28 Nov 2025
A St Albans estate agent had to take drastic steps to change a listing marketing a piece of public highways land as suitable for development – wasting the time of buyers, council planners and community campaigners if any application was put forwards.
Connells is handling the auction of a corner of Glevum Close and Mayne Avenue, part of the Verulam Estate, and initially suggested it presented a long-term opportunity for buyers.
“Subject to the necessary planning consents, purchasers may explore the possibility of redeveloping the site, including the potential for a residential dwelling in keeping with the surrounding area,” sayid their marketing blurb, which gave the site a guide price of £25,000.
But the land is yet another chunk of community green space which should never had been available for sale.
Vast swathes of what was previously thought to be public land were sold across the estate in June 2021, including one lot around Mayne Avenue, Samian Gate, Flavian Close, Icknield Close, Glenum Close, Hadrian Close, Lindum Place, Augustus Close, Claudian Place, Antonine Gate and Ermine Close, and a second in the vicinity of Windridge Close, Westfields, Deva Close, Dubrae Close, Rowlatt Drive, Mayne Avenue and Corinium Gate.
For reasons that remain unexplained, ownership of the land was never transferred to the then-St Albans City Council around 50 years ago, which means local residents have to fight on a case-by-case basis to prevent the development of these sites.
But until now they haven’t had to contend with estate agents promoting the land as potentially available for development.
County councillor for St Albans South, Sandy Walkington, said: “This is an outrageous piece of marketing by Connells.
“This piece of highway verge on Mayne Avenue is designated public highway regardless of who owns the freehold.
“That means it can’t be fenced-in and the surface cannot be touched in any way except with the express permission of the highway authority ie Herts county council. The land can of course be sold but potential purchasers should not be misled in this way, least of all by such an established local estate agent.”
Timothy Beecroft, chair of Verulam Residents Association, this week led a demonstration by residents protesting against attempts to develop green space on the estate: “The continuing sale of small plots of land in and around the Verulam Estate to people who think that they can build on them remains a source of frustration and anger for local residents.
“A number of applications have been made in the past and so far all have been refused. Even for those plots which are not designated as highway land, there are local planning policies that in effect prevent them from being developed.
“Buyers, residents and council planning officers have already wasted too much time and money dealing with applications that have no chance of success.
“It would clearly be very helpful if it could be more widely known to potential buyers that they can of course buy land if they want to, but the chances of them getting permission to build on it are, in the light of experience, so close to zero as makes no difference.
“In this context this advert is, to put it at its mildest, extremely unhelpful.”
Only recently the new owner of a similar plot only a few yards away at the end of Samian Gate turned up with ideas about developing the site.
He claimed not to know anything about its highways status – which, among other things, protects the trees – the other planning related obstacles he would face, or the history of local opposition to similar schemes.
A Connells spokesperson said in response to the listing: “We take the accuracy of our property listings very seriously and regret any confusion this may have caused. We have updated the listing to advise that any interested parties seek advice from a qualified planning consultant.”
