A 15-storey, 293-flat plan for Potters Bar High Street goes to a government inspector, not Hertsmere. Comments close 11 September. No affordable homes offered.

The biggest redevelopment proposed in Potters Bar town centre will not be decided by Hertsmere Borough Council. A plan for 293 flats in blocks of up to 15 storeys on the Maple House site at the High Street and Mutton Lane junction has been lodged straight with the Planning Inspectorate. An inspector appointed by the Secretary of State will determine it, and the council has been reduced to a consultee on a scheme in the middle of one of its own town centres.

The applicant is Chase (Canada) Ltd. The application reference is S62A/2026/0159. It was validated on 6 August 2026, comments close on 11 September 2026, and the Planning Inspectorate’s target decision date is 5 November 2026.

Hertsmere has called a special Planning Committee for Thursday 3 September to agree what it wants to say. It is the only planning item on the agenda.

Update, 31 August 2026: the officer report for that meeting has since been published. Officers recommend no objection in principle, but call the scheme “of insufficient design quality”, and ask the inspector to commission an independent review of the applicant’s viability case. See Potters Bar 293 flats: council says design falls short.

Why the council does not decide it

On 15 June 2026 the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government designated Hertsmere Borough Council under section 62A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, for applications for major development. The notice is signed by the housing and planning minister, Matthew Pennycook. It takes effect from 9am on 15 June 2026 and stays in force until it is revoked.

Designation does not stop the council determining applications. It gives applicants a choice. Anyone with a major scheme in Hertsmere can now go direct to the Planning Inspectorate instead, and the council cannot refuse or approve it. This is the first application to take that route in the borough.

The designation was made on the quality of decisions, not their speed. The government’s criteria for designation set the threshold at 10 per cent of an authority’s decisions on major applications being overturned at appeal over a two-year assessment period.

Hertsmere’s own statement on the designation is unusually specific about the numbers, and worth reading in full. The council says it is “disappointed”. It puts its figure at 15 per cent, from six of the 40 appeals decided in the 2023 to 2025 period. It notes that its speed of decision-making on major applications is 94 per cent against a government target of 60 per cent, and that the threshold is “a broad measure” resting on a small number of appeals.

What is proposed

The site runs to about 1.63 hectares on the north-western side of the High Street junction, next to the Tesco superstore. It currently holds the Maple House office building, two parades of shops with flats above, a car wash and roughly 355 surface parking spaces.

The scheme would clear most of that and build:

  • 293 flats: 14 studios, 83 one-bed, 150 two-bed and 46 three-bed
  • four blocks of 4 to 15 storeys, the tallest reaching 49 metres to parapet in the south-western corner, stepping down to five and six storeys on the High Street
  • 1,742 square metres of flexible Class E commercial space, in small units fronting the High Street and Mutton Lane
  • 125 car parking spaces, mostly inside the existing two-storey car park, which is kept
  • two communal courtyards, and public open space on the High Street opposite the Grade II listed Cask & Stillage
  • demolition of Maple House, which holds 6,570 square metres of office floorspace

No affordable housing is offered

Hertsmere’s policy CS4 requires a minimum of 35 per cent affordable housing. The application offers none.

The applicant’s planning statement says a viability assessment by Turner Morum concludes the scheme “incurs a deficit even when affordable housing contributions are reduced”, and that “no affordable housing is proposed”. It offers instead a clawback mechanism in the draft legal agreement, under which viability would be reviewed later to see whether affordable homes could be funded then.

The statement also leans on the council’s own evidence. It points out that HDH Planning & Development, appointed by Hertsmere for a whole-borough viability assessment supporting the new Local Plan, produced initial work suggesting that flatted development is unviable both under and over six storeys.

The site next door is already changing

The red line drawn round this application deliberately excludes Canada Life Place, the building alongside. That is being converted to 74 flats under an extant prior approval, reference 25/1764/PD56M, with a separate application (26/0764/FUL) for external alterations. Those 74 homes are not counted in the 293.

Put the two together and the wider landholding delivers 367 homes on 1.81 hectares, a density of 202 dwellings per hectare. The applicant argues that figure aligns with the draft Local Plan.

It very nearly does. Hertsmere’s own Regulation 18 candidate site list carries “Canada Life House, High Street, Potters Bar” at an indicative 369 homes. The scheme the council will not decide is within two homes of the number the council itself put on the site.

Key dates

Key dates for the Maple House section 62A planning application in Potters Bar A timeline. 15 June 2026, Hertsmere designated under section 62A for major applications. 6 August 2026, application S62A slash 2026 slash 0159 validated by the Planning Inspectorate. 13 August 2026, case published on GOV.UK. 3 September 2026, special Hertsmere Planning Committee to agree the council's consultee response. 11 September 2026, deadline for public comments. 5 November 2026, Planning Inspectorate target decision date. From designation to decision in under five months 15 June 2026 · Hertsmere designated under section 62A for major applications 6 August · Application S62A/2026/0159 validated by the Planning Inspectorate 13 August · Case published on GOV.UK 3 September · Special Hertsmere Planning Committee agrees the council's response 11 September · Deadline for public comments to the Inspectorate 5 November · Target decision date Sources: MHCLG designation notice; Planning Inspectorate case page S62A/2026/0159; Hertsmere Planning Committee agenda, 3 September 2026. Graphic by The Borehamwood Post
The Inspectorate will decide whether a hearing is needed shortly after comments close on 11 September.

What it means for you

If you want a say, you have until 11 September 2026, and you send it to the Planning Inspectorate rather than to Hertsmere.

  • Email section62a@planninginspectorate.gov.uk, quoting reference S62A/2026/0159 and the site address
  • Or write to Section 62A Applications Team, Planning Inspectorate, c/o Quadient, 69 Buckingham Avenue, Slough, SL1 4PN
  • If you would want to speak at a hearing, you must ask for that when you submit your comments, not later
  • All representations are published, with the author’s name but not their address or contact details

The council’s own meeting is separate. Hertsmere’s Planning Committee sits at 6pm on Thursday 3 September at the Civic Offices on Elstree Way, Borehamwood. You can speak on the application for three minutes, but only if you ring 020 8207 7550 between 10am and 4pm on the day itself. One speaker is allowed in support and one against, first come first served. The meeting is filmed and broadcast.

If the inspector grants permission, three things follow for the town centre. The tallest block would stand at 49 metres to parapet, on a site where the existing Maple House tower is being taken down. Parking on the site drops from about 355 spaces to 125, a fall of roughly 230. And 293 households arrive within walking distance of Potters Bar station, which is the proximity the applicant uses to justify the density.

Sources