Puckeridge is to get 91 new homes on the 13.9-acre field south of the village, behind the Café Fields estate and close to the A10/A120 junction.
East Herts Council’s development management committee gave the scheme outline planning permission on 12 March 2025, after an application by Wates Developments. Forty per cent of the homes are to be affordable, and the developer will pay around £600,000 towards education, £150,000 towards the NHS and £250,000 towards bus services, mostly to improve the 331 between Hertford and Royston. Access will be from Barleymead Way.
It was not popular with everyone. The council received 175 objections, 66 of them from Café Fields residents, who raised the extra traffic, pressure on schools and GP surgeries, the loss of views and the junction with the A120. Officers accepted the homes would detract from the landscape but said they would make a considerable contribution to the district’s housing needs. The site isn’t in the Green Belt or the local plan.
In January 2026 Greencore Homes exchanged contracts to buy the site, its first in East Herts. It plans to build to Passivhaus standards, with solar panels and EPC A ratings, and to submit a detailed reserved matters application later in 2026. That application will settle the layout and design, so look out for it on the East Herts planning portal.
Written for the village website from Bishop’s Stortford Independent, 14 March 2025 and Bishop’s Stortford Independent, 7 January 2026. If anything here has changed, please let us know.