Hello,

A while ago, you very kindly signed a petition to ask Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council to save Singlers Marsh from being developed.  Your support was invaluable in showing the council how strong local feeling is about this lovely piece of countryside in the heart of our village.

However, we need your help once again.  We are now fundraising for our legal costs to preserve Singlers Marsh for future generations.  What follows is some detail on this but, if you want to cut to the chase, our JustGiving link is here.

The council is very proud that it has kept Singlers Marsh out of the new Local Plan.  So proud, in fact, that they've glossed over the underlying truth of the situation - they've only saved it for five years.  In other words, in just 60 months' time, all the debate about where to build new homes will start up again, and Singlers Marsh is sure to be top of the list.

Locals in Welwyn have formed the Singlers Marsh Action Group to campaign for longer term protection for this wonderful green space.  We have found a solution, and have applied to register it as an official Village Green.  This could have been plain sailing, but the council decided to oppose the application, for reasons that they repeatedly refuse to reveal.  We suspect it may be something to do with the 7-figure sum of money that the property developer is rumoured to have offered them for the land.

As a result of the Village Green application being opposed by the council, a lengthy legal inquiry has begun.  Locals were willing to represent themselves, for free, at the inquiry, but then we discovered that the council was going to use a King's Counsel - one of the most expensive types of barrister you can find.  So we have had to hire a barrister too.

We estimate that our legal costs over the duration of the inquiry will come to around £40,000.  We think the council's costs will easily exceed £100,000 - that's hard-earned taxpayers' money.  Their decision also means that the county council (who are neutral in this) will have to pay over £100,000 to run the inquiry - more taxpayers' money getting wasted.

Rather than listen to the clear message of public opinion, the council has chosen to waste a vast amount of our money in opposing something that the whole village wants.  And we now have to find £40,000 to pursue the Village Green application.

If you are able to help with a donation towards our legal fund, no matter how small it might be, we have set up a JustGiving page for people to contribute at, and we are immensely grateful for your support.

You can also find more information about the situation on this factsheet.

If you would like to find out more, you can contact us at save@singlersmarsh.org.uk.

Thank you for reading this far, and for your support to help us to Save Singlers Marsh.