The layout for 120 homes on fields off South Way, Hatfield, is approved: 90 for sale, 30 affordable, with land kept for a new primary school.
The detailed plans for 120 new homes on the southern edge of Hatfield have been approved. The site is two grassland fields on the south side of South Way, between Oak Hill Lawn Cemetery and Links Academy.
Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council granted the reserved matters application, 6/2025/2336/RM, on 2 October 2026. Planning officers decided it under delegated powers, so it did not go to a committee. The applicant is the housebuilder BDW North Thames. (Welwyn Hatfield planning register, 6/2025/2336/RM)
The principle was settled a year earlier. Outline permission for 120 homes and a two-form-entry primary school, 6/2023/1532/OUTLINE, was granted on 30 September 2025, with only the access off South Way fixed at that stage. This approval covers everything else: the layout, the look of the houses, their size and the landscaping.
What has been approved
The council’s delegated report sets out the scheme:
- 120 homes on a site of about 11.78 hectares
- 90 for sale on the open market: 5 two-bedroom, 74 three-bedroom and 11 four-bedroom houses
- 30 affordable homes, a quarter of the total: 15 for social rent, 2 for affordable rent and 13 for shared ownership
- 2 custom or self-build plots
- buildings of two to two and a half storeys
- one children’s equipped play area and two smaller play areas, plus open space
- one road into the estate, from South Way towards the western end of the site
The homes split into 104 houses, 12 flats and 4 maisonettes. (Delegated report, 6/2025/2336/RM)
The northern part of the land is allocated in the borough’s adopted Local Plan as site HS11, for up to 120 homes and a primary school. The southern part is in the Green Belt and is used for landscaping and open space. Public footpath 21 and restricted byway 23 cross the site towards Welham Green, which lies beyond the fields to the south.
The school is not part of this approval
The outline permission keeps a parcel of the site for a two-form-entry primary school. This application did not include it. The report says drainage details for the school parcel will have to be approved separately “at such time as detailed proposals for the school come forward”. No date for the school is given.
Who objected, and what changed
The application drew 7 objections and 3 other comments from the public, and no letters of support. Concerns included:
- the loss of open space and Green Belt land
- traffic, including construction traffic
- footway and cycle route design, especially for children walking to the school
- the effect on the public rights of way across the site
- pressure on healthcare and other services
North Mymms Parish Council objected. It said the estate would be overdevelopment when added to other schemes approved or proposed around Welham Green. It also raised the safety of the access and the amount of parking. The North Mymms Green Belt Society objected on similar grounds.
Officers said the loss of Green Belt and open land had already been accepted, when the site was allocated in the 2023 Local Plan and outline permission was granted.
Hertfordshire County Council’s highways team first objected, then withdrew its objection after amended plans and a road safety audit. Ward councillor Paul Zukowskyj also withdrew his objection, on 4 September 2026, after the amendments.
The conditions the county asked for include:
- a zebra crossing, designed and built before the later phases are occupied
- double yellow lines near the future school, to stop unsafe parking
- no drainage works across footpath 21 until a diversion or closure of that section has been formally approved
The county’s ecology advisers said the revised landscaping would deliver a biodiversity net gain above the council’s policy requirement.
What happens next
Several pre-start conditions have already been dealt with. In March 2026 the council part-discharged the construction environmental management plan and archaeology scheme, and approved a site waste management plan. Further archaeology details were approved in August. A surface water drainage scheme, 6/2026/0672/COND, was still awaiting a decision when the report was written. No start date has been published.
What it means for you
- If you live on or near South Way, expect construction traffic using the single new junction once work begins. A construction environmental management plan has already been through the council under the outline permission.
- If you use footpath 21 towards Welham Green, part of it may be diverted. That needs its own legal order, which will be advertised before work there.
- If you are on the housing register, 17 of the homes will be for social or affordable rent. Our explainer on the proposed changes to Welwyn Hatfield’s housing register rules covers how those homes are allocated.
- If you want to read the plans, every drawing and the full report are on the council’s planning register under 6/2025/2336/RM. Other schemes are on our Welwyn Hatfield planning news page.
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