Council approves housing projects linked to redevelopment of Herts sports centre

St Albans City & District Council’s planning committee this week voted unanimously in favour of three linked planning applications for two small housing developments and improvements to Redbourn Recreation Centre.

Under the plans, the centre will be able to build a new sports hall and add a new floodlit 3G football pitch as well as new cricket nets. It will also gain a first floor extension with a roof terrace.

The project is a joint venture between Redbourn Recreation Centre & Playing Fields Trust and Jarvis Homes Ltd. A legal agreement will tie together the three separate applications and ensure that £1.78m is given from Jarvis Homes to the Trust for the recreation centre improvements.

Chris Renwick, chairman of Redbourn Recreation Centre and Playing Fields Trust, told the council’s planning committee: “The centre has suffered from a chronic lack of investment and the facilities are tired, badly in need of proper maintenance, and out of step with the needs of our modern and growing community.

“This redevelopment is a once in a generation opportunity to ensure the financial viability of the centre and create new facilities that local people have been wanting for many years.

“The centre has been greatly impacted financially since Covid. Pre-Covid, for example, we had over 600 gym members; post-Covid the number is still under 400, depriving the centre of much needed revenue. This is due in part to huge investments in other local facilities such as at Harpenden Leisure Centre.

“Groups and clubs relying on the delivery of these facilities include Redbourn Bowls Club, Redbourn Cricket Club, Harpenden Colts, Redbourn Rovers Football Club, PSA Sports College Programme, Redbourn Kites Netball team, Hertfordshire cricket, Harpenden Squash Club, Herts Table Tennis Club, SAADI Gymnastics Club, Herts Badminton, St Luke’s School and many others.

“The Trust aims to provide a wide range of sporting and leisure facilities for residents of all ages and demographics in Redbourn and the surrounding area, helping them to lead healthy, active and social lives.

“We can only achieve those aims with this redevelopment. To provide these facilities requires money. With local authorities, Sports England and sports governing bodies suffering from a lack of funding, this unique partnership with Jarvis Homes allows us to provide these facilities at no cost to the local authority or the community.”

While the recreation centre and housing sites are within the green belt, they are now classed as grey belt land because council officers believe they do not “strongly contribute” to the relevant green belt purposes, including restricting sprawl and preventing towns merging into one another.

While the two housing developments will mean some public open space is lost, planning officers deemed the loss would be outweighed by the benefits of the new leisure facilities. Council officers said the plans would include facilities for the local squash club which is “losing” its current facilities, and would improve capacity for currently oversubscribed exercise classes.

The new sports hall, built on what is currently the car park, will be in addition to the existing sports centre, which will be connected to the new hall. A total of 116 car parking spaces will be provided, 34 more than the existing number.

Nine homes will be built between Datalogic House and the Recreation Centre to the west of Dunstable Road, and six will be built on land between Stoneleigh and St Luke’s School to the north of Blackhorse Lane.