Stratford Scout hut rebuild approved after 52 objections

The 1st Stratford-upon-Avon Scout Group can rebuild its headquarters on New Broad Street. Stratford-on-Avon District Council issued the decision notice on 17 August 2026, granting planning permission with conditions for the demolition and replacement of the hut with a two-storey building.

We previewed the application on the day it went to committee and reported four days later that it was the one item of four with no decision recorded. This is the outcome, taken from the council’s own decision notice.

What was decided

The council’s register now lists application 25/02675/FUL as Permission with Conditions, decided on 17 August, five days after the Planning Committee met on 12 August. The permission runs until 17 August 2029, by which date work must have started.

The scheme drew 52 letters of objection against two of support, and was opposed by both Stratford-upon-Avon Town Council and the ward councillor. An earlier version, reference 24/00942/FUL, was refused in August 2024 over its scale and materials in the conservation area.

The case took an unusually long time. The application was received on 31 October 2025 and made valid on 17 November. The council’s own target date for determining it was 12 January 2026. The decision came seven months after that target.

The 10 conditions

Objectors focused on noise, overlooking, parking and construction traffic. Several of the conditions answer those points directly.

• Noise, after 9pm. All windows and doors must be kept closed whenever amplified music is played in the building.
• Noise, after 11pm. No music played at the site may be audible in neighbouring homes.
• Overlooking. The first-floor side windows on the south-western elevation must be obscure glazed before the building is first used, and kept that way permanently.
• Construction traffic. A Construction Management Plan must be approved in writing before anything happens, including demolition. It has to cover where site workers park, when loading and unloading may happen, where materials are stored, the hours of demolition and construction, how construction traffic is managed, and a site manager’s phone number and email displayed on site.
• Materials. Samples and trade descriptions of every external facing and roofing material must be approved before the building goes above slab level, the point that was fatal to the 2024 refusal.
• Hard landscaping. A scheme covering surfacing, boundary walls and fencing, and a timetable for putting it in, also before slab level.
• Archaeology. The work must follow the agreed Archaeological Assessment Project Design for monitoring and recording.
• Climate change. Further mitigation measures must be approved before slab level and completed before the building is used.
• Plans. The build must follow the seven named drawings listed in the notice.
• Time limit. Work must start within three years.

The council also recorded that the scheme is exempt from the statutory biodiversity net gain requirement, on the de minimis ground that it affects less than 25 square metres of habitat with biodiversity value. Separately, the notice warns that bats and nesting birds are protected by law, that the main nesting season runs from March to September, and that work must stop immediately if any evidence of bats is found.

What it means for you

If you live near New Broad Street, the conditions are the part worth keeping. Three of them, the Construction Management Plan, the materials and the hard landscaping, are pre-commencement or pre-slab conditions. Nothing can lawfully start until the council has approved those details in writing, and the council’s own notice says failure to comply with a pre-start condition may make the permission void.

The two noise conditions are enforceable for the life of the building, not just during construction. If amplified music is audible in a neighbouring home after 11pm once the hut is open, that is a breach of condition 6, and the district council is the body to tell.

Anyone aggrieved by the decision or by the conditions attached to it can appeal to the Planning Inspectorate under section 78 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, within six months of 17 August 2026. In practice that right sits with the applicant rather than with objectors, who have no equivalent route once permission is granted.

The application file, including the decision notice and all 105 documents, is on the council’s E-Planning register. Applications elsewhere in the district are covered on our Stratford planning page.

Sources

• Stratford-on-Avon District Council E-Planning register, application 25/02675/FUL, for the decision, the decision date of 17 August 2026, the committee date, the case officer, the received and valid dates, the 12 January 2026 target determination date and the 17 August 2029 permission expiry.
• The council’s Notice of Decision for 25/02675/FUL, dated 17 August 2026, published in the DECISIONS folder of that application record, for the wording of all 10 conditions, the biodiversity net gain exemption, the protected species notes and the appeal rights.
• Officer’s report on 25/02675/FUL to the Planning Committee of 12 August 2026, for the objection and support totals and the history of the refused 2024 application.

Planning conditions are enforced by Stratford-on-Avon District Council. If you think one is being breached, report it to the council’s planning enforcement team rather than to us.