Our latest news
Quick update on the current situation
We just wanted to update you on our progress with London & Continental Railways and their planning proposals for the Hemel Hempstead Station site.
We have an important update! We had a short catch up recently with London & Continental Railways' preferred development partner, Cityheart, and in the meeting their Development Director shared some alarming news: the plans being prepared for the station site will have around 600 residential units and include a 12-STOREY HIGH-RISE TOWER, plus smaller 'finger' towers of at least six storeys.
We think this would be a disaster, both for the local landscape and for the already busy infrastructure along London Road and the surrounding environs.
Their next steps will be to develop their design and progress a planning application with DBC, so we have to get ready to oppose this. We definitely have a big fight on our hands so if you can offer any skills or time to aid our campaign against high-rise development at the station site please get in touch via this www.fourandnomore.org link.
Please also share our Facebook updates to help us gather as much support as we can across Hemel and Boxmoor.
And just to stress, this group is NOT against development of the station site, but we ARE against an out-of-place, ugly high-rise development.
Who's with us?!
Previously …
Our initial meeting with three representatives from London & Continental Railways (LCR) and Network Rail (NR) took place towards the end of 2022 at the Fishery Wharf café to discuss your concerns for the site, and listen to where LCR are in terms of plans and schedules.
Maximising the commercial opportunity is clearly the highest priority for them. First impressions were good, it was an amenable meeting with both sides listening and asking questions. However, it became clear that some form of high rise development was very much still on the cards for LCR and that the initial tender document illustrations are still representative of their intentions. The representatives said or did nothing to dispel the high rise option, and we came away with the distinct impression that the plans will possibly look to increase the initial circa 450 units planned for the station site. It’s likely that the car park will be retained by NR, but that residential accommodation areas will be parcelled off.
Awaiting update on the tender/procurement process
They advised us that the procurement process for a development partner is now down to three final bidders and both we and they would expect to see and hear more by the end of January 2023. To this end we have asked for any news. No update yet though.
Obviously none of the above is set in stone, it was just our first impressions, but we were heartened to read this local story concerning Kings Langley Station development and to hear that former mandatory housebuilding targets have been scrapped by Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove.
Commercial position of the developers
The reality remains that it’s in the developer’s interest to build as many high value units as possible at Hemel Station, and it’s our firm intent to restrict them as much as we can!
We hope we can continue to rely on your support for the coming year. As soon as we have more news we’ll share it with you.