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Maintenance House 3 - 4 Portmill Lane Hitchin Hertfordshire SG5 1DJ

25/02930/PNMAPrior Approval Class MA - Comm to ResiApproved
Outline / PiP

Approved on 6 January 2026

Council decision: Prior Approval GivenDelegated (officer decision)5 conditions

Approximate site (title boundary)
Boundary © HM Land Registry, © Ordnance Survey · details

This information is subject to Crown copyright and database rights 2026 and is reproduced with the permission of HM Land Registry. The polygons (including the associated geometry, namely x, y co-ordinates) are subject to Crown copyright and database rights 2026 Ordnance Survey AC0000851063. Conditions of use.

Proposal

Change of use of ground floor office use (Class E) to residential use (Class C3) to provide two self-contained one-bedroom flats.

Received
14 November 2025
Decision level
Delegated (officer decision)
Public comments
4
Ward
Hitchin Priory Ward
  1. Received14 Nov
  2. Validated14 Nov
  3. Consult.18 Dec
  4. Target8 Jan
  5. Decided6 Jan

Decided in 53 days (council typically 49)

About this application

This is an outline application for a change of use at Maintenance House 3 - 4 Portmill Lane Hitchin Hertfordshire SG5 1DJ. North Hertfordshire has handled 456 applications of this type. This one was decided in 53 days, 4 days longer than North Hertfordshire's typical decision time. The site is in the Hitchin conservation area, with 11 listed buildings nearby. There has been 1 other application at this address. In the past year there have been 131 applications across Hitchin Priory Ward. We hold 1,992 applications in total for the SG5 postcode area.

86% of outline applications at North Hertfordshire District Council were approved. Across all application types, the council typically decides in about 7 weeks (median).

Based on decided applications received in the last 3 years.Planning something similar? See what gets approved on your street

Application details

Postcode
SG5 1DJ
Application type
Prior Approval Class MA - Comm to Resi
Scale / size
Small
Parish
Hitchin

Planning application dates

Date validated
14 November 2025
Consultation expiry
27 December 2025
Consultation end
18 December 2025
Neighbour consultation end
25 December 2025
Last date for comments
27 December 2025
Target decision date
8 January 2026
Decision issued
7 January 2026

Applicant and agent

Agent
Mr Jonathan Read
Agent address
Suite 1 21 Bancroft Hitchin SG5 1JW United Kingdom

Planning decision

Statutory period
55 days

Publicity

Advertisement expiry
27 December 2025
Site notice end
25 December 2025

Additional information

Planning Portal ID
PP-14487635

Site constraints

Checking the site
2/3
Council recordsAppealsFlood risk

Designations that overlap or adjoin the site outline.

Not published by this council, so not checked: Article 4 directions. Ask the council if these matter.

Possibly incomplete for this council: tree preservation orders.

Also checked, none recorded (20)

flood storage areas, green belt, scheduled monuments, World Heritage Sites, World Heritage Site buffer zones, registered parks and gardens, registered battlefields, Heritage at Risk entries, nutrient neutrality catchments, national parks, National Landscapes, SSSIs, Special Areas of Conservation, Special Protection Areas, Ramsar sites, ancient woodland, national nature reserves, local nature reserves, heritage coasts and brownfield registers.

A guide only, from official open data; it is not a planning search. Flood zones cover rivers and sea, not surface water.

Data © Crown copyright and others · sources and licences

Contains public sector information from planning.data.gov.uk (MHCLG and local planning authorities), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

© Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. The Historic England GIS Data contained in this material was obtained on 2026-11-03. The most publicly available up to date Historic England GIS Data can be obtained from HistoricEngland.org.uk.

© Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

© Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2026. All rights reserved. Flood Map for Planning, Open Government Licence v3.0.

Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

Source: North Hertfordshire

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