The Crown Estate gets green light for new community garden in Hemel Hempstead

A new community garden at Cherry Tree Lane in Woodhall Farm, Hemel Hempstead, has been granted planning permission by St Albans City & District Council.

The Crown Estate is working in partnership with local charity and social enterprise Sunnyside Rural Trust to bring forward the garden which will provide a new community space and a ‘place for pause’ surrounded by nature for local residents.

The community garden will include species-rich meadows, with new trees alongside shrubs and other planting, creating new habitats for local wildlife and improving biodiversity.

Benches placed throughout the space will allow people to enjoy the peaceful setting, helping to boost physical and mental wellbeing, while a new memorial will mark the existing Quaker burial ground.  The garden will be fully accessible for all.

The designs have been informed through close collaboration with Sunnyside and the local community, following a series of engagement events in July 2024 which invited local residents to take a guided tour of the site, speak to members of the team and share their feedback on the draft proposals.  This resulted in overwhelming support from the local community for the new garden, with over 90 members of the local community having attended across the three events.

Sunnyside – which provides training and work experience for vulnerable people across Dacorum – will manage the new community garden.  It will be situated on land bound by Redbourn Road to the north, Cherry Tree Lane to the east, the Nickey Line to the south and Britannia Close and Phoenix Walk to the west.

Planting is scheduled to commence in the spring, with the garden due to be operational in the autumn 2025.

The Crown Estate is delivering the garden as an early community benefit as part of its wider proposals for East Hemel, which will deliver 4,000 new homes as part of the Hemel Garden Communities programme.

The Crown Estate held its first stage of engagement in October 2024.  There will be several other stages of engagement in 2025, ahead of the planning application being submitted later in the year.

The project website will continue to be updated with more information on both the Cherry Tree Lane community garden and The Crown Estate’s wider plans for East Hemel.