Home   News   Article

Developers eye Bishop’s Stortford and Sawbridgeworth as East Herts Council updates district’s housebuilding plans




Bishop’s Stortford and Sawbridgeworth are braced for more building as East Herts Council (EHC) struggles to supply 1,328 new homes a year in the district.

This week, the authority has published a list of 282 sites across the district submitted by landowners, developers, agents and site promoters as suitable for housing and employment, community facilities, habitat creation and enhancement, and infrastructure.

Between July and October last year, EHC issued a call for sites as part of an update to the District Plan, and 21 locations in Bishop’s Stortford and 12 in Sawbridgeworth were put forward.

The results of East Herts Council's call for sites
The results of East Herts Council's call for sites

In Bishop’s Stortford, the largest proposed development sites are 10 hectares at Twyford Bury Lane and nine at Stortford Park Farm, east of the A1184. In Sawbridgeworth, 29 hectares at Redricks Farm are earmarked along with 48 hectares west of the town.

The Green Party’s Cllr Vicky Glover-Ward, EHC’s executive member for planning and growth, will give the council’s Green and Liberal Democrat cabinet a progress report when members meet next Tuesday (February 11).

The council estimates it needs to provide a minimum of 1,265 new homes a year across the anticipated plan period from 2028 to 2043. Therefore, sites for at least 18,975 dwellings must be identified.

Cllr Vicky Glover-Ward
Cllr Vicky Glover-Ward

However, the council must also maintain a five-year housing land supply and the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework requires a 5% buffer “to ensure choice and competition in the market”.

This means the overall housing need requirement is currently 1,265 plus 63 – which equals 1,328 new homes per annum.

Cllr Ward-Glover’s report says: “To update the District Plan, a large quantity of underpinning evidence is required to support any strategy that the council will ultimately choose to propose going forward.

“Now that the call for sites has been completed and the information for each submission collated and summarised, the council will use the data to move on to the next stage in the plan-making process.

“This next stage involves utilising the information provided to begin the preparation of a Strategic Land Availability Assessment (SLAA) for the district.

“The SLAA will look at land supply for all types of development, acknowledging the wider spatial objectives of the planning system, and could lead to the future identification of site allocations or broad locations for development.

“It is important to note that the inclusion of a site in the SLAA is an assessment of whether a site could be developed; it does not make decisions about which sites should be developed.”

Even if some of the submissions are allocated within the District Plan Review, each site will still need planning permission.

The council’s planning policy team will now begin an evaluation of each of the 282 submissions.

The locations in Bishop’s Stortford

• Land north of Dolphin Way for residential, affordable housing, leisure and recreation

• Land at Twyford Bury Lane for residential

• Stylemans Farm, Hallingbury Road, for residential and affordable housing

• Meadowlands, Bishops Stortford for residential

• Land at Aynsworth Avenue for biodiversity off-set

• Apton Road Car Park for specialist residential

• Land north of Plantains Wood Cottages and east of the A120 Little Hadham Bypass for employment and renewable energy

• Land at Wickham Hall, Hadham Road, for employment

• Land east of Avanti Grange sports pitches, north of the A120, for leisure and recreation

• Land north of Great Hadham Road, east of Monkswood Drive, for residential, affordable housing, community facility, renewable energy and green space

• Land adjacent to The Rectory, Thorley Lane East, for residential

• Land north and west of A120, for residential, affordable housing, retail, employment, renewable energy, green space, mixed-use, and other uses

• Land to the rear (east) of the Coach and Horses, Thorley Street, for residential, affordable housing, renewable energy and biodiversity offset

• Land at Stortford Park Farm, east of A1184, for residential, affordable housing, renewable energy

• Land at Stortford Park Farm, west of A1184, for residential, affordable housing, community facility, leisure and recreation, retail, and renewable energy

• Land adjacent to London Road/Thorley Street/Pig Lane, Thorley, for residential

• Old River Lane for residential, affordable housing, community facility, leisure and recreation, employment, renewable energy, green space, biodiversity off-set, mixed-use

• Land south of the A120 and west of the A1184, for residential, affordable housing, and renewable energy

• Land north of the A120 and south of Wickham Hall for residential, affordable housing, community facility, leisure and recreation, retail, employment, mixed-use, and other uses

• Land east of Thorley Lane East for residential, affordable housing

• Land off Vardon Drive for residential.

The sites in Sawbridgeworth

• Redricks Lane for residential

• Land at Redricks Lane for residential, affordable housing, and green space

• Former Triangle Nursery, Chaseways, for residential

• Retained land at Chalks Farm, West Road, for residential

• Land south of Wychford Drive for residential, affordable housing

• Land at Thomas Rivers’ High Wych Road, for specialist residential, community facility, green space, biodiversity off-set

• Land north of Leventhorpe School for residential, affordable housing

• Land west of Sawbridgeworth for mixed-use

• Kecksy’s Farm, Cambridge Road, for residential

• Redricks Farm, Redricks Lane, for employment, renewable energy

• Land at Redricks Farm, Redricks Lane, for residential, affordable housing, community facility, leisure and recreation, retail, employment, renewable energy, and green space

• Grazing land at Reedings Way for community facility, leisure and recreation, green space, biodiversity off-set.



This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies - Learn More