Residential parking restrictions back in force

Coronavirus pause ends with warning to motorists

Parking restrictions are being enforced again across Welwyn Hatfield.

The resident parking scheme was paused in March because of the impact of the pandemic, but the borough council has decided to reintroduce the scheme due to an increase in traffic.

Campaign against flats conversion continues

Another letter delivered door-to-door

11 Brookmans Avenue, Brookmans Park
Image by North Mymms News released via Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0

The Brookmans Park Estate Residents Committee (BPERC) has circulated another letter urging people to oppose the development of flats at 11 Brookmans Avenue, with a reminder that the 30-day period to object is under way.

The day North Mymms entered aviation history

When the first flight over England touched down in a local field

Lunardi during his historic flight over Hertfordshire
Drawing by George Moutard Woodward
Image courtesy of The British Museum released via Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0

On the afternoon of Wednesday 15 September 1784, North Mymms entered aviation history. The Italian balloonist, Vincenzo Lunardi, making the first manned aerial voyage over England, touched down briefly in a cornfield near the parish border with Northaw.

75 tonnes of timber cleared from Gobions Wood

Wood to be sold to help cover cost of managing the reserve

Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust (HMWT) says it has finished removing logs from Gobions Wood, although several have been left “to develop a natural dead-wood habitat”. The work took two weeks to complete - one week to cut the timber and another to remove it.

The North Mymms slavery connections

A microcosm of global “conquest, trade, enrichment and exploitation”

Gobions from south-west - tinted print by  J.P Neale 1818
Image Courtesy of Peter Miller

Between 1700 and 1850, wealth derived from India and the Caribbean was channelled into North Mymms through the purchasing of land and development of property.

The four North Mymms manor houses, Brookmans, Gobions, Potterells, and Moffats, have, in the past, been owned by families who, between them, enslaved 690 people.

These global connections are still visible throughout the parish today, providing reminders that the history of North Mymms is intricately linked to that of Britain’s expanding empire in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Bell Bar housing plans “overwhelming”

Residents group says it’s “appalled by what is planned”

BrP1 Bell Bar looking north from Bell Lane
Image by North Mymms News released via Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0

An action group has been set up to oppose the potential allocation of a site for 130 houses in Bell Bar.

The site, known as BrP1, is contained in proposed changes to the Welwyn Hatfield Local Plan which was subject to a public consultation earlier this year.

The Bell Lane Action Group (BLAG) says the proposal for developing the site is “overwhelming” and the group intends to oppose the plan “all the way”.

Tribunal to consider Brookmans Avenue flats

Occupiers put their case, residents’ group calls for objections

11 Brookmans Avenue photographed 16 June 2020
Image by North Mymms News released via Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0

A couple who demolished their Brookmans Park house in order to build apartments on the plot so they could “downsize and remain in the village” where they have “lived happily for 40 years” have spoken out about efforts to oppose the development.