Questions you may have

Pupils from the new homes will initially fill places at existing primary schools. To accommodate long-term growth, up to two new primary schools are planned north of the railway.

Land is also being made available for a special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) school.

For secondary education, a flexible approach will be taken in partnership with local stakeholders, with a shared aspiration to deliver a larger, relocated Knights Templar School (KTS) within the new development.

As funding is not yet secured for this preferred option, the planning application will include three potential scenarios to ensure resilience:

• Relocate and expand KTS to a new site within the development (preferred option)
• Expand KTS on its existing site.
• Open a smaller new secondary school in the proposed location to work alongside KTS.

These options will continue to be explored in collaboration with Urban&Civic, the District and County Councils and the Department for Education over the coming years.

We have developed a three-point transport plan, developed over a number of years through consultation and detailed analysis:

1. Reduce through-traffic that doesn’t benefit Baldock, especially lorries, to ease congestion, improve air quality and make roads safer. New connections to the existing town centre will also encourage sustainable movement by walking and cycle routes. This includes:
   • Building a new road across the railway line to link north Baldock with Royston Road and the A505.
   • Introducing a one-way alternating traffic system under the Station Road railway bridge.
2. Create a Create a ‘Walk and Cycle First’ town — making it safer and quicker to walk or cycle to key locations including new pedestrian and cycle crossings over and under the railway. We are aiming for half of all trips by new residents to be made on foot, by bike, or via public transport.
   
   
3. Improve connections between Baldock and nearby villages through new road, cycle and bus links. This includes:
   • A new road link to provide better access to the town centre, retaining Bygrave Road as a pleasant walking and cycling route.
   • Improved access to the station via a new northern entrance with walking, cycling and bus connections.
   • Integrated bus services, including coordination with existing routes and a new shuttle bus loop through the town.

You can read more about the transport proposals here

The approach to developing a strategy and modelling the proposals to understand their impact has been agreed with Hertfordshire County Council (as the highways authority) and North Herts Council (as the planning authority). It has involved surveys of the existing road network, and then modelling each of the interventions through a model created with the transport consultant and agreed with the County Council.

The findings will also be tested by the County Council’s own strategic model (COMET), which will be made available over the next few months. This will enable us to check the findings of the model, and if additional adjustments need to be made or information provided, this can be done while the application is being considered.

We know transport is a topic of interest locally and the findings from the COMET model and the updated Transport Assessment will also be made public on NHC’s planning website.

The timing of key infrastructure like schools, health provision, parks and transport connections will be agreed with the local authorities through the planning process and set down in the legal planning framework for the development. This is normally done by the number of homes occupied.

The plans include key green spaces including Bygrave Common and space providing a green buffer between Baldock and Bygrave, Walls Field, and further open land next to this, as well as a range of smaller green spaces coming forward within the development. The spaces will be connected by a Baldock Greenway walking and cycling route.

The local water company - Affinity Water - have confirmed there is enough water to support the new development and there will be no groundwater extraction from the aquifer to cater for new homes.

Detailed design of the homes will include a range of low water technology.

The landscape is also designed to capture surface water run off to maximise infiltration into the aquifer.

Space is being set aside to create a larger health facility which will serve Baldock and the surrounding villages, including doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers. The details and timing of this will be worked through as part of the planning framework and set out in planning obligations.