Planning application submitted to redevelop Histon shopping area

Plans to redevelop the shopping area surrounding The Green on School Hill in Histon have been submitted for approval.

The site, 1-5 School Hill and 30 High Street Histon, currently accommodates a Tesco Express, restaurant, print shop, flower shop and a library.

If approved it would see the Tesco Express and library buildings demolished and replaced with a larger supermarket, with nine one-bedroom flats built above, as well as a new library, reduced in size by 18 percent.

The other shops and the green area would also be redeveloped, and parking reduced from 49 to 40 spaces, and cycle spaces increased from 18 to 68, according to the planning application submitted to South Cambridgeshire District Council.

Owner and developer Camel Projects said that should planning permission be granted the work is likely to take approximately 12 months, with the possibility of keeping part of the site open while work is under way.

The company’s director, Simon Jones, said the current area “needs a reboot” and that the opportunity was to “reimagine what a retail precinct looks like”.

It is not clear if Tesco Express will return in the new building, but Mr Jones said Camel Projects is in “detailed negotiations with a supermarket”.

He said “the other shops will be closing” but said he expects The Indian Ocean restaurant to keep its place.

He said discussions with residents and interested parties had been “positive” and that he hopes the investment in the new aesthetic will pull people in.

Addressing the national decline in high streets’ success he said: “We believe that actually retail – if you do it properly, if you create the right environment – there is no reason retail can’t flourish.”