This site offers a rare opportunity to develop a Brownfield site in the town, providing new homes and new employment, whilst also securing the long term future of the sports club on site. Fairview New Homes purchased the site earlier this year and an outline planning application was submitted in October 2013 with the aim of regenerating the site and bringing it back into an active and appropriate use.
The site has been empty for nearly 10 years and following unsuccessful attempts to find large scale employment uses, aspirations for the site have moved towards a residential led mixed use scheme. This is in line with the recent analysis carried out by the local community. During 2013, Fairview New Homes and the project team have been working closely with East Herts District Council, Buntingford Town Council, the Civic Society, Chamber of Commerce and BARD (Buntingford Action for Responsible Development) in order to understand local views and discuss the best use of the site.
The proposals will provide 328 new homes (including an element of affordable housing), 2000 sq m of new light industrial units (flexible in order to serve the needs of local businesses of different sizes) and a 65 bed care home.
The southern part of the site currently hosts the Buntingford Sports Club and Fairview New Homes is committed to retaining community sports use on site. To that end the club will be offered a new long term lease (30 years on a peppercorn rent) for their current site to allow them security of tenure and the freedom to bid for funding to invest in facilities.
Two consultation events were held to give the local community the opportunity to comment on the scheme and meet the project team. All feedback has been reviewed and fed into the proposals where possible.
These took place at The Bury, London Road, Buntingford SG9 9HZ on:
* Tuesday 24th September 2013 2pm until 6pm * Wednesday 25th September 2013 5pm until 8pm
