Further plans to redevelop former Co-op department store in Bishop's Stortford

A fourth attempt to breathe new life into a Bishop’s Stortford town centre landmark is being considered by East Herts Council.

New proposals for 19 homes and space for uses including shops, restaurants, a gym, health centre or crèche have been submitted for the former Co-op department store on the corner of South Street and Station Road.

In the latest instalment of a four-year planning saga, Sun & Harrow Ltd wants to reconfigure the ground floor for commercial use and use the first floor for eight studio homes, a two-bedroom apartment and a one-bedroom flat.

It wants to add a third storey to the premises, built in 1958 as a headquarters for the Co-op, to provide two further studio homes, one two-bedroom and six one-bedroom flats.

In 2019, planning permission was granted for flexible commercial use of the ground and first floors with nine homes on a new second floor. Then in 2020 it won approval for proposals to create a headquarters office building, again with a new second floor.

In April 2021, the site was auctioned with an estimate of £2.2m but failed to sell.

A new blueprint for the building was then submitted to use the ground floor as one commercial, business or service unit with 20 homes upstairs: 10 studio flats and a one-bedroom property on the first floor and two apartments, six one-bed flats and a two-bed home on a new second storey.

When the town council scrutinised this scheme, Cllr Bob Taylor likened it to tenement buildings of the 1950s, Cllr Richard Townsend said it was akin to a hostel and Cllr Dave Anderson compared the size of the studios to trying to “swing a cat in a shoebox”. Ultimately it was rejected by East Herts Council.

Hybrid Planning & Development Ltd, Sun & Harrow’s agent, cited Covid-19 and a drop in demand for office space as a reason for the repeated revisions and claimed the latest provided “a positive future for the building which otherwise blights the Conservation Area”.