Buntingford Business Park: 112-job plan set for approval

East Herts councillors decide tonight whether Buntingford Business Park can build four new industrial units that the applicant estimates could create up to 112 jobs. The scheme, the first new commercial building proposed at the Baldock Road site since a previous permission expired in 2010, goes before the Development Management Committee at 7pm this evening (Wednesday 12 August) at Wallfields in Hertford, with planning officers recommending that permission be granted. (Committee agenda, East Herts Council)

What is proposed

Application 3/25/1986/FUL, submitted by Old English Furniture Limited, seeks full permission for a single building containing four industrial units on the south-eastern side of the business park, off the B1038 west of Buntingford. Together the units would provide roughly 1,908 square metres of commercial floorspace over two floors, with each unit between 472 and 481 square metres, and each could be used as offices or light industrial space, for general industry, or for storage and distribution. A parking area with 41 spaces, a small electricity substation and a line of new trees along the eastern boundary are also included. (Officer report, application 3/25/1986/FUL)

The site has been waiting a long time for this phase. The business park’s Phase 1 buildings, granted in 2003, are occupied by council waste and grounds maintenance teams, and the Phase 2 industrial building, granted in 2004, houses an electrical installation company. A Phase 3 permission for the current application site was granted in February 2005 but was never built and expired in 2010, and no application for a new commercial building at the park has come forward since, until this one, registered on 19 January 2026.

Why officers are backing it

The officer report leans heavily on the Buntingford Employment Study, endorsed by the council in May 2025. It found that Buntingford’s population grew by 2,474 people between 2015 and 2022, growth of 33.9 per cent, far ahead of East Herts as a whole at 5.9 per cent, while workplace jobs in the town grew by just 205, or 10.8 per cent, over the same period. The study also found no known vacant office, industrial, warehousing or storage floorspace anywhere in Buntingford, and specifically pointed to the vacant land at the south-east of the business park as an opportunity for commercial development.

The council’s planning policy team raised no objection, noting that the proposed unit sizes match where demand is expected, and the report says the scheme would help meet the District Plan’s target of at least 10,800 new jobs across East Herts by 2033. Officers conclude that no harm arises that would outweigh the benefit of new employment floorspace on a designated employment site.

Little opposition on the record

Buntingford Town Council has no objection. One round of public consultation drew a single response from a local resident, recorded as neutral, raising parking, noise and the protection of trees and wildlife. Hertfordshire County Council’s highways, ecology and flood teams all responded with no objection subject to conditions, and the council’s Section 106 officer confirmed no financial contributions are required.

What it means for you

If you work or run a business locally, the scheme would add the first new commercial units at Buntingford’s main employment site since the phases built in the mid-2000s, in a town where the study found no spare commercial space at all. The units are sized for the smaller firms that dominate the town’s business base.

If you want a say, the meeting is open to the public at 7pm tonight in the Council Chamber at Wallfields in Hertford. The agenda and reports are on the council’s committee pages.

If you want the outcome, the decision will appear on the application’s page on the East Herts planning register once issued. We track the district’s larger applications on our planning news page.