What You’ve Already Told Us

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SW Herts Your Future

Before we began preparing the Plan itself, we wanted to get a better understanding from those who live and work locally about what they like about the area now, and what we should be prioritising as we look to shape the future.

To help with this we carried out a ‘SW Herts Your Future’ poll in early 2020

We were delighted this early engagement resulted in:

  • Over 10,100 visits to the engagement website
  • Over 3,200 individuals of the community participating
  • Over 14,900 pieces of feedback
  • Over 2,000 pieces of ‘free text’ feedback
  • Over 600 individuals providing contact details to be involved in future engagement
  • An even spread of ages of respondents, from under 25's to over 65's
  • Clear emerging consensus on priorities

One of the key messages from the poll was that 86% of local people felt happy about living or working in SW Herts. Their favourite things about the area were parks, open spaces and its closeness to London.

In terms of improvements, better health facilities were the priority for most respondents. Additionally, three key themes were identified from individual feedback, these being green spaces, local infrastructure and healthcare facilities.

In terms of priorities for improving the area, 65% of people voted for ‘Better Health Facilities’. For the under 25s, ‘Easier to get around’, ‘Better housing choice’ and ‘Better health facilities’ were the top three results.

All the information that has been collected from this poll will be used to inform the content of the JSP.

Click here to read all the poll feedback.

Creating Our Vision

In early 2022 we began work on creating a draft vision for South West Hertfordshire. This will help provide a framework to create the Joint Strategic Plan (JSP) and set priorities.

The process to develop the vision has adopted a fresh and innovative approach that challenges current thinking, considers future societal, lifestyle and technical changes, takes into account South West Hertfordshire's unique features, and engages a wide group of stakeholders including residents, businesses and youth.

We ran a series of workshops involving local councillors, businesses and key stakeholders. The workshops helped build further perceptions of the opportunities and challenges facing South West Herts today as well as looking forward to changes and trends that may inform how we might live, work, move and play differently in the future. The workshops were an important part of the work we are doing to listen to local people and involve everyone in shaping the vision for the future. Please follow the links on the right to view the outputs from these workshops. At the end of this process our consultants prepared a Vision Report, which formed the basis of our ‘Realising our Potential’ engagement (see below).


Time to think differently: Futurologist viewpoints

We heard from some inspiring thinkers to help challenge ourselves to broaden our perspectives, ambitions and potential.

• What kind of future for SW Herts? - Sue Riddlestone OBE, CEO Bioregional

• A vision for transport in SW Herts - Stephen Joseph, Visiting Professor University of Hertfordshire

• Thinking differently and bigger - Paul Clarke CBE FREng, Government and Industry Advisor


Realising our Potential engagement

Consultation on the South West Hertfordshire 2050 - ‘Realising our Potential’ ran from 5th September to 4th November 2022.

The consultation sought feedback on a draft vision and principles for South West Herts to 2050. You can still view our document here.

In support of the ‘Realising our Potential’ document, we also prepared a series of Topic Papers. These elaborate and further explain the issues covered in the ‘Realising Our Potential’ (September 2022) consultation document and are set out on a thematic basis. These Topic Papers and other background documents are available here.

Following the close of the consultation we reviewed all of the feedback received, and as a result, decided to make some amendments to the draft vision and principles. The final vision and principles that will help shape the Joint Strategic Plan is here.

How we carried out the consultation was guided by our Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) and a Communications and Engagement Plan.

A summary of the feedback received and how we have taken account of this is set out in our Consultation Reports. All of the comments received will help us to plan for the future of South West Hertfordshire.

SW Herts Your Future

Before we began preparing the Plan itself, we wanted to get a better understanding from those who live and work locally about what they like about the area now, and what we should be prioritising as we look to shape the future.

To help with this we carried out a ‘SW Herts Your Future’ poll in early 2020

We were delighted this early engagement resulted in:

  • Over 10,100 visits to the engagement website
  • Over 3,200 individuals of the community participating
  • Over 14,900 pieces of feedback
  • Over 2,000 pieces of ‘free text’ feedback
  • Over 600 individuals providing contact details to be involved in future engagement
  • An even spread of ages of respondents, from under 25's to over 65's
  • Clear emerging consensus on priorities

One of the key messages from the poll was that 86% of local people felt happy about living or working in SW Herts. Their favourite things about the area were parks, open spaces and its closeness to London.

In terms of improvements, better health facilities were the priority for most respondents. Additionally, three key themes were identified from individual feedback, these being green spaces, local infrastructure and healthcare facilities.

In terms of priorities for improving the area, 65% of people voted for ‘Better Health Facilities’. For the under 25s, ‘Easier to get around’, ‘Better housing choice’ and ‘Better health facilities’ were the top three results.

All the information that has been collected from this poll will be used to inform the content of the JSP.

Click here to read all the poll feedback.

Creating Our Vision

In early 2022 we began work on creating a draft vision for South West Hertfordshire. This will help provide a framework to create the Joint Strategic Plan (JSP) and set priorities.

The process to develop the vision has adopted a fresh and innovative approach that challenges current thinking, considers future societal, lifestyle and technical changes, takes into account South West Hertfordshire's unique features, and engages a wide group of stakeholders including residents, businesses and youth.

We ran a series of workshops involving local councillors, businesses and key stakeholders. The workshops helped build further perceptions of the opportunities and challenges facing South West Herts today as well as looking forward to changes and trends that may inform how we might live, work, move and play differently in the future. The workshops were an important part of the work we are doing to listen to local people and involve everyone in shaping the vision for the future. Please follow the links on the right to view the outputs from these workshops. At the end of this process our consultants prepared a Vision Report, which formed the basis of our ‘Realising our Potential’ engagement (see below).


Time to think differently: Futurologist viewpoints

We heard from some inspiring thinkers to help challenge ourselves to broaden our perspectives, ambitions and potential.

• What kind of future for SW Herts? - Sue Riddlestone OBE, CEO Bioregional

• A vision for transport in SW Herts - Stephen Joseph, Visiting Professor University of Hertfordshire

• Thinking differently and bigger - Paul Clarke CBE FREng, Government and Industry Advisor


Realising our Potential engagement

Consultation on the South West Hertfordshire 2050 - ‘Realising our Potential’ ran from 5th September to 4th November 2022.

The consultation sought feedback on a draft vision and principles for South West Herts to 2050. You can still view our document here.

In support of the ‘Realising our Potential’ document, we also prepared a series of Topic Papers. These elaborate and further explain the issues covered in the ‘Realising Our Potential’ (September 2022) consultation document and are set out on a thematic basis. These Topic Papers and other background documents are available here.

Following the close of the consultation we reviewed all of the feedback received, and as a result, decided to make some amendments to the draft vision and principles. The final vision and principles that will help shape the Joint Strategic Plan is here.

How we carried out the consultation was guided by our Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) and a Communications and Engagement Plan.

A summary of the feedback received and how we have taken account of this is set out in our Consultation Reports. All of the comments received will help us to plan for the future of South West Hertfordshire.