Industrial Estate residential and care home

[leo densian]

I stopped by around 4.30 and again it was well attended.

Speaking to one of the representatives there I was told the following:

The estate is currently owned by a pension fund. Rents are about £40/sq m which is about half the market rate (I dont know if this is right or not, I'm just repeating his numbers) so its about maximising the pension pot.

Access will be via Caxton Hill only. There was a desire to have double access by removing the concrete bollards and opening the dead end by the Beltech premises on John Tate estate but this has been vetoed apparently.

Plan is for 100 homes (40% 'affordable' as I recall) + 65 bed care home. Or 125 homes and no care home ( The cynic in me has a view on which will win out on the day). The care home would likely be 3/4 stories and back onto the homes in the middle of Brookside.

Improved footpath links planned into Foxholes Ave by the playground.

Whilst several of the units are unoccupied those remaining employ c.150 people. 'Assistance would be given' to help find alternative premises but as operating costs would probably increase substantially as a result of relocation one cant help but think that job losses to some degree will be likely.

No talk of extra infrastructure by way of schools, doctors etc etc.

[Steve]

Some of the talk (when I was there) was of this being a residential area virtually surrounded by commercial premises (office/factories).

Personally I wouldn't bemoan the loss of employment land. The estate's been decrepit for years now.

And just to emphasise, their first planning application will be for outline permission (ie in principle), not detailed.

[newgirl]

There are also more flats planned - up to 4 storeys. Welcome to high Rise Hertford East

[newcomer]

I stopped by just after 5pm and it was well attended.

Clearly they are aware that a big sticking point will be the single access point from Ware Road as one of the display boards had comparisons of other new builds with plans and pictures in Hertford and the top of the keys for the plans all had:

“1. Single point of access”


The footpath to foxholes woodlands by the playground they are looking to improve is on the John Tate estate so not theirs however they will be having meeting with them to discuss.

Oh and they assurred me that the Residential home plan was a real thing!

[MultiDad]

went along just before 7pm. when pushed, details were a bit thin other than to say access was via caxton hill. they estimate 700-800 car journeys a day... so no pressure on an already busy town.

i got the feeling that the care home idea was just to say that they had offered the council the option.

I explained that we don't want 'affordable' homes. they'll be filled by out of towners ( and i'd imagine a fair few from Europe) and why can't they pay the full price for houses like the rest of us?

before anyone fires back to ask why I'm against 'affordable' homes. Person A buys house at full cost. gets up early each day and travels to and from work and pays their way. Person B gets 'discount' on their affordable home so pays about half what Person A paid. which begs the question... why bother working hard when someone else gets a house half price because they either don't work or have a low paid job?

and where will the kids go to school? oh, of couse, they'll push our hertford born kids out of their school places.

am standing well back for the Guardianistas to have their two penneth.

[newgirl]

Just to be clear, Affordable Housing covers shared ownership properties as well as social housing for rent. You usually get a handful of shared ownership properties and most will be up for rent through the council waiting list. They will be managed by a housing association as the council does not own any housing stock any more but the council will have the right to nominate people from the housing waiting list to this - usually 100% of first lettings. They will be nominated and prioritised according to "housing need"

[monkeyman1974]

On the one hand they say the estate is not viable due to a high void rate: on the other they say the estate buildings are in terrible condition.

It's an established tactic to allow buildings to fall into disrepair to demonstrate lack of demand.

[Idm]

I enquired a year ago about a vacant property with a view to modernising it on a long lease. They would only offer year to year leases where they could remove you at any point. Not exactly promoting a stable business environment or indeed seems to indicate that they are aiming to keep it vacant in order to build which is a shame as there is a lack of commercial property in this area.