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Proposed Motorway Services Area in the Green Belt on the A41 at the M25
There is a proposal for a huge Motorway Services Area (MSA) in the Hertfordshire Green Belt. It would consist of an 80 bed hotel, amenity hub with restaurants and shops, petrol station, lorry park and drive-through coffee facility, and parking for 842 cars, 94 lorries, 19 coaches, 23 caravans and 24 motorcycles. The proposed site is in Three Rivers District, on the A41 and this would mean a massive amount of traffic congestion on the already busy road. Getting to and from Watford including to the hospital would be badly affected.
We have again objected to this proposal.
We are dismayed that the original planning application from April 2019 for this huge new motorway services area (MSA) in the Green Belt, is still pending. We believe the proposal is contrary to national planning policy and should be refused.
A new, related planning application contains further traffic flow information and proposed road alterations; we believe these do not mitigate the many damaging impacts of this proposed MSA.
Government policy is for motorway services to be sited on the motorway, not, as with this proposal, off the motorway on local roads.
The site of the proposed Moto MSA is in the Green Belt, at the western end of the Kings Langley viaduct in an elevated and visually prominent position in the landscape. The Green Belt is protected in national planning policy, and is required to be kept permanently open (para 133 NPPF).
The proposal is also damaging on environmental and health grounds. The site is adjacent to a primary school and a church at Langleybury Lane, and the air pollution, carbon emissions, and diesel fumes from the increased car and lorry traffic would be harmful.
You can read our objection letters here.
