Plans for a 78-bedroom care home on vacant land south of Rags Lane in Cheshunt will be decided by Borough of Broxbourne Council’s Planning and Regulatory Committee on Tuesday 30 June. The application, submitted by Mr David Gannon through agent QED Planning, would see the site’s existing commercial buildings cleared for a part two-storey, part three-storey facility delivering round-the-clock residential, nursing and dementia care for frail older people.
Officers have recommended granting permission for the 4,101 sq.m development, which would create roughly 60 full-time equivalent jobs once operational. Hertfordshire County Council Adult Care Services has backed the scheme, stating that new care home beds across the borough over the past decade have been almost entirely cancelled out by closures. The 0.66-hectare site would include 33 parking spaces with eight active electric vehicle charging points, 12 cycle spaces, and a dedicated ambulance and minibus bay.
The land, which previously housed an auto-repair garage, tyre shop, indoor virtual golf experience, yoga studio and a cafe, was removed from the Metropolitan Green Belt when the Broxbourne Local Plan 2018–2033 was adopted in June 2020. With the council able to demonstrate only 2.13 years of housing land supply against a five-year requirement, national planning rules tilt the balance in favour of development. Care UK held a public consultation in summer 2024 before the formal submission in February, with the council’s determination deadline falling on 6 July.
Biodiversity measures written into the scheme include off-site habitat creation to achieve a net gain of at least 10%, along with bee bricks, bat and bird boxes, log piles and hedgehog gaps. Hertfordshire County Council Ecology raised no objection subject to those conditions, while the lead local flood authority withdrew its initial holding objection. Several infrastructure contribution requests—including £12,090 from the NHS East of England Ambulance Service and £42,600 from county highways—were judged by officers not to meet the statutory tests for planning obligations and are not recommended for support.
The committee meets at 7pm in the Council Chamber, Bishops’ College, Churchgate, Cheshunt, EN8 9XQ, and the session will be filmed for broadcast. Neighbouring resident Rosemary Cottage has not objected in principle but raised concerns about parking, air quality and construction disruption. If approved, the care home would sit next to the locally listed Burton Grange, which itself secured hybrid planning permission in December 2024 for conversion to flats and up to 30 new homes.
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