Spotlight
Our monthly round-up of what’s topical or important right now
Save our city — consultation stage 2
St Albans Council is due to disappear by 2028 leaving central St Albans without local representation. To bridge this gap the Civic Society, with other local groups, pushed for a consultation on the creation of a new city council for the unparished area of central St Albans. A constituted civil ‘parish’ (nothing to do with church parishes) is the first tier of local government. A formal Community Governance Review (CGR) is now under way.
To find out more, watch the video of our public meeting held in January, view here
Map shows the unparished area of St Albans
Next steps
Stage 2 of the CGR consultation started on 8 December and runs through to 23 February 2026. There are 28,000 households in central St Albans, the currently ‘unparished area’, and each has been sent a Ballot Paper with a cover letter and proposal points (called voter guidance) for a new parish council. The ballot offers one vote and one question per household – a simple ‘do you agree we should set up a parish council YES/NO?’
As well as using the Ballot Paper to vote, people can send in views and comments on proposal points, make suggestions and ask questions. These will go into a black hole unless SADC receives sufficient YES votes.
In other words, every YES vote matters, and matters a lot.
Making comments on parish council proposal points and options is not enough. They do not count as a vote. SADC is calling this a ‘non-binding ballot’. This means that unless sufficient people return the Ballot Paper or use the individual Security Codes Part 1 & 2 (in the top right hand corner) to vote YES online the issue could be dismissed.
That’s why it’s essential to use the Ballot Paper to vote YES.
If you have not received a ballot paper please email CGR@stalbans.gov.uk with your full address and they can arrange for replacements to be sent.
MORE INFORMATION AND A CHANCE TO DONATE
For background and context on local government reorganisation and CGR see City matters.
You can support the Civic Society and the campaign for a parish/town council by donating to help with the cost of leaflets, public meetings and so forth. Either scan the QR code below to go to the donations web page or click on this link.
NEW LOCAL PLAN
The draft Local Plan for the St Albans City and District is in its final formal Examination stages and scheduled for adoption in March 2026. It will guide development; enable planned growth; limit developers’ scope for speculative development; and ensure supporting infrastructure such as transport, schools, healthcare is planned for and funded. Sustainability measures to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss are a major theme. It earmarks around 800 hectares of Green Belt land for development against a projected need for around 15,000 new homes by 2041 to meet government-mandated housing targets. You can read the draft Local Plan and consultation responses online and there is background information and a link to our response here.
ST ALBANS CIVIC SOCIETY AWARDS
Get ready for our call for details of projects that might deserve one of the St Albans Civic Society Awards. Spring 2026 will see the start of our new Awards season so it’s time to start to think what you’ve noticed that’s impressed you and to get ready to share details for the shortlisting team to review. We’re interested in new build and restoration projects and anything that enhances the quality of our city’s amenities, environment or public realm. We’ll confirm the schedule as well as the process when we ask for 2026 nominations.