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Confidence returns Shed developers have moved fast to rebuild stock following the Buncefield explosion in December 2005. Simon Jack reports
Long before the Buncefield explosion just over a year ago, many people believed that the Maylands area of Hemel Hempstead was in need of modernisation. Despite being the town's main commercial park, with major distribution, manufacturing and headquarters buildings, it lacked facilities for workers and had poor public transport links.
However, the blast has prompted a masterplanning exercise, aimed at reinvigorating the area and its role as a key distribution and industrial location.
Roy Bain, director of the Maylands Partnership, which has been set up for this purpose, says: "Our principal objective is to retain existing business and make Maylands an attractive place to locate to. There is a real value in maintaining a mixed area."
The masterplan, by consultant Llewelyn Davies Yeang, will be ready this spring. It will address issues such as land use, improving the overall environment with shops and restaurants, creating a gateway development at the entrance and improved transport links. While it will try to encourage highly skilled, better-paid jobs, it will also accommodate the need for sheds.
"Distribution is important at Maylands and I expect it always will be," Bain adds.
Agents hope so. Trevor Church, a principal of Freeth Melhuish, says: "The masterplan should be balanced, with one eye on demand. It needs to facilitate industrial and technology uses as well as offices and, while distribution uses do not employ a lot of people, the area is well-suited for that purpose."
Whatever the future of Maylands, shorter-term efforts to restore...