Hertfordshire County Council wants to knock down four empty Victorian houses at 15-21 Hitchin Road for an 80-bed care home. Comments close 2 November.

Hertfordshire County Council has applied to itself to demolish four empty Victorian houses on Hitchin Road, Stevenage, and build an 80-bed care home. The houses at 15, 17, 19 and 21 Hitchin Road are owned by the county and stand vacant. The public can comment until 2 November 2026.

Stevenage Borough Council has already given its view. On 13 October it raised no objection, saying the 80 beds would be “a significant public benefit” in a town short of modern care home places. The final decision rests with the county, because the county is the applicant. The details are on the county’s planning register, reference PL/0602/26.

What is planned

The county’s agent, Vincent and Gorbing, set the scheme out in its planning statement of September 2026. It includes:

  • 80 en-suite bedrooms, with dedicated intermediate care facilities
  • about 80 jobs, with up to 30 staff on site at any one time
  • 28 parking spaces, three of them disabled bays and six with electric charging
  • 20 cycle spaces and an ambulance and minibus bay
  • a new access road off the A602 Hitchin Road

Intermediate care is the short-term care people receive after leaving hospital, before they go home. The borough’s response notes the site is close to Lister Hospital, which it says would “aid the transfer process when new patients are discharged”.

The building would be U-shaped and set back about 20m from the road. The borough’s planners describe it as “very different to anything existing in the wider area”, in red and buff brick with flat roofs. They welcomed that. Rooms would measure 15 to 18 square metres, against the 11.5 square metres expected of a double bedroom, and each would have its own bathroom. Residents would also get lounges, a cinema, a café and a hair salon, the borough’s response records.

Why the borough backs it

Stevenage’s Local Plan sets a target of 200 bed spaces in supported accommodation between 2011 and 2031, on top of 7,600 homes. The borough’s response says only two significant schemes have come forward since 2011, and neither has produced a bed:

  • 72 beds were approved as part of the West of Stevenage development in November 2024, but that permission has not been started and still needs further approval
  • a 76-bed care home at 18 North Road was refused, because of its impact on a neighbour
  • the old 18-bed care home at 12 North Road was demolished in 2018 and replaced with flats
  • the North of Stevenage and South East of Stevenage sites came forward with no care places at all

If Hitchin Road is approved, the two schemes together would reach 152 beds, about three quarters of the target.

Bar chart comparing Stevenage's Local Plan target of 200 supported bed spaces with 72 beds approved at West of Stevenage and not yet started, 80 beds proposed at Hitchin Road, and a combined 152 if Hitchin Road is approved.
Chart by Stevenage Today
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The response also cites need figures from the 2023 North Road application. On a raw count, Stevenage has 40 more registered care beds than it needs. Counting only beds that meet modern standards, such as an en-suite bathroom, the town is 80 beds short, a shortfall expected to reach 99. The borough says the Hitchin Road home would cover the current gap on its own.

The county makes its own case in the planning statement. Its care housing need model shows a gap of 110 nursing places within 10 years. Of the seven nursing homes operating in the area the home would serve, it says only two are modern, purpose-built buildings. The home is aimed at nursing and nursing dementia care, the statement says.

What the borough wants changed

Its support is not unconditional. The response says the scheme breaks its parking rules in two small ways: there are no enlarged parking bays and no space for adapted cycles. It judged neither serious enough to outweigh the benefits.

The bigger warning concerns Essex Road, behind the site. Those gardens are 13 to 15m deep, which would put the new building between 20m and 55m from the backs of the houses. The borough’s design guide asks for 35m between existing homes and buildings over two storeys. It said the scheme “could potentially be harmful” to those neighbours unless the distances are kept or heavy landscaping screens the view. It pointed the county to three appeals it has won on the same point, at Gorleston Close, Basils Road and Burymead.

It also noted:

  • all four trees covered by a preservation order, a horse chestnut, a copper beech and two yews, are to be kept
  • a large number of other trees, some of the highest category, would be felled, with new trees planted
  • the scheme pays no Community Infrastructure Levy, because care homes are zero-rated
  • the borough’s environmental health team was still reviewing the noise report

The borough asked for conditions to secure the planting and the climate measures. It also wants 5% to 10% of construction jobs offered to Stevenage residents, under its local employment rules.

The houses that go

The four houses are large detached Victorian homes with gardens over 40m deep. The borough calls them “aspirational” homes, a type it says the town is short of, and accepts their loss would hurt housing supply. It concluded the 80 care beds outweigh it.

This is the second attempt to redevelop the plot. An application for 40 flats in four blocks on 17, 19 and 21 Hitchin Road was withdrawn in July 2022, according to the borough’s site history.

The county consulted locally before applying. Its statement of community engagement says 1,858 leaflets went out and 22 people attended an exhibition on 21 October 2025. Ten questionnaires came back: six supported the idea, none opposed it and three were undecided. One neighbour opposite raised height, privacy, noise and lighting.

What it means for you

  • If you live on Essex Road or Hitchin Road, the separation distance is the point to look at. The plans and the daylight study are on the county’s register.
  • To comment, use the “Comment on this application” link on the county’s register page by 2 November 2026. The case officer is Ria Griffiths at Hertfordshire County Council, on 01992 556082.
  • If you have a relative in hospital or in care, this would be new capacity close to Lister. No opening date has been published, and the application does not say who would run the home.
  • If you follow local planning, our Stevenage planning news page tracks the big schemes.

We will report the decision when the county makes it.

Sources