Hearing sessions

The hearing sessions will take place in two stages.  Stage 1 will cover strategic issues relating to Legal Compliance, Housing Needs, the Spatial Strategy and Green Belt release. 

Stage 1 Hearing Sessions

The Stage 1 hearings will take place at the Council Offices, Civic Centre, St. Peter’s Street, St Albans AL1 3JE. These will run between Tuesday 29 April and Friday 2 May 2025 opening at 10.00 am on Tuesday 29 April 2025.   

Stage 1 Hearing Sessions Documents:

• Draft Programme & Participants(V3).28.4.25.pdf
   
• ED68    Inspectors’ Examination Guidance Note
• ED69    Inspectors' Matters, Issues and Questions
• ED70    Draft Programme Stage 1 Hearings V.1

Stage 2 Hearing Sessions

The Stage 2 hearing sessions will be held at the Council Offices, Civic Centre, St Peter’s Street, St Albans, AL1 3JE and will take place as follows:

• Tuesday 14 October – Friday 17 October 2025

• Tuesday 21 October – Friday 24 October 2025

• Tuesday 4 November – Friday 7 November 2025

• Tuesday 11 November – Friday 14 November 2025 (online)

Stage 2 Hearing Sessions Documents 

SADC/ED82  Inspectors' Draft Hearings Programme stage 2
SADC/ED83  Inspectors’ Guidance Notes for Stage 2 of the Examination 
SADC/ED84  Inspectors’ Matters, Issues and Questions - Stage 2 Hearings

The Inspectors’ Guidance Note on the examination explains the process of the Examination, and provides information on how Regulation 19 Representors can send in hearing statements in response to the Inspectors’ Matters, Issues and Questions and register to take part in the hearing sessions.

Hearing Statements

Please click HERE for the Hearing statements for the Stage 1 Hearing Sessions.

Live Stream and Webcast

All the hearings will be live streamed. When the hearings are taking place anyone wishing to listen to the discussion will be able to access the live stream via the links below. It will not be necessary to log-in as the link will take you straight to the hearing session.

Recordings of the hearings sessions will also be available for at least one year from this page.

When the morning's hearing session has concluded, you will need to manually click onto the afternoon's hearing session.