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Interest at St James’ Park business centre in Stortford South coming from ‘aviation’ and ‘tech-led’ companies




Developers building a controversial business park on an estate south of Bishop’s Stortford have revealed they have had interest from prospective tenants “emphasising aviation and other tech-led companies”.

A meeting of the St James’ Park Community Liaison Group (CLG) convened by community consultants from housing developer Countryside’s parent company, Vistry Group, heard an update on interested parties and on HGV movements.

The park, at the corner of Thorley Street and St James Way, has attracted widescale criticism from residents and community groups with the fear hundreds of HGVs will be trundling through the area.

The distribution centre being built at the junction of St James Way and Thorley Street
The distribution centre being built at the junction of St James Way and Thorley Street

Sawbridgeworth town councillors and residents were dismayed after hearing that a clause in East Herts Council’s planning permission which banned trucks from using the A1184 through the town had been scrapped after the developers appealed to the Planning Inspectorate.

The scheme, part of the 750-home St James’ Park development by Countryside, has been revised following a backlash from Stortford and Sawbridgeworth residents.

Although originally thought to be a centre for hi-tech industries, it emerged it would be for a 24/7 warehousing and distribution centre. But in March 2022 developer Wrenbridge and Fiera Real Estate submitted a revised plan with the focus on “high-skilled employment in high-functioning buildings.”

At last month’s meeting the developers said there would be no large-scale logistics companies at the centre, but that there would be some “subsidiary” storage and distribution activity. This meant they expected HGV movements to be within what was forecast – over 200 movements a day.

A director at Wrenbridge told the Indie prospective occupiers could not be named until the end of February “due to various commercial confidentialities”.



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