The Old River Lane site is bounded by Old River Lane to the west, Bridge Street to the south, the Link Road to the east, and green space to the north. It is currently home to a closed office building and former car park that offer little benefit to the local area.  

Located in a highly sustainable location with excellent connections to the town centre and train station, it is an ideal brownfield site to deliver new homes, including affordable homes, and has long been identified in the East Hertfordshire District Council Local Plan to provide a mixed-use development.  

Our vision is to create a place that better reflects the unique historic character of the town centre and further bolster its offer to the community delivering:

• New homes: Around 173 new homes including affordable homes and build to rent. We have been reviewing the designs to ensure they are high-quality spaces that are naturally lit and ventilated, with a range of types and tenures including larger family apartments.

• Improved streets and public spaces: Creating a low traffic Old River Lane through a new access road for Waitrose, improved cycle and walking routes between Castle Gardens and the town centre and facilitating improvements to Bridge Street by removing west bound traffic.

• Retail and community space: New ground floor spaces that face onto the public square that are flexible and could be used for shops, cafes, or other commercial uses as well as space for a new NHS facility, community, or commercial space.

• Buildings that reflect the character of Bishop’s Stortford: A mix of building types and typologies to reflect the existing character of Bishop’s Stortford with varied height patterns and roof forms.

• A new public square: A new south-facing green public square with a pavilion building that could host markets and seasonal events, and provide a place for people to relax and spend time in.

Since the last consultation, we’ve made a series of important design changes in response to community feedback as well as discussion with the council and the Design Review Panel.

Public square

• Introduction of more trees and planting to make this a much greener space to enjoy.
• A new pavilion building that can host local markets, community activities and events.

Building design

• To optimise the delivery of new homes in a sustainable location, we are proposing buildings ranging from four to six storeys. Since the last consultation, we have lowered building heights along Old River Lane, with the top floors set back to reduce the sense of scale. Where six storeys are proposed, it would be towards the centre of the site with a set back on the top floor.
• Introduction of more pitched roofs and clearer identifiable corner buildings
• Using a combination of inset and projecting balconies to create visual interest
• Increasing the number of setbacks on the top floors to reduce impact at street level

Community and retail space

• Ground floor retail spaces designed to be adaptable in size so that they can respond to future demand.
• Ground-floor homes and retail spaces that face onto the street to create more activity throughout the day.

Transport

• Revised access strategy that allows Bridge Street and Old River Lane to become one-way, creating more space for people and planting.
• Parking for blue badge holders only, creating space for a new residential courtyard garden.

Landscaping

• Retention of more trees and planting across the masterplan to deliver 950 sqm of new green space throughout the site including a new residential courtyard garden.

Therefore, our proposal is to design and deliver a new building which would be more sustainable and have better levels of operational efficiency.  

By delivering a new building we will also be able to make better use of the site, delivering more homes and affordable homes, and ensuring the overall masterplan better complements Bishop’s Stortford Town Centre.   

We want to make it easier for people to travel more sustainably in and around the town centre. That’s why our proposals prioritise people over cars, with widened footways on Old River Lane and Bridge Street, cycle parking, funding for an additional car club in the town, as well as new and improvements to existing cycle lanes and an upgraded toucan crossing on the Link Road.  

Because the site sits right in the town centre, new residents will already be close to shops, services, and excellent public transport links. This means that day-to-day journeys can be made easily on foot, by bike or public transport, rather than by car. As such, in line with national and regional planning policy, there will be no on-site parking except for accessible (blue badge) spaces. 

We know there is existing congestion on the roads around the site, particularly for those travelling to Waitrose. To understand this better, we carried out detailed traffic surveys in 2025 and these are helping us to model how the roads work today, how they’ll operate when the development opens, and how they’ll perform in the future as the town grows. This modelling takes into account background traffic growth from population increases and other developments nearby. 

We’re also working closely with Hertfordshire County Council, as the local highways authority, to ensure our proposals support the wider transport network. As part of this, we’re proposing a new signalised access to Waitrose from the Link Road, designed to help manage traffic safely and efficiently. 

Ahead of this, we are holding community update events on Tuesday 4 November and Saturday 8 November to update local people about our detailed planning application.