Four Bushey projects share £60,868 of levy money: £30,000 to the 64th Scouts, £17,800 to the bowling club and £9,411 to make St James's clock strike again.

Four Bushey organisations have been awarded £60,868.36 between them from the levy the council charges on new development. All four asked for a specific sum and all four got it in full.

Hertsmere Borough Council published the Bushey funding decision on Thursday 10 September. The money comes from the Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy, the slice of development money that has to be spent in the area where the building happened.

The awards are:

  • £30,000 to the 64th Bushey and Oxhey Scouts, for capital work on the Scout Hut and the site around it next to Moatfield Park
  • £17,800 to Bushey Bowling Club, for clubhouse improvements and equipment
  • £9,411 to Bushey Parochial Church, to make the clock in the bell tower of St James’s Church strike the hour again
  • £3,657.30 to the 79th Bushey and Oxhey Scouts, to finish a toilet refurbishment that has cost more than it was budgeted to
Bar chart of the four Bushey levy allocations: 64th Bushey and Oxhey Scouts £30,000, Bushey Bowling Club £17,800, Bushey Parochial Church £9,411, 79th Bushey and Oxhey Scouts £3,657.30.
Every application was approved for the full amount requested.
Share this chartFacebookWhatsAppX

The four figures in the report add up to £60,868.30. The published decision records the total as £60,868.36.

What each project buys

The Scout Hut award is the biggest, and the council’s report explains why. The building supports more than 200 young people each week and is also used by Bushey Guides and BuzyKidz Playgroup. The work covers toilets, drainage, a fire door, car parking areas and storage.

Bushey Bowling Club has been in the town since 1912 and told the council it has more than 85 members. It argued that better facilities would bring in new members and let non-members and other community groups use the clubhouse. The club sits in the council’s own property portfolio, and the report notes the asset management team is satisfied the work falls within the existing lease.

The St James’s award is the one people will hear. The report describes the church as medieval and the clock project as part of a wider job that also includes enhancing the clock and repainting its face. The panel backed it as support for local heritage.

The 79th Scouts award is a top-up rather than a new project. The group won £40,000 from the levy panel in March 2025 for roof and toilet work. The roof repairs are done and £16,564 has been paid out, leaving £23,436 of the original grant. The roof turned up £750 of extra work, and a fresh quote put the toilet phase at £26,343.30. The £3,657.30 closes the gap.

The bit the press release would leave out

These applications were meant to be decided in May. They were not.

The council’s report says the May meeting of the CIL Investment Panel was cancelled while the administration of the CIL process was moved to the Policy and Partnerships team and while the outcomes of an internal audit into the administration process were considered.

To stop the delay running on, the decision was taken out of the panel’s hands. Bushey members of the panel considered the bids on 14 July, all Bushey ward councillors were consulted, and the awards were then signed off as an Individual Cabinet Portfolio Holder Decision by the Leader, Cllr Jeremy Newmark, and the Deputy Leader, Cllr Chris Shenton, rather than waiting for the September Cabinet.

The report is dated 4 August and the register records the decision as taken on 5 August. It was published on 10 September, five weeks later. The chair of the scrutiny committee agreed it could be treated as urgent, which means it cannot be called in by councillors.

So the sequence is a panel meeting cancelled in May, an audit running in the background, a decision taken in early August under urgency rules that removed the scrutiny route, and publication in mid-September. The projects get their money. The process that got them there is worth watching.

What it means for you

  • Nothing changes on your bill. The levy is charged on new development, not on residents. It is ring-fenced and cannot be spent on anything but new or improved infrastructure.
  • The neighbourhood share has to be spent locally. Money generated by building in Bushey has to be spent in Bushey. That is the whole point of the neighbourhood portion, and it is why Bushey groups were competing only against each other.
  • Nothing is built yet. The council will enter a legal agreement with each organisation, sized to the grant, before the money moves.
  • If your group wants some of this, the route is the CIL Investment Panel, and the report makes clear that route has been disrupted this year. Ask your ward councillor when the panel next meets.
  • More levy money is heading Bushey’s way: the Bushey Golf Club scheme that Cabinet backed on 9 September is banked on roughly £4.7 million of levy income from the homes it would build.
  • Development in your area is listed on our Borehamwood planning news page, and what the council charges you directly is on the council tax bands page.

Sources