Hertfordshire ought to be a by-word for affluence. The county is wealthy, healthy, well-connected and metropolitan in outlook. Surely Hertfordshire’s town centres are glittering retail and leisure attractions?
Not so fast. Town centre regeneration is stalled in Hitchin, overdue in Hemel Hempstead, complicated in Stevenage, and even smart Hertford is about to lose its town centre Waitrose to an out-of-town site. The loss of an anchor store after 34 years is sure to be a blow.
The nub of the problem is that post-war new towns have become tired-looking old towns. Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage and Hitchin all have an unusual mix of mostly low-value housing stock, few town centre residents, and dated shopping facilities.
Councils are beginning to make progress – but it is slow and halting. Plans for Hemel are probably most advanced. Last year Dacorum borough council selected contractor R G Carter and Cambridge-based developer Endurance Estates to revive the town centre.
A planning application was submitted in November 2014 for the first phase of a £25m scheme centred on a new 70,000 sq ft council headquarters and library. There will also be a 60,000 sq ft cinema and restaurant scheme, and 207 new town centre flats. A neighbouring site – today a 25,000 sq ft 1980s office block – could be redeveloped for retirement flats. Talks with cinema operators are concluding and the search is on for a residential development partner. Work on the council offices begins this summer for completion in late 2016.
Tim Holmes, director at Endurance Estates, says: “The idea is to bring people back into the town centre. It has a good retail offer, but lacks the leisure offer it needs,” he says.
“The demographics are good, the rail link to London is good, the Chiltern hills are very attractive, but the town centre hasn’t been able to compete with the out-of-town leisure offer and competition from Watford and the Hatfield Galleria. The Odeon was a big deal in Hemel in the 1950s and we want to bring some of that atmosphere back.”
He adds: “Hemel is a typical new town, and outside the old parts of the town the quality of the architecture is poor. The council has grasped the nettle by upgrading its own HQ and making land available for this scheme.”
Once the Endurance plan is under way Dacorum council will tackle six other town centre zones as part of its Hemel Evolution programme. The police station, magistrates’ court, health centre and market square are on its hit list.
Hitchin is a bit further behind. Since 2005 North Hertfordshire council has been wedded to plans for a circa 135,000 sq ft scheme for the Churchgate shopping centre, the market, and a parcel of town centre land around St Mary’s Square and the Biggin Lane car park. Ten years later – during which time a partnership with developers Simons was begun and ended – and the feeling is growing that something less ambitious might be easier to deliver.
The owner of the Churchgate Centre, Hammersmatch Developments, has been nurturing plans for its own site, including a cinema, plans which might fit the bill.
However, there are legal complexities. The council received a threat of legal action from an interested party in the event that it decided to proceed with Hammersmatch without giving other potential developers an opportunity. The council took legal advice and was told it could proceed, but there might be risks.
Last month, North Hertfordshire council decided amid high political drama to rethink the Churchgate strategy. However, pressed by EG to say what counts as a smaller scheme, and what the timetable for progress would be, it declined to comment.
A statement said: “While we remain committed to finding a workable solution to the redevelopment of the Churchgate area, a further report will now be brought to a future council meeting, which will set out the options for pursuing the council’s preferred approach.”
Stevenage council is also reconsidering, and here too the political temperature is high. A joint venture with Stanhope and ING that was to have delivered a £250m regeneration ended in 2012. By spring 2014 the town’s furious MP was calling for the re-establishment of a powerful development corporation to get the town centre revived.
Last summer the council’s consultants, Turner and Townsend, concluded that a large-scale retail-led development was no longer a realistic option. A new task force has been set up, and a new town centre regeneration strategy is being prepared. The local MP has decided to boycott it.
It may be that inspiration comes from nearby Harlow, across the border in Essex, but another new town with a similar constellation of problems – and opportunities.
“We’ve got a fantastic location, and the demographics can’t get much better. But we have the legacy of the new town to deal with,” says Harlow council project director Andrew Bramidge.
Retail redevelopment has been dogged by trouble: plans to extend the Harvey centre ended in the courts in 2004, and a bold strategy launched in 2008 fell foul of the recession.
Today the council is talking to landowners including Legal & General about a 10-acre site which could include the new leisure and retail space the town centre needs.
“We’re in the early stages of master planning,” says Bramidge. “We know the town centre needs a radical transport update if we want businesses and residents to come here. It’s encased in a ring road and it’s not appealing, and it needs a very extensive solution.“
Redevelopment of the town centre’s leisure and retail offer will be linked to new, probably more upmarket, housing, and the potential business wins of the enterprise zone.
It’s a big, complicated plan. But it might just work.
