Dacorum has awarded the contracts for a new multi-use games area, cricket nets and outdoor gym at Coronation Fields, Bennetts End, with installation planned for this autumn. £268k of the money is Sappi S106 cash.

Dacorum Borough Council has awarded the contracts for a new multi-use games area, refurbished cricket nets and an outdoor gym at Coronation Fields in Bennetts End, the first built pieces of the park’s masterplan, with the council aiming to install them this autumn. The officer decision was taken on 24 July and published on 29 July. (Dacorum Borough Council, officer decision 2672)

Five firms bid for the games area and cricket nets and three for the outdoor gym, all through the ESPO purchasing framework for outdoor sports and play equipment rather than a full open tender. The winners are named only as “Bidder C” and “Bidder A” in the public record; the prices are in a restricted appendix. The decision sheet says the current facilities are “outdated and not fit for purpose” and that “community expectations are that new facilities will be delivered in 2026”. (Officer decision record sheet, PDF)

What is being built, and what it costs

The July 2025 Cabinet report that approved the masterplan put the games area, “green gym” and cricket-net refurbishment together at an estimated £268,000, funded entirely from the Section 106 agreement on the Sappi development, money the developer had to pay specifically for sports facilities. All three would be free to use. (Cabinet report, Coronation Fields Masterplan Delivery, 8 July 2025, PDF)

That is the largest single item in a £467,000 first phase. The rest of the list, with the council’s own estimates:

  • £100,000 to resurface the old tennis courts as a formal car park for the park, Bennetts End Surgery and the community centre, of which £13,000 came from the ward’s Neighbourhood CIL pot
  • £30,000 for a new circular footpath around the park and a cross-site link
  • £23,000 for wildflower meadows, £20,000 for woodland planting and £6,000 for an orchard, all from ProLogis Section 106 money earmarked for biodiversity
  • £20,000 for new bins, benches and picnic tables from the council’s replacement programme

When Cabinet approved the plan, £350,000 of the £467,000 had a funding source and £117,000 did not, mostly the car park and the footpath. Cabinet asked Full Council for a supplementary capital budget of £117,000 to cover it, and Council agreed on 23 July 2025. (Council minutes, 23 July 2025, item 7.2)

Bar chart of Coronation Fields phase one costs: games area, gym and cricket nets £268k (Sappi S106); car park £100k of which £87k from council top-up; footpath £30k from top-up; wildflower meadows £23k; woodland planting £20k; bins and benches £20k; orchard £6k
Phase one of the masterplan, item by item. The games area, gym and nets are the only element now under contract. Chart by Hemel Hempstead Live.
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Why the park got a masterplan

Coronation Fields is a seven-hectare sloping site in Bennetts End that also serves Nash Mills and the surrounding estates. It has a playground, tennis courts refurbished in 2023 with LTA money, cricket nets and a disused changing block from the days it hosted football. Bennetts End Surgery sits on the site and, the report says, provides GP services to more than 16,000 patients. The old tennis courts have been used as an unofficial overflow car park for the surgery and community centre for years, and their potholed, poorly drained surface has been “a source of ongoing complaints” to councillors. (Cabinet report, sections 1.1 to 1.10, PDF)

The council consulted between 26 July and 11 September 2024, leaflet-dropping 1,078 nearby homes. It received 174 full survey responses and 76 quick-poll answers; 95 per cent of full respondents live within five minutes’ walk and 63 per cent visit every day or most days. Ninety-two responses backed turning the former tennis courts into parking. New and better sports facilities were, in the report’s words, a “strong request”.

The full masterplan, all phases together, was costed at about £2.13 million. Phase two has no funding yet and will go back out to the community when it does. (Cabinet report, section 1.13 and 2.2, PDF)

What it means for you

  • If you use the park: the games area, cricket nets and outdoor gym are the first things to change on the ground. The council’s stated delivery window is autumn, and its own risk log flags that autumn weather could slow the work, so treat “2026” as the commitment rather than a specific month.
  • If you park on the old tennis courts: the car park is funded but is not part of this contract award. There is no published date for it yet.
  • If you live in Bennetts End, Nash Mills or Leverstock Green: the report notes that Neighbourhood CIL money for these wards is “limited”, which is why the borough had to top up the budget. Anything in phase two will depend on new funding being found.
  • If you play cricket or football locally: the nets are being refurbished or relocated rather than replaced with something new, and the report is silent on the disused pavilion beyond noting requests about its future.

We will report the completion when the council confirms it. For the borough’s other live decisions, see our planning news page.