Cabinet has backed a foodstore, nursery and community centre on the former Bushey golf course, paid for by 250 homes. Full council decides on 16 September.

Hertsmere’s Cabinet has backed the biggest thing to happen in Bushey in years: a new community hub with a foodstore, a children’s nursery and a community centre on the site of the former Bushey Golf and Country Club, paid for by building around 250 homes on part of it.

The decision was taken on Wednesday 9 September. It is a recommendation, not a final answer. Full council decides on Wednesday 16 September at 7pm at the Civic Offices on Elstree Way, and it is item 7 on that agenda.

The numbers are large. Cabinet asked the council to approve a gross capital budget of up to £31.6 million for the hub and its infrastructure, while putting the council’s own net contribution at about £3.0 million, capped at £4.0 million including contingency. The gap is closed by the value of the land the housing sits on, by roughly £4.7 million of Community Infrastructure Levy money generated by those homes, and by other project income.

What would be built

The council would enter a Development Agreement with Hill Group and Griggs Homes, chosen after a competitive procurement. They would build the homes and hand the completed community buildings back to the council, which keeps them.

The Cabinet report lists the hub as four new buildings, one relocated building and a plot held back for later:

  • Building 1: a foodstore
  • Building 2: a car park
  • Building 3: a children’s nursery
  • Building 4: a community centre
  • Building 5: the relocated Frobisher Art Studio
  • Plot 6: a potential future development plot

The community centre is where most of the local uses land. The report lists a boxing club, Bushey Museum and Art Gallery, a café, a Citizens Advice Bureau, a community police office, a large multi-use hall, a soft play area, and shared back office and welfare space.

On the housing side, the commitments are 50% affordable homes and about 60% of the whole site kept as publicly accessible open space, protected from future development. Wards affected are Bushey Heath, Bushey Park and Bushey St James.

What the Bushey Golf and Country Club scheme promises, and who pays for it Two panels. The first gives the scheme's headline commitments: around 250 new homes, 50 per cent of them affordable, and around 60 per cent of the site kept as publicly accessible open space. The second gives the money: a gross capital budget of up to 31.6 million pounds for the community hub, about 4.7 million pounds of Community Infrastructure Levy from the homes, a net council contribution estimated at about 3.0 million pounds, and a maximum net commitment of 4.0 million pounds including contingency. Bushey Golf and Country Club: what is promised, and what it costs the council Figures as recommended by Hertsmere Cabinet on 9 September 2026. Full council decides on 16 September. 250 new homes, approximately 50% of them affordable 60% of the site kept as open space The money Gross capital budget for the hubup to £31.6m CIL from the new homesabout £4.7m Net council contributionabout £3.0m, capped at £4.0m Source: Hertsmere Borough Council, Cabinet report CAB/26/132 and the Cabinet decision sheet of 9 September 2026. Graphic by The Borehamwood Post
The bars are drawn to scale against the gross budget. The council's own money is the smallest part of it, because the land value and the levy on the new homes carry the rest.

How the council ended up owning a closed golf course

Hertsmere bought Bushey Golf and Country Club in 1996/97 as an investment. It then spent more than £6 million on the site, upgrading the country club and paying for the construction of Bushey Community Centre.

It did not work. The report is candid about that. Income fell, the site moved from a profit to a loss, and in 2012 management passed to Hertsmere Leisure Trust. Even then, the report says, prospective operators thought the country club commercially unattractive on its own. In 2018 the trust gave notice that it would stop running it, and the golf course closed that year.

Consultation and options work followed in 2019, then the Local Plan and the pandemic stalled it. The project restarted in late 2023.

The rules councillors set themselves

A cross-party member working group set the terms before any developer was involved. Its members were Cllr Chris Shenton as chair, Cllr Chris Myers, Cllr Maxie Allen, Cllr Nik Oakley and Cllr Jeremy Newmark. Cllr Paul Morris stepped down from the group on 14 April 2026.

The group’s requirements were:

  • a minimum of 50% affordable housing
  • around 60% of the site retained as publicly accessible green space
  • formal protection for that retained open space
  • community facilities and local services
  • a development footprint limited to the previously developed land plus up to 25% of the rest of the site
  • no development further west than the eastern edge of the pond south of the care home

An appendix to the report checks the scheme against each of those six requirements and marks every one “delivered”.

Getting there meant cutting the scheme back. An earlier version had a larger hub, bespoke accommodation for MPAA and a bigger parking structure. Detailed costing showed the council’s share would not be affordable, so the plans were reduced while keeping the foodstore, nursery, museum, boxing club, café, hall and soft play.

The reorganisation argument, and the hole in it

The report makes an unusual case for moving now, and it is worth reading plainly. Officers argue that a future unitary council will face harder housing pressure across a much wider area, and may value housing numbers above community buildings and open space. Approving the deal now, they say, locks in the affordable housing, the hub and the protected green space before that happens. In July the government confirmed that Hertsmere would join Watford and Three Rivers in a new South West Hertfordshire authority.

That argument was overtaken on the day it was put. On 9 September, the day Cabinet met, the council published a statement from the leader, Cllr Jeremy Newmark, saying the government is pausing and reviewing its reorganisation decisions, and that “a pause of indefinite length puts all of that planning on hold”. At the same Cabinet meeting, a separate item setting up a South West Hertfordshire joint committee was deferred, the decision sheet recording only “deferred due to government announcement of LGR review”.

So the deadline the report leans on is now an open question, while the £31.6 million recommendation built on it goes to council next week unchanged.

The reorganisation thread runs through the scheme in another way. The report floats the idea that a future unitary might want to move Bushey Library into the hub, or put town or parish council space there, and suggests selling the existing library site could broadly cover the cost of building the room for it. Bushey does not have a parish council at present, though a valid petition asking for a review has been received and that review is also on the 16 September agenda.

What could still go wrong

Nothing here is a planning permission. The scheme still has to apply for one, and the report lists securing that as the first of its principal risks. The others are development costs and market conditions, delays, getting vacant possession of parts of the site, finding long-term occupiers for the commercial parts of the hub, and historic title and overage provisions affecting a small part of the land.

The council says it has independent valuation advice, fixed-price construction arrangements where appropriate, parent company guarantees and rights to intervene or terminate.

For context on where this sits in the wider picture, the council’s Regulation 18 Local Plan consultation listed Bushey Golf and Country Club as a candidate site for 286 homes. Our guide to the borough’s planning pipeline sets out the rest of that list.

What it means for you

  • The decision that matters is on Wednesday 16 September, at 7pm at the Civic Offices, Elstree Way, Borehamwood. Council meetings are webcast, and the agenda and reports are already published.
  • If you object to the housing, the planning application is your moment, not this one. No application has been submitted yet. When one is, it will appear on the council’s planning register.
  • The foodstore, nursery and community centre are not funded separately. They depend on the homes being built, because the land value and the levy on those homes pay for most of the hub.
  • Nothing changes on the ground yet. There is no start date in the report, and the next public step is the planning process.
  • Bushey’s bin days, parking rules and council tax bands are unaffected. You can check yours on our bin collection days and council tax bands pages.

Sources