Land to South of 76 Station Road

This plot of land, with hard-standing and a wooden shed on it, was part of High Farm, which Hertfordshire County Council acquired in 1909 and the farm was let thereafter as small-holdings. The shed was erected in the mid-1950s during the tenancy of Frank Huffer and was originally a military barrack building bought for £215 at a sale at Royston Market by Frank’s son Brian. It was re-assembled by the Huffers and used for rearing chickens. At some point chicken rearing finished, although Frank Huffer’s tenancy did not end until his death in 1992. Subsequently, when the entire farm was let as one holding, it was tenanted by John Jarman, who used the shed for storage. John’s tenancy ended when he died in October 2015.

The Council decided to let all the farmland as one holding to the adjoining independent farmers and sell off the farmhouse (No 74 Station Road), where John Jarman had lived and its farmyard with barns for conversion into two dwellings. At the same time they applied to convert the wooden shed on this plot into a two bedroom dwelling under Class Q of the planning rules, that assumes permitted development. However, permission was refused by the Planning Authority in May 2019, owing to concerns about the structural stability of the building. Herts CC made a similar application in 2021, which was refused for several reasons, including structural instability, in March 2021.

From May 2021 and into 2022  the plot of land and wooden shed with asbestos roof, were offered for rent by the agents Satchells Commercial at £8,000 a year, equivalent to £667 a week. The description read:

“The property is available now on a new lease. Parcel of land with barn and hard standing to let for rural or agriculturally based business. Other uses would be considered subject to landlords consent and change of use being granted. The land is about 16,698 sq ft with access available from road. The barn, about 1,278 sq ft, sits towards the rear of the parcel of land with the hard standing area of about 1,612 sg ft to the side of the barn.”

At some point, in preparation the trees and undergrowth around the shed were cleared by Council contractors. Despite these best efforts there were only a few expressions of interest and the property remained unlet.

Then in the storm with strong winds in the last week of December 2023 the shed collapsed completely! The only remedial action by the Council was to fence the site, which has become increasingly overgrown, with bushes and shrubs encroaching on the highway.

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