The consultation has closed: the Three Rivers Local Plan ran until 25 Sep 2026 — 1,300 homes could still be built north of Abbots Road Fields, and the plan now goes to a Government Inspector. Read the evidence →

🌿 A Grassroots Movement

Save
our
Fields

Every field lost to concrete is a loss to our communities, our wildlife, and our future. Walk a threatened meadow, meet its shy creatures, and help it stay green.

Read the evidence Play the Safari
↓
What's at stake

1,300 homes. A 96 MW data centre.
One small town.

The draft Three Rivers Local Plan would put 1,300 homes on the green belt behind Abbots Road — and next door, a 96 MW data centre is already approved. They do not arrive separately. They land on one small town at once, on water it is already short of, roads already carrying more than they were built for, and schools already full.

106

days under a hosepipe ban

Under a hosepipe ban for 106 days — since 10 July 2026 (as of 23 October 2026).

Affinity Water — Central region (incl. WD5), extended to the East region

11 areas in drought, parts of 4 in severe · reservoirs 54% · the water picture →

Source: Affinity Water — Temporary Use Ban

Data Centre Watch The data-centre build-out, updated as it happens Updated 23 October 2026 Open the Watch →
See the evidence → What can I do?
🌾 Live now — early demo

Fall in love with the field
before it's gone

You can't protect a field you've never loved. Our GPS AR Safari is live now — a gentle 40–60 minute walk (or a quicker run, if that's your pace) around a threatened meadow (Abbots Road Fields first, with more on the way) where five shy wild creatures step out of the hedgerows in augmented reality. Get outside today. Walk any field. Stand in it, breathe it in, and fall in love with it — because that's the first step to saving it.

Every visit to the meadow is different, and no two walks are ever the same. The light shifts, the season turns, and the creatures themselves keep changing — their portraits redrawn whenever the meadow catches a new mood. Nothing here stays still, and nothing here is meant to. So get out there and walk it today — right now.

Rusty the scarecrow Rusty

I'm Rusty — narrator, scarecrow, and a professional stander. In a thousand years I've never been asked to star in anything, and now I'm hosting an adventure. The creatures think I'm the mystery guest. They're in for a disappointment.

📱 No app to install 🌾 A gentle 1–2 mile walk 🦋 Meet five creatures in AR

🌿 Come and gather at the fields — watch for the next Field Day.

Play the Safari live now
🥾 Walk the field 📨 Send us a field 🧑‍🌾 Join the field team
Local Plan evidence

The evidence
every claim footnoted to a primary source

We’ve read the record and written it up. Start with the flagship report, then the explainers — the water deficit, what the BMJ says about data centres and health, and how the consultation was run. For the fast-moving national picture, see the Data Centre Watch →

Cover of The Abbots Road Report

1,300 homes. A 96 MW data centre. One village Small Town.

Eleven pages on water, roads, schools, health, the green belt and the missing cumulative assessment — everything sourced and reference checked.

Read The Abbots Road Report → Read the report (PDF)

Consultation audit How Three Rivers ran the Local Plan consultation — read the six-page audit (PDF) or the full briefing →

Data Centre WatchUpdated 23 October 2026

The data-centre build-out, updated as it happens

Regular, fully sourced updates on the schemes, the planning decisions, the power and water — UK-first, with the wider world picture.

Open the Watch →
Green belt

The green belt contradiction

The council’s own review rated this land of “fundamental importance” and rejected it in 2023 — then a ministerial direction forced it into the plan. The label says “grey belt”. The evidence says otherwise.

Explainer → Process

What happens next

The Regulation 19 consultation has closed and the plan goes to a government Inspector. What happens now, the tests it must pass, the report-back the council owes you — and how you can still be heard.

Explainer → Cumulative impact

The cluster nobody assessed

A 96 MW data centre, 1,300 green-belt homes, hundreds more nearby and a new Lidl — all landing on one small town, each written up separately and never assessed together.

Explainer → Water

The water deficit, in one place

Drought, a live hosepipe ban, a squeezed chalk stream, full sewers — and the data-centre demand nobody has published. The whole water picture in one place.

Explainer → Health & evidence

What the BMJ says about data centres and health

A leading medical journal warns that data centres threaten health and the environment by exploiting regulatory gaps — and it lands on the 96 MW scheme next door.

Explainer → Consultation audit

How Three Rivers ran the consultation

The good, the bad & the ugly — a fully sourced audit of how the council ran the Regulation 19 consultation, reporting what it did well as well as what it did not.

Explainer →
All reports & explainers → How the consultation was run →
Every field

Every field on Rusty’s desk

From the Thames Estuary to the Welsh hills and the Scottish borders, fields are coming under the diggers. This is the whole picture — every field on Rusty’s desk, mapped and searchable.

See every field's story →

Rusty's Field Desk

A Field on the Desk
for Every Field in the Post

People keep sending us fields. Rusty's working through the pile as fast as a scarecrow can — time is short.

Rusty the scarecrow Rusty …Rusty, as of this morning

"A thousand years and I've never seen the fields this busy. Every meadow someone sends me gets a proper look — honestly, as quickly as I can. I'm just one scarecrow with a laptop and a very long to-do list. Some fields I'll reach in time. That's the whole point of hurrying."

Abbots Road Fields

The fields behind Abbots Road are one of the very last natural spaces in Abbots Langley — and the pressure is real: a 96 MW hyperscale data centre has been approved on the neighbouring green belt, and 192 homes on its edge at Woodside Road. The safari is live now — walk these fields, meet their creatures, and fall in love with the place before it's gone. Rusty's been out collecting data with the field unit, one footstep at a time.

Consultation closed 25 September 2026: the draft Local Plan would put 1,300 homes (900 at H9 plus 400 at H37) north of these fields — the consultation closed at 11:59pm on Friday 25 September 2026, and the plan now goes to a government Inspector.

Walk the field → Read the field's story → How the consultation was run →
See every field on Rusty's desk → Send Rusty a field

The consultation has closed

The Three Rivers Local Plan consultation — which decides whether 1,300 homes are built north of Abbots Road Fields — closed at 11:59pm on Friday 25 September 2026. The plan now goes to a government Inspector, and the council's own rulebook promises to “report back” on what people said.

See how the consultation was run — the good, the bad & the ugly — in four plain pages, or read the full audit.

Read how it was run → The 4-page easy-read (PDF)

The shire is wide, and every field in it deserves a walk. Rusty's working through the pile — one field, one footstep, one cup of tea at a time.

From the Meadow

Fresh from Rusty's camera

One photo, straight off the field — the meadow exactly as Rusty found it.

Get Involved

Get involved

Send us a field to map, tell us about a green space that needs protecting, or lend a hand running the meadow — the more the merrier.

Know a meadow that needs friends?

Tell us about a green space you love and we'll see about mapping it into the walk.

Fancy helping us run the org?

We're a small crew and the more the merrier. If you'd like to volunteer with the field team — mapping meadows, helping at gatherings, or just lending a hand — say hello.

Send us a message
About Us

Looking after our Countryside

We're a passionate network of campaigners, naturalists and neighbours, united by one mission — keeping our fields green. Read why, and the six promises we keep.

About us & our promises →