Ocado first moved to Hatfield in 2004 and by 2016 the head office staff had grown from 120 to over 1,300. As a result, and to facilitate an expansion to up to 2,200 staff, Ocado needed to increase its occupation of floorspace to accommodate its growing operation. In conjunction with this, Ocado sought to consolidate its associated parking within the extents of the Trident Place site through the introduction of an additional 297 decked spaces.

Following the occupation of buildings 1 & 2, Trident Place, the quantum of office floorspace used by Ocado increased from circa 8,361m2 (90,000 sq.ft.) to circa 20,903m2 (225,000 sq.ft.), with parking increasing from 429 to 726 spaces.

Iceni Transport worked closely with Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) to consider the suitability of the level of parking proposed and also consider the impact of the increased parking on the surrounding highway network. Utilising HCC’s PARAMICS model for the area, the additional trips associated with the development were shown to have a negligible impact on the surrounding highway network and no off-site mitigation was required.