Old River Lane: This corrupted vision of a project must be mothballed to prevent another cheap and nasty, chuck 'em up, high-rise residential development – it's probably the most important thing we can do for the future of our town
Stortfordians are a fickle bunch, judging by our changed views on the truly troubled Old River Lane (ORL) redevelopment.
ORL was born out of a recognition by East Herts Council (EHC) that Bishop’s Stortford, for the last 50 years the dumping ground for the lion’s share of new build in East Hertfordshire, had become strategically important – easily the largest town in the district – but in terms of cultural recognition, and a sense of place and belonging that makes us want to live here, was woefully under-provided. In short, we live in a town that has lost its soul. ORL was a promise by EHC to put that right.
The land, bordered by Bridge Street, Old River Lane and Link Road, has long been in line for major redevelopment. In order to deliver something that would be community- rather than developer-led, EHC acquired the entire land area and the buildings upon it.
It also commissioned a consultancy report (Bishop’s Stortford Town Centre Planning Framework, Allies & Morrison, 2017) on how best to uplift our entire town, with ORL as the key, declaring that this document would form the basis of town planning policy, integrated with the District Plan.
This report identified a clear vision for ORL as a “cultural quarter”, encouraging pedestrianisation, opening the town centre to Castle Park and the under-utilised river, and featuring a new 500-seat theatre and arts space – a high-quality regeneration of this important sector of the conservation area.
An essential element of this proposal was to repurpose the land until recently used for car parking at the Causeway, necessitating replacement parking provision elsewhere, now realised as the Northgate End multi-storey car park. This unpopular but legitimate proposal, tested by two judicial reviews, resulted in a barrage of objections to the entire scheme from the community.
The consequential delays, together with increasingly difficult financial conditions since, has resulted in the project being repeatedly reviewed and finally declared unaffordable in the current economic climate.
Early attempts to reduce costs saw the originally-proposed 500-seat theatre replaced by a totally inadequate and unwanted cinema complex, with token performance space and minimal seating capacity. Recent hints from EHC now suggest that even that will be removed from the scheme, thus eliminating the cultural element of the proposal completely.
To cap it all, the developer charged with delivering the now seriously corrupted vision is already suggesting that the residential provision, part of the original proposal of around 100 homes, should be increased to 225 or so.
We’ve heard it all before. Far from a high-quality cultural quarter that would be a joy to visit, we are now heading towards yet another developer-led, profit-motivated disaster such as that dumped upon us at Riverside, where the river was stolen from us and hidden behind seven-storey buildings, where once we used to feed the ducks, and where the town lost its heart.
This final abuse of ORL, if it is allowed to proceed, will tear out the remnants of the town’s soul, leaving it bereft of character – a place where only those that are forced to live in Stortford will resentfully continue to do so.
The final nail in the coffin of our rapidly fading vision is the application currently before EHC, to demolish the Charringtons House office block and Water Lane United Reformed Church Hall on the ORL land, allowing redevelopment to commence. There are arguments aplenty about why these buildings should be saved for the long term, but these are, in truth, weak.
However, despite their doubtful long-term suitability for enabling the vision, there may be an argument that suggests we should refuse this application and leave all the buildings standing and in use, reasoning that to do so stops the redevelopment plan dead in its tracks.
Why would we want to do this? Because the people of Bishop’s Stortford have had enough.
The prospect of an evaporating vision and its replacement with yet another cheap and nasty, chuck 'em up, high-rise residential development, rather than the promised pleasant pedestrianised areas, cafés, restaurants and public space, is unacceptable.
Furthermore, once that land is cleared, there is nothing standing in the way of such a quick and dirty development and the ORL vision of a high-quality cultural quarter will disappear in a puff of smoke, never to be resurrected because there will be nowhere else for it to go.
By whatever means can be found, this project must be mothballed, and the precious and only land upon which it can be delivered ring-fenced until a properly prepared plan, based upon representative and effective consultation, is in place, together with the funding to enable it to proceed.
Ways must be found to achieve this, and the land and existing buildings put to temporary alternative uses that benefit the community until then.
This is probably the most important thing we can do for the future of our town, whilst giving EHC an opportunity to demonstrate that it keeps its promises.
We can no longer tolerate a local planning authority that ignores those whom it exists to serve. If the existing council fails to listen and act, then there will be an opportunity to replace it in May with one that will.
