Broxbourne Borough and Hertfordshire County Councils, along with their development partner, Sovereign Peveril, have announced that it has been agreed to grant planning permission for the Brookfield Riverside and Brookfield Garden Village developments.

The site was allocated in the Broxbourne Local Plan 2018-2033, which was approved in 2020 by an independent Planning Inspector following a public examination.

Councillor Lewis Cocking, Leader of Borough of Broxbourne, said: “I am delighted that the Brookfield Riverside and Garden Village developments have been given planning approval after several decades of planning.

“The developments will create much-needed housing and affordable homes, a variety of leisure and retail facilities, including a new cinema and up to 2,500 permanent new jobs.  This will not only be good for the local economy, but will also have environmental benefits; the new town centre will be fully integrated with the public transport, cycling and walking networks and local people will no longer have to travel outside of the area for their shopping and leisure needs.”

The £500m Brookfield Riverside development in Cheshunt will create a new town centre for the Borough, which is envisaged to include up to 315,000 sq ft of retail, 250,000 sq ft of leisure, restaurants, a cinema and 160,000 sq ft of offices including a new civic hub, approximately 250 homes and 100 assisted living units plus a 2,000-space car park and major public realm improvements. It will also generate 2,000 jobs during construction and 2,500 new jobs after its development.

The Garden Village will provide 1,250 new homes, neighbourhood facilities, a three-form entry primary school and possibly a ‘blue light’ hub for police, fire and ambulance services. In addition there will be more than 14km of new walking and cycling routes across the whole development and bus services to connect the site to other parts of the Borough and beyond.

Ralph Jones, managing Director of Peveril Securities, said: “We are delighted to be associated with this development which is in a unique location on the edge of London and we very much look forward to bringing it to fruition.”

Construction is expected to start in 2024.