Bovingdon 125 Homes: 47 Object, Comments Close 7 September

Taylor Wimpey has applied to build up to 125 homes on greenfield land at the southeastern edge of Bovingdon, and it is asking Dacorum Borough Council to accept that the land is not really Green Belt at all.

Forty-nine people have commented on the application so far. Forty-seven object, two are neutral and none support it. Comments close on Monday 7 September.

Bovingdon is a village about four miles southwest of Hemel Hempstead. The application, reference 26/01762/MOA, was validated on 13 August 2026 and covers 5.30 hectares most recently used as a paddock.

What is proposed

The developer’s covering letter, submitted through agent Montagu Evans, sets out the scheme as:

• up to 125 homes, including 63 affordable homes, or 50%
• a new vehicular access from Homefield
• walking and cycling links to Yew Tree Drive, Green Lane and the Chiltern Way
• about 1.35 hectares of publicly accessible open space, with children’s play
• sustainable drainage, including an attenuation basin
• biodiversity net gain, part on site and part off site

It is an outline application with all matters reserved except access. That means the council is being asked to agree the principle and the way in and out, not the house designs or the layout.

The argument that matters: Green Belt or “grey belt”

The council’s own constraints record for the site lists Green Belt. It also lists an Environment Agency source protection zone, a Beechwood Special Area of Conservation buffer and Heathrow safeguarding.

Normally, building houses in the Green Belt is inappropriate development, and it is refused unless the applicant proves “very special circumstances”. Taylor Wimpey’s primary case is that it does not have to.

Its planning statement argues the site is “grey belt” under paragraph 155 of the National Planning Policy Framework. Grey belt is land inside the Green Belt that does not strongly contribute to the Green Belt’s purposes. If a site qualifies, and the scheme meets the framework’s Golden Rules, the development is treated as appropriate rather than inappropriate.

The 50% affordable housing is not generosity. It is what the Golden Rules require. The statement is explicit that the scheme “meets the NPPF Golden Rules, including provision of 50% affordable housing, infrastructure contributions, and publicly accessible green spaces”.

The statement also runs a fallback. If the council decides the site is not grey belt, it presents a secondary case on very special circumstances.

The housing supply claim

The case leans heavily on the council being short of housing land.

The planning statement says Dacorum’s own Housing Supply Position Statement 2024/25, published in June 2026, records a 1.20-year supply of deliverable housing land for 2025 to 2030, against the five years the framework requires. It also cites the 2023 Housing Delivery Test result for the borough of 75%, which triggers a 20% buffer on top of the supply the council has to identify.

Those are the applicant’s figures, drawn from the council’s documents. The council has not yet published an officer’s response.

What the objections say

We read all 49 comments. Nobody is named here, but the pattern is clear. The recurring themes, in rough order of how often they come up, are:

• traffic and the road network, especially Green Lane and Homefield
• infrastructure keeping pace, raised in most objections
• school places
• drainage and flooding
• bus services and getting to a GP
• the character and scale of the village

The two neutral comments do not support the scheme either.

The school question is the sharpest point

The developer commissioned its own education report, dated July 2026. It is unusually frank, and it does not entirely help the application.

• Bovingdon Primary Academy is a two-form-entry school 0.3 miles from the middle of the site. As of January 2026 it was running at 95% of capacity, with 20 surplus places.
• Its roll was 380 in 2024/25. The county forecasts the roll to fall, leaving 84 surplus places by 2029/30.
• The report says the county council has “concerns regarding the capacity of the school and its ability to expand”, raised in pre-application discussions.
• An education contribution of around £1.4 million is expected.
• There is no secondary school within three miles’ walk. The two secondaries directly serving Bovingdon are, in the report’s own words, “collectively, at present, at capacity”.

There is also a mismatch inside the developer’s own paperwork. The education report opens by describing a scheme of “up to 125 dwellings”. Its child yield calculation is then run on 146 dwellings, producing about 61 primary-aged children. The application before the council is for 125.

What the developer says the village gains

A separate economic statement by Stantec puts the benefits at:

• 95 gross construction jobs, of which 55 would be safeguarded within Dacorum
• about £369,000 a year in extra council tax once the homes are occupied
• around £9 million a year of household spending by the new residents

What it means for you

If you want to comment, you have until Monday 7 September 2026. Search reference 26/01762/MOA on the Dacorum planning register and use the comments tab. Planning comments are published in full, including your name and address, so write them accordingly.

Only planning grounds carry weight. Traffic, drainage, school capacity, Green Belt harm and the design of the access are all material. Whether you would prefer the field stayed a field is not, on its own.

This is an outline application. If it is approved, the number of homes, the access and the principle are fixed, and a later reserved matters application decides what the houses actually look like. The point to influence it is now.

We track every significant application in the borough on our Hemel Hempstead planning news page.

Sources

• Dacorum Borough Council planning register, application 26/01762/MOA for the description of development, the site address, the validation and consultation dates, the applicant and agent, the 22 recorded constraints including Green Belt, and the 49 public comments.
• The applicant’s covering letter (Montagu Evans, 6 August 2026) for the 125 homes, 63 affordable homes, the Homefield access, the 1.35 hectares of open space and the drainage strategy.
• The applicant’s planning statement (Montagu Evans) for the 5.30 hectare site area, the grey belt case under NPPF paragraph 155, the Golden Rules, the secondary very special circumstances case, the 1.20-year housing land supply and the 75% Housing Delivery Test result.
• The applicant’s education report (EFM, July 2026) for Bovingdon Primary Academy’s 95% occupancy and 20 surplus places, the 380 roll, the 84 forecast surplus places by 2029/30, the county’s stated concerns, the £1.4 million figure, the secondary school position and the 146-dwelling child yield calculation.
• The applicant’s economic benefits statement (Stantec) for the construction jobs, the £369,000 annual council tax and the £9 million household spending figures.

All application documents are on the council’s register under the reference above.

Figures and comment totals checked against the register on 27 August 2026. The consultation was still open at that point, so the number of comments will change.