During the latter part of 2024, Dacorum Borough Council has approved two SANGs. The first of these is the land behind and to the east of Castle Hill, the second is a site at Haresfoot Farm, White Hill – the lane which leads from the bridge over the by-pass near to Ashlyns Hall and Ashlyns School towards Whelpley Hill. Another proposed SANG is situated at Nettleden Road, Potten End (near Water End) and yet another at Gaddesden Row.
Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspaces (more commonly known by their acronym, SANGs) were brought about as part of a mitigation strategy to protect the Chiltern Beechwoods Special Area of Conservation (SAC). The Chiltern Beechwoods SAC is made up of nine separate sites across the Chilterns, of which Ashridge Commons and Woods Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The sites in Hertfordshire comprise 35 percent of the total area of the Chiltern Beechwoods SAC.
The Chilterns Beechwoods Special Area of Conservation Mitigation Strategy was agreed with Natural England and published in November 2022. The strategy is applicable throughout the Zone of Influence, an area within a 12.6-kilometre radius from Ashridge. This area extends across all of Dacorum Borough and into the edges of the four adjacent local authorities: St Albans City and District and Three Rivers District in Hertfordshire, and Buckinghamshire and Central Bedfordshire Councils.
The mitigation places new, mandatory requirements on development. Each new development that increases the number of residents within the Zone of Influence, even if only one dwelling unit, must:
- pay a fee that goes to the National Trust, who administer most of the Ashridge Estate, to help implement a variety of on-site measures to alleviate visitor pressures; and
- contribute to an existing Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace (SANG) elsewhere in the borough or create a new SANG, so as to deflect visitors away from Ashridge, and to the SANG.
The requirements for SANGs are spelled out in detail in the Mitigation Strategy, including their size, types of landscape, public access and accessibility, length of footpaths, perimeter fencing to allow dogs to roam off-lead, and many other criteria.
The mitigation strategy also describes an ambition for new ‘gateway sites’. The purpose of a gateway site is similar to that of a SANG, to create an attractive alternative to Ashridge that deflects users away, reducing recreational pressures. But a key difference between a SANG and a gateway site is that the latter needs to be well related to the existing Ashridge Estate and importantly on land outside of the SAC. A gateway site also should provide equivalent attractions and facilities sufficient to draw people away from more sensitive areas within Ashridge.
Are SANGs ‘good’ or ‘bad’ ? Though apparently well-intentioned, with the aim of reducing visitor pressure on Ashridge, with their associated car parks, fencing and signage, they provide a ‘managed and manicured’ view of the countryside. 24-hour access to the sites also brings the risk of anti-social behaviour being focussed at their locations. One of the organisations too which the BCA is affiliated, CPRE Hertfordshire, states the following with regard to SANGs :
“CPRE Hertfordshire believes a more coordinated and comprehensive review of SANG provision is required to fulfil the objectives of the Chilterns Beechwoods Special Area of Conservation (SAC) Mitigation Strategy.
We are concerned that the Mitigation Strategy achieves the objectives of reducing the detrimental impacts of over-use at the Ashridge Estate, and is not seen simply as a means of developers discharging planning obligations for proposed developments without considering the full range of impacts on the locations selected. This is particularly important given the protection afforded by Green Belt, Rural Area and National Landscape (AONB) designations at this location. We are also concerned about the harmful impact on wildlife (including four ground-nesting bird species protected by Section 41) and on the River Gade chalk stream.”