Welcome to the East Hemel community newsletters

Welcome to the first edition of the East Hemel community newsletter!  This newsletter will be an opportunity to keep up to date on the latest information, activities and milestones for East Hemel as it progresses through the planning stages. We want to say a massive ‘thank you’ from The Crown Estate for your input and ideas over the last 18 months as we’ve engaged closely with the local community on the East Hemel proposals. As many of you will be aware, we submitted an Outline Planning Application (OPA) for East Hemel to both St Albans City & District Council (SADC) and Dacorum Borough Council (DBC) at the end of 2025.  

This followed over 18 months of close engagement with the community, including through public events, community design workshops, site visits and study tours.

The insight gathered from local knowledge has been incredibly valuable in helping us to shape, refine and finalise the OPA for East Hemel. Throughout the the project so far, over 1,300 people attended one or more of our events and over 4,500 people visited the project website.

We’ll be working with both councils as we progress through the planning process – and we want to bring the wider community on that journey with us, too.

In this edition, we’ll be sharing an overview of the OPA for East Hemel, including a ‘spotlight on transport’ that looks at the improvements proposed as part of our approach.  

We also have an update on the community garden at Cherry Tree Lane, which we’re delivering in partnership with Sunnyside Rural Trust.

We’re keen to shape these newsletters so they work best for local people. If you have any feedback, please do let us know.