Four business park buildings including former Camelot offices could be set for demolition to make way for development.

Specialist planning and development consultants submitted an environmental impact assessment screening request to Three Rivers District Council for the potential demolition of Wolsey Business Park, Tolpits Lane, in June and received a response from officers today (July 2).

Such a request comes at a very early stage in the planning process, but it indicates that the developer is seeking permission to demolish the offices there and build 13 industrial units covering 16,241 square metres — more than two football pitches.

The existing buildings were only built in 1990, but according to planning documents, they “do not meet the present requirements of modern business-space occupiers”.

Two of the four are vacant while one is occupied by Pump Gyms Watford, on a short-term basis, and another was occupied by Camelot UK Lotteries Ltd.

Camelot HQ is just across the road from the site and Camelot also operated from one of the four buildings set for demolition. Allwyn took over operation of the National Lottery in February this year and has confirmed it will be moving out of the Tolpits Lane HQ to a new home in Clarendon Road in spring 2025.

The site boundaries.The site boundaries. (Image: Google Maps/Canva)

The main HQ, at the corner by the roundabout, is not one of the buildings earmarked for demolition.

If approved, the project is expected to start construction in March 2025 and complete in May 2026.

The council’s adopted screening opinion judged that the proposal “has the potential to increase noise, disturbance, emissions and vibrations resulting from construction (including vehicle movements) and the impact of potential additional traffic movements following occupation of the development”.

However, it said impacts are likely to be “relatively limited” and “unlikely to give rise to unusually complex or potentially hazardous environmental effects”.

“The development is only considered to have local effects and is not a particularly sensitive or vulnerable site in EIA terms,” the opinion added.

A full planning application would still need to be submitted and approved before any work could go ahead.