6 days Ago
All buildings on the one-acre South Bend site in Station Road, Kings Langley, can be knocked down after Three Rivers District Council published its decision notice for the planning application yesterday (April 3). A 2,000-square-metre workshop over two floors will be built in its place - to be used as a new home for AR18, a company which designs and creates retail, furniture, displays and other projects. The land previously belonged to Edward Putman, who was sentenced to nine years in prison for scamming Camelot out of a £2.
5 million jackpot with a forged ticket in 2019. He was also given nine years for raping a teenager in the 1990s. The house was damaged in a fire in 2022 but the land around it, which Putman reportedly intended to turn into a hotel, remained valuable as a potential development and was put up for auction under the proceeds of crime act in October 2023.
AR18 director Antony Cockerell explained that the lease on its current premises in Uxbridge expires in 2026, when the proposal was first submitted. “We’ve been looking for a new premises for three years now without success. When South Bend came up for auction, we did a planning appraisal and found that it could be suitable for redevelopment,” he added.
“The site is in the green belt so we’ve worked hard to make the proposal the best it can be.” Around 40 staff are currently employed by AR18, jobs which will be relocated to Kings Langley once the move is complete. Five comments in support of the application were submitted during the planning process, with no objections.
A timber structure with sloping roofs covered with living vegetation and solar panels was proposed, aiming to "balance the functional requirements with planning and environmental considerations". The decision notice states that work must begin within three years from April 3, 2025. It also requires work to improve access and parking arrangement nearby be carried out.
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