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10 George Street St Albans Hertfordshire AL3 4ER

5/2025/1734Change of UseRefused
Discharge / amendments

Refused on 17 November 2025

Council decision: DC4 RefusalDelegated (officer decision)1 reason for refusal

Approximate location: the centre of the postcode, not the exact property.

Proposal

Change of use of part of the ground floor and all the basement from Sui generis (shop, office, reception) to C3 use and the amalgamation into the existing dwelling at 10 George Street St Albans Hertfordshire AL3 4ER

Received
22 September 2025
Decision level
Delegated (officer decision)
Ward
Verulam
  1. Received22 Sep
  2. Validated23 Sep
  3. Consult.8 Nov
  4. Target8 Nov
  5. Decided17 Nov

Decided in 55 days (council typically 56)

About this application

This is an application to amend a permission at 10 George Street St Albans Hertfordshire AL3 4ER. St Albans has handled 324 applications of this type. This one was decided in 56 days. The site is in the St Albans conservation area, with 20 listed buildings nearby. There are no previous applications recorded at this address. In the past year there have been 149 applications across Verulam. We hold 2,256 applications in total for the AL3 postcode area.

55% of amendment applications at St Albans City and District Council were approved. Across all application types, the council typically decides in about 8 weeks (median).

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

Why it was refused

  1. The proposed change of use of part of the ground floor and basement to residential is unacceptable and would harm the vitality and viability of the primary shopping frontage. Furthermore, the development would be detrimental to the character of the Commercial Centre Character Area of the St Albans Conservation Area and would detract from the special interest of the locally listed building. The development would result in less than substantial harm that would not be outweighed by any public benefit of the scheme. The development is contrary to Policy 56 (Loss of Retail Floor Space), Policy 69 (General Design and Layout), Policy 85 (Development in Conservation Areas) and 87 (Locally Listed Buildings) of the St Albans District Local Plan Review 1994 and the National Planning Policy Framework, 2024.

From the council's decision notice.

Application details

Postcode
AL3 4ER
Application type
Change of Use
Scale / size
Small

Planning application dates

Date validated
23 September 2025
Consultation expiry
8 November 2025
Consultation end
8 November 2025
Target decision date
8 November 2025
Application expires
17 November 2025

Applicant and agent

Applicant
Private applicant

Planning decision

Statutory period
55 days

Publicity

Last advertised
16 October 2025

Additional information

Planning Portal ID
PP-14345490
Documents
29

Site constraints

Checking the site
2/3
Council recordsAppealsFlood risk

Designations at the address point. Ones next to the site may also apply.

  • Conservation area: St Albans - The Commercial Centre
  • Listed building: Grade II: The Old King'S ArmsOn or next to this site · +2 more
  • Flood zone 1: Low probability (rivers and sea)
Also checked, none recorded (22)

flood storage areas, Article 4 directions, tree preservation orders, 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: St Albans

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