A former police station in Hertfordshire can be converted into 27 flats, Broxbourne Borough Council’s planning committee has unanimously agreed.
At a meeting last week (Tuesday, 20 May), councillors agreed with officers’ recommendation to grant planning permission for the proposals.
The building on the west side of Hoddesdon High Street will be extended as part of the work to turn it into two-bedroom flats.
Since the 1960s-built police station closed, the site has been used by the Teens Unite charity, by a café, and by a second-hand clothes and book shop.
It will now reach a height of four storeys, and include private balconies and terraces as well as communal gardens. Most flats will have an en-suite as well as a main bathroom.
Access will be from Woodlands Close, and there will be a total of 30 car parking spaces for the site.
While that is well below the 54 expected under the council’s parking standards, officers noted that the site had “constraints” and that it was “within easy walking distance to bus services.”
The applicant’s agent said: “The site presented us with a fantastic opportunity to refurbish and extend the existing building, which has largely been vacant since the closure of the police station in 2011, with an attractive, modern landmark building.”
Cllr Paul Mason, a committee member, described the plans as a “big improvement” on the site’s current state.
Broxbourne’s Local Plan, which provides the blueprint for future development in the borough, allocated the site, which is no longer owned by Hertfordshire police, for thirty homes. The site is no longer owned by Hertfordshire police.
Developments in Broxbourne are expected to include forty per cent affordable housing, but the applicant said this development would not be viable if it required affordable housing to be included.
Instead, the applicant has agreed to pay £30,000 towards sports and recreation or town centre improvements in the area. If the viability of the scheme improves, a further payment would be made.
Officers said the application would “promote an effective use of previously developed or brownfield land in meeting the need for new homes in a sustainable location”.
Covering Hertfordshire’s district and borough councils.
