people will not need planning permission because they can install under national ‘permitted development’ rules. However, two ambiguous conditions in the legislation where the rules are set out (full details can be found in The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, Sch 2 Part 14 G3 b & c) hand a loaded gun to the council.

If the council disagrees with the householder’s interpretation of these conditions, they can insist on removal of the heating system with just 28 days’ notice, and the only route of appeal is to the High Court. Given the antipathy that the policy published by EHC shows towards heat pumps, a householder might be ill advised to risk this.

If there had been proper public consultation and/or informed scrutiny by elected councillors, the policy would merely be perverse when set against the declaration of a ‘climate emergency’.

As it is, the policy appears to be both perverse and undemocratic. How Green is East Herts Council really?

Name and address withheld at author’s request – Editor