Letchworth: Campfield Way bungalows could make way for 157 homes

Developers have launched plans to build 157 affordable homes in the Campfield Way area of Letchworth.

Housebuilder settle will demolish 60 Hawksley bungalows built in 1950 and 1951 to make way for the new homes, according to plans handed to North Herts Council.

Twenty-eight flats which date back to the 1930s will also be demolished.

settle has promised the 100 per cent affordable development will “create a new neighbourhood for the next generation of the town’s evolution”.

Campfield Road bungalows in Letchworth (Image: Google)

The post-war bungalows had a lifespan of 60 years, which would have come to an end around a decade ago, planning documents set out.

They read: “At the outset of the project, the design team has sought to meet settle’s brief for the project to re-provide homes for the existing residents that meet their individual needs, improving their quality of life with improved accessibility, adequate space and bedrooms for each family, and to a quality that would mitigate fuel poverty and address the climate emergency.”

An uplift in the number of homes on the site would “meet settle’s need for a greater mix of one through to five bedroom bungalows, houses and flats including dedicated retirement living”.

Developers wrote refurbishing the buildings would have been unviable.

They added: “The team recognises that the site sits between two areas – the simpler, plainer built form of the houses to the estate to the north and part of Icknield Way itself, and the more characterful and architecturally interesting Campers estate to the south.

“Having identified the Arts and Crafts vernacular as being the most interesting and memorable of the town, the team has not sought to replicate the Arts and Crafts style of architecture by way of a pastiche but preferred to reinterpret it in a contemporary way.”

Plans feature almost one kilometre of new native hedgerow planting on the site, with 1.14 kilometres (1,247 yards) of ornamental, non-native hedgerow planting.

New “village greens” at road junctions will feature cherry trees and a large park will feature a path designed for children with scooters.

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Of the 157 new homes, 59 would be two, three, four or five-bedroom bungalows or houses, and 98 would be one, two or three-bedroom flats.

A W Hawksley Limited was based at Hucclecote, on the outskirts of Gloucester.

Among its planes was the Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle, which the Royal Air Force’s 295 Squadron used during the Normandy landings on D-Day.

Towards the end of the Second World War, A W Hawksley switched from building aircraft to producing aluminium panels for prefabricated homes – including aluminium salvaged from scrapped aircraft.