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 EHDC Local Plan to provide a mixed-use development.  

• New homes including affordable homes 

• A new public square which could host local markets and events 

• Investing in local cycle and walking routs to make it easier to travel more sustainably 

• Space for new activities and uses such as a café or shop 

• Easing congestion on local roads by relocating the Waitrose access road 

We would welcome your feedback on our proposals, and we will be running events where you can meet the team, view the plans, ask questions and give us your feedback.    

Retaining the Water Lane Hall 

We heard how important Water Lane Hall is locally and have significantly reduced the development area so that it is no longer included within our site. 

There is not a need for another cinema in the area 

A new cinema no longer forms part of our proposals, and we have instead proposed a larger public space that safeguards land for a future Arts Centre– subject to funding. We want to hear from local people about the types of events and activities they would like to see here.   

The proposals will impact existing traffic issues in the area, walking and cycling should be prioritised  

A key aim of our proposals is to encourage people to adopt more sustainable methods of transport.  

We’ll do this by investing in cycle routes to better connect Old River Lane to the existing network, installing new cycle parking directly on the site and making it more enjoyable to walk around the area through improvements to the pavements and public spaces. 

A dedicated new access road to Waitrose car park from the Link Road will also help to ease congestion around Bridge Road and Old River Lane and will improve the connection between the town centre and Castle Gardens. 

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 are in discussions with Hertfordshire County Council, as the local highways authority, and are undertaking traffic studies to understand current transport movements and how our proposals feed into the local transport network.  

At the heart of our proposals is promotion of active travel for people to move sustainably in and out of Bishop’s Stortford town centre. As such, we will be maintaining the north-south route connecting Northgate End multi-storey car park and Jackson Square.  

Ahead of this, we will be consulting with local people and asking for feedback to help shape our developing masterplan.