Frequently Asked Questions

Below we include responses to some frequently asked questions.

The surgery

  • The NHS currently provides no upfront capital funding for new GP premises, and hence the significant cost of the building requires long term investment from the BPMP partners, at some personal risk to themselves. There will be a commitment from the partnership that the land and building will have continuing ongoing use for medical purposes for as long as the NHS commits to rent funding of the surgery. 

    Ownership by the practice partners avoids the difficulties of managing the physical buildings via agents and landlords, which frequently results in costly and delayed refurbishment with a substantial impact on the function of the practice when development or refurbishment is required. 

  • Of the alternative sites considered, none were found to be viable, suitable or deliverable, nor did they have the space to provide the size of the surgery required. 

    The land north of Hare Street Road has the space to deliver a new surgery up to twice the size of the existing premises, as well as providing the right infrastructure and access to support existing patient demand. It also has the potential to provide additional ancillary medical services and will allow the potential to extend or renovate at a later date to accommodate anticipated future demand. 

  • Approximately 42 members of staff will be employed at the new surgery.

  • Given the importance of delivering infrastructure in Buntingford, it has been Taylor Wimpey’s aim to build the new GP Surgery as the first phase of the site and prior to the first house being built on the land.

  • New bus stops on Hare Street Road are proposed, minimising walking distances to the surgery, with the Herts Lynx service also able to serve these stops and the surgery. Car parking will also be available at the GP surgery, including conveniently located blue badge parking, parent and child spaces and drop-off areas adjacent to the GP entrance.

Planning

  • The site is not specifically allocated for any use or development within the East Herts District Plan 2018 and is outside of but adjacent to the Buntingford Settlement Boundary. As such the site is within the ‘rural area beyond the greenbelt’.

    The outline application for the housing on Land North of Hare Street Road has been approved, therefore the principle of developing the site has been accepted by East Herts District Council.

  • A reserved matters application is a planning application that deals with the details of a planning consent. The principle of development is established by a full application or outline application – this defines the number of houses, the location of parking spaces or community amenities and the right of the developer to develop the site.

    However, the reserved matters applications define specific details on how the application will be built – such as the detail on appearance, access, landscaping, layout and scale of the development.

    A full application will include all of these details – defined in outline and reserved matters application - as a single application.

    A hybrid application combines elements of both outline and full planning permissions for different parts of the same development site under a single application. For example, development for this site was submitted to the Council with a full planning application for the medical centre, and an outline planning application for the rest of the site.

  • Yes, there is a current need to provide housing in East Herts as set out by local government policy. East Herts is struggling to meet its current housing obligations to provide 18,458 homes by 2033 outlined in its Local Plan and is currently demonstrating a shortfall in its five-year housing land supply. The Local Plan is underpinned by a housing need of 839 dwellings per annum which has since increased to a requirement of 1,112 dwellings through the introduction of the updated housing standard method by the Government.

    There is a significant need for affordable housing in Buntingford which was demonstrated in the latest Affordable Housing Needs Assessment (2022) which found that around 315 new affordable dwellings are required in East Herts between 2021 – 2033. Since 2016/17, East Herts has delivered 60% - 64% of the affordable housing need for the district, with the Council’s housing waiting list having remained above 2000 households since 2016. In total, 3,785 affordable housing are required with 130 homes needed for Buntingford. While 239 dwellings have been delivered in Buntingford since 2017, there is a shortfall still outlined by this assessment.

    The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is clear that a lack of housing should not create a barrier to investment, therefore future housing provisions need to support labour force growth in Buntingford. It has been assessed that East Herts will need to support 12,266 jobs between the 2021 – 2033, approximately 1,000 new jobs per annum, thus housing should cater for employment growth in East Herts.

     

Community facilities

  • As part of the proposals, the new development will deliver over 6ha of new public open space that will be accessible to all, designed to foster community activities and recreational opportunities.

    Beyond the construction of the GP surgery, this development will be providing 3 LEAP’s (open play areas with equipment for younger children) and there is the potential for community aspirations for Buntingford to be met on site.

Road safety, access and traffic management

  • A Construction Management Plan will help to manage the construction period and control things such as the movement of construction vehicles to reduce the impact on the community.

    The details of this will be agreed with the Local Authority and County Council of the commencement of each phase of development. As per the conditions of the Outline Planning Permission, a Construction Traffic Management Plan will need to have been submitted and agreed with the Council prior to the commencement of each phase of the development.

  • A Transport Assessment was submitted as part of the Outline application. This detailed the modelling undertaken to review the journeys from the development.

    Traffic surveys were carried out across the local highway network in September 2023 (outside of School Holidays), with surveys undertaken at four junctions in the AM and PM Peak periods, and week-long automatic traffic counter surveys at three further locations.

    The traffic impact assessment used data collected from the Pipkin Drive development on Hare Street Road. Both 2019 (pre-COVID) and 2023 data were used to reflect changes in working patterns and provide accurate commuter modelling.

    The conclusion from these assessments was that the impact on local highways and existing site access junctions on the B1038 Hare Street and off-site junctions throughout Buntingford would be ‘negligible’, and far less than the ‘severe’ threshold which is identified as a reason to prevent development.

  • Design guidance requires development to ensure a mix of transport modes are accommodated, giving priority first to walking and then cycling.

    As part of the Outline Transport Assessment, the project team completed an assessment on the road safety of the existing highways and the proposed highways improvements for this site. Personal Injury Accident (PIA) data was obtained from the surrounding highway network. This data demonstrated that the local highway directly servicing the site has no specific issues with the site frontage having no recorded accidents.

    There will be however good practice safety standards included in the transport strategy, including visibility splays on the new accesses, introduction of 30mph zones near entrances to the site and improved pedestrian and cycle ways.m description

  • Vehicular access is proposed from Hare Street Road. Three pedestrian accesses to enhance walking links with Buntingford to the west of the site are to be provided from Hare Street Road, Howard Lane, and The Causeway.

    The proposals will provide the following improvements:

    • A 3m wide shared-use footway / cycleway along the frontage of the site to provide a link to the new GP surgery

    • New bus stops on the north and southern sides of the B1038

    • New pedestrian crossing and new footway on the B1038

    • A new off-carriageway cycle land leading east from Pipkin Drive towards the site

    • Links to existing roads such as the Causeway and Howard Lane, with improvements to the existing Public Rights of Way (PRoW) – including Buntingford 014 and the existing bridleway.

    • A new vehicular access onto the B1038 to the south of the site, including an extension of the existing 30mph speed limit on the B1038 to slow vehicles, ghost island priority junction for 5 vehicles and visibility splays to improve visibility for entrance and exit to the site.

    • Vehicular access to the GP surgery will be provided via a raised table priority junction with footways on both sides of the carriageway and internal pedestrian crossing points.

    A S278 agreement to outline the off-site highway works will be agreed ahead of the determination of the Reserved Matters application.

  • The Outline Planning Application was submitted with a framework Travel Plan outlining a range of sustainable measures for the residential element of the development proposal.

    The site is well located to a range of local facilities and services all within Buntingford, including convenience retail, post office, primary, secondary and college education and leisure destinations including library, gymnasium and tennis club. All of these key local destinations are located within typical walking/cycling distances of the site.

    Walking and cycling links will be available via Hare Street Road and the adjacent residential area, which provide direct connections to the wider pedestrian and public right of way networks, with multiple points of access to the site and the GP surgery from the north, west and south.

    As part of the Reserved Matters application the development will include raised table crossings, enhancing the bridleway surface to enable cycling, reducing carriageway widths.

    To further encourage active, sustainable transport options, the development will provide a new bus stop on Hare Street Road, minimising walking distances to the surgery, with the Herts Lynx service also able to serve these stops and the surgery.

    A significant sustainable transport contribution will be provided to Hertfordshire County Council, to allocate to public transport enhancements as they deem necessary, which may include enhancements to local bus services/additional financial support for the Herts Lynx service.tem description

  • The development will provide a total of 533 car parking spaces across the site, including 63 visitor spaces. These are provided either in driveways, garages or in small parking courtyards. Secured cycle parking is also provided for each home.

    For the GP surgery, there will be a total of 60 car parking spaces – 28 for staff, 32 for patients and two ‘drop-off’ spaces for visitors. Included in this will be two blue-badge parking spaces and three parent and child spaces.

Ecology

  • The Outline Application was submitted with a sustainability statement which details the approach Taylor Wimpey will take to ensure this site is developed with sustainability at the heart of these plans.

    The site will comply with East Herts’ sustainability policies. The housing will be built to the highest standards of sustainability – incorporating a number of energy efficiency saving practices which will promote the sustainability credentials for this site.

  • The Reserved Matters Application will outline how the existing landscaping will be improved and will be maintained and managed once built. Potential benefits of the proposed landscaping strategy include:

    • A significant biodiversity enhancements., equating to 55.62% increase to habitats and 34.14% to hedgerows post-development.

    • Introducing extensive areas of new species-rich native planting, this will include areas of wildflower grassland, wetland habitat, tree and shrub planting, which will increase biodiversity net gain across the site.

    • Informal pedestrian routes, which will provide opportunity for new and existing residents to experience nature.

    • Retention of the vast majority of existing treelines, hedgerows and woodland

  • The development is being designed according to energy efficiency principles and to be environmentally friendly. This includes measures to:

    • Improving the fabric efficiency of the dwellings to reduce heat and energy needs.

    • Utilisation of passive design choices including optimising orientation, natural ventilation and solar control.

    • Improving energy efficiency through wastewater heat recovery and smart heating controls.

    • Supply of zero and low carbon technologies such as through Air Source Heat Pumps and Solar Photovoltaic (PV) panels.

    • Taylor Wimpey is also currently trialling new technologies to assess the effectiveness of low or zero carbon technologies.

    • The development – including the medical centre - will incorporate a fossil-free heating strategy.

    • The housing will be compliant with the Future Homes Standard once this policy is introduced.

Local benefits

  • Any infrastructure payments that the Council require will be assessed through dialogue with the developer through the planning process and will be agreed before planning permission is formalised.

    As part of the Officer’s report, the following terms were proposed to be secured by S106 legal agreement:

    • Contributions related to education are requested in accordance with adopted guidance, and Nursery/middle school and Upper Education Contributions

    • Existing schools – Edwinstree Middle School and the Fremen College will receive contributions

    • Contributions for Severe Learning Difficulty places

    • Financial contributions towards local infrastructure including for local library, local youth work and waste services

    • Contributions to local East Herts services such as community halls, sports pitches, tennis courts, bowls and gyms. This will also include improvements and maintenance of local swimming facilities

Drainage and waste infrastructure

  • The site falls within Flood Zone 1 which represents the lowest-risk areas in England, with a less than 1 in 1,000 (0.1%) annual probability of river or sea flooding. Therefore, the proposed development is deemed to meet the requirements of flood risk assessments.

    Where possible, the development is being designed to reduce storm water runoff by using permeable surfaces. The Reserved Matters application includes proposals for a large attenuation basins and associated SuDS features to manage surface water runoff to reduce flood risk in a sustainable manner.

  • Foul water from the new development will be directed to the Thames Water foul sewer network. Thames Water have confirmed that there is sufficient capacity in their network to accommodate projected flows from the new surgery and discussions are ongoing in relation to the residential parts of the scheme. If necessary, works to upgrade the sewerage network locally would be undertaken in advance of occupation to ensure that flows can be accommodated and that there are no adverse impacts on local residents or watercourses.

Programme

  • Previous public engagement was conducted for the hybrid Planning application. This was done both in-person and online. A drop in event was held in October 2023 at the Seth Ward Community Centre and a consultation website was launched simultaneously so people could view the proposals online. This was advertised through a newsletter which was sent to 3,555 addresses, a set of online adverts which ran for two weeks, and an article published in Herts Live.

    A second public engagement programme was conducted in June 2025 to provide an update on the Reserved Matters Application. A drop in event was held on 17th June 2025 at the Seth Ward Community Centre.  

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    This is dependent on receiving planning permission for the now submitted Reserved Matters Application. We anticipate receiving a planning committee decision to approve the Reserved Application by the mid-2026, with construction starting early 2027.

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  • Since the public exhibition in 2025, we have been making refinements to the Reserved Matters Application after feedback from the Design Review Panel, the Council and the public.

    We submitted the Reserved Matters Application in February 2026

  • ‍ You will be to provide your supportive comments directly the Council via the East Herts planning portal once the application has been submitted and validated.

    If you would like to be notified when this happens, do leave your details by contacting us at: info@harestreetroad.co.uk

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  • ‍ A Construction Management Plan would help to manage the construction period and control things such as the movement of construction vehicles to reduce the impact on the community.