Officers back 35 homes at Colesdale Farm, Cuffley, against the parish council and 32 objections. With sites either side, 229 homes are now planned on that stretch.
Planning officers have recommended approval for up to 35 homes on Green Belt land east of Colesdale Farm, Cuffley, against the objection of the parish council and 32 residents. Cuffley is in the south of the borough, roughly seven miles from Welwyn Garden City.
Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council’s Development Management Committee decides the application on Thursday 10 September, at 7.30pm in the Council Chamber at the Council Offices, The Campus, Welwyn Garden City.
The more significant number is not 35. The officer report confirms this site would sit between 44 homes already granted permission immediately to the west and two Local Plan allocations to the east, HS29 north of Northaw Road East and HS30 at Wells Farm, which together provide for 150 dwellings, 75 on each.
Add them up and 229 homes are in the pipeline on that stretch of road.
What is proposed
The applicant is Brosnan Developments Limited. The site is 2.25 hectares, made up of the curtilage of Colesdale Farmhouse and an existing paddock, about 1km south-west of Cuffley village centre. Hempshill Brook forms its eastern edge.
This is an outline application. Only the new vehicular access from Northaw Road East is fixed at this stage. Everything else, including layout and appearance, would come back as reserved matters.
- up to 35 homes, predominantly two-storey with some at two and a half storeys
- at least 51% affordable, which the report puts at 18 dwellings
- an affordable tenure split of 51% social rent and 49% intermediate housing
- an indicative density of around 15 dwellings per hectare
- a new access from Northaw Road East, replacing use of the existing farm track
The design and access statement sets out an indicative mix of 6 one-bedroom, 6 two-bedroom, 14 three-bedroom, 6 four-bedroom and 7 five-bedroom homes. Those figures total 39, above the 35 cap, and the report is clear that the mix is illustrative only and would be fixed later.
The site has been argued over since 2019
The neighbouring land has a long record, set out in the report’s planning history:
- 1 August 2019: outline permission for up to 34 dwellings refused
- 15 February 2022: a second application for up to 34 dwellings allowed on appeal
- 30 September 2025: outline permission granted for up to 44 dwellings
The current application adds 35 more on the field next door.
Why officers say yes, and why the parish council says no
Officers accept the scheme conflicts with the development plan. The report states plainly that it conflicts with Local Plan Policies SP3 and SADM34, and that SADM34 “does not explicitly incorporate the grey belt exception introduced by the NPPF”.
What tips it is national policy. Officers conclude the site does not make a strong contribution to the Green Belt purposes, that it meets the grey belt test in Policy GB7 of the revised National Planning Policy Framework published in August 2026, and that it satisfies the golden rules in Policy GB8. On that basis they treat it as appropriate development in the Green Belt, with a fallback finding that very special circumstances would exist in any case.
Northaw and Cuffley Parish Council lodged a major objection, which is the reason the application is at committee rather than being decided by officers. Its grounds are that the development would cause substantial harm to Green Belt openness and the landscape west of Cuffley, that the site is not allocated in the Local Plan, that the grey belt classification is disputed, that the scheme conflicts with the Northaw and Cuffley Neighbourhood Plan 2022 to 2036 by extending development west of the established ridgeline, and that it would breach the defensible Green Belt boundary formed by Hempshill Brook, opening the way to further encroachment.
CPRE Hertfordshire also objected. The 32 resident objections raise highway safety at the Cattlegate Road junction, GP and school capacity, drainage and utility capacity, poor public transport, and the precedent the decision would set.
What the developer would pay
The Section 106 heads of terms, agreed in principle, include:
- £60,000 a year for five years, £300,000 in total, to enhance bus services on the corridor, including extra evening and weekend journeys
- £58,520 towards GP provision
- £3,705.45 for on-site waste and recycling provision
- biodiversity net gain delivery, with monitoring and maintenance for 30 years
- a management scheme for the site’s sustainable drainage
The site is in CIL Zone 3, so the Community Infrastructure Levy is charged at £230 per square metre, calculated once the floor area is known.
Officers describe accessibility by anything other than a car as “currently poor”. The nearest stops, about 100 metres away on Northaw Road West, serve the 242, which runs roughly hourly between 9am and 6pm on weekdays and Saturdays and every two hours from 10am to 6pm on Sundays, linking Potters Bar, Northaw, Cuffley, Goffs Oak, Cheshunt and Waltham Cross. Cuffley station is about 1.5km on foot, the village shops about 0.8 miles and the nearest primary school about 0.6 miles.
What it means for you
A resolution to approve on Thursday would not grant permission. The council would first have to refer the application to the Secretary of State under the Town and Country Planning (Consultation) (England) Direction 2024, because the development would have a significant impact on Green Belt openness. The Secretary of State then decides whether to call it in. A Section 106 agreement would also have to be completed.
If members refuse, the report warns them they must give clear, precise, planning-based reasons. The 2022 appeal on the neighbouring land shows what follows if they cannot.
The draft Local Plan going to Full Council on 16 September proposes 1,119 homes for Cuffley by 2043, the third largest figure in the borough after Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield.
The same committee decides 100 homes at New Road, Stanborough the same evening. The full agenda and reports pack is online, and the meeting is webcast. Our running record of borough decisions is on the Welwyn Hatfield planning news page.
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