Coopers Green, Hatfield
Coopers Green lies at the northern edge of Hatfield in Central Hertfordshire. Gascoyne Estates, the landowner, and the local planning authority have long proposed this as a compelling place for new neighbourhoods to meet local housing need.
Working closely with Gascoyne Estates, and through engagement with the existing communities at Green Lanes, Hatfield Garden Village and outlying cottages, Brooks Murray have developed a masterplan which contributes around 2,000 homes to the Welwyn Hatfield Local Plan. This will evolve in close dialogue with local communities as the Plan progresses.
Hatfield is one of the main towns in Central Hertfordshire. Balancing the need to preserve the countryside, a steady increase in population and the demand and need for new homes, Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council has long considered is one of the more appropriate and sustainable locations in which to build.
Land at Coopers Green is proposed as an urban extension to the north west of the town. Working with Gascoyne Estates and the local communities over the past decade, and following extensive assessment of the green belt and wildlife habitats, Brooks Murray developed a masterplan to accommodate three neighbourhoods in a mixed-use community of 2,000 homes.
The masterplan was based in the beginning around the traces on the ground – the marks left by the preceding centuries of human and natural activity. These included historic field boundaries, bridle paths, rights of way and mature hedgerows, and they dictate the shape, size and feel of the new neighbourhoods.
The masterplan has also evolved, and will continue to evolve, through local dialogue. In the latest masterplan, this process strengthened the sympathetic boundary and buffer with existing residents. Each of the three neighbourhoods is designed with a centre, hosting workplaces, shops, cafés and restaurants in a genuinely mixed-use, self-sustaining community. All housing is designed, and will be built, in accordance with Gascoyne Estates’ Building Code for Hatfield.
