Greggs has applied to trade from 42 High Street, its fourth shop in the borough, opening at 6am six days a week. Comments to the council close on 4 October.

Greggs wants to open a fourth shop in Brentwood borough. The bakery chain has applied to Brentwood Borough Council for permission to fit out 42 High Street, and the paperwork is now on the public planning register.

Two applications were validated on Tuesday 8 September. One asks for advertisement consent for new signs. The other asks for full planning permission for the air conditioning and extraction plant a hot food counter needs.

The application form gives the site’s existing use as “Class E - Pret a Manger”. It records no existing employees at the unit, full-time or part-time.

What Greggs has asked for

The company’s own cover letter, submitted on 4 August, sets out the plan. It says the operation of the unit as a bakery is lawful under Use Class E, so no change of use is needed. What it does need is consent for the signage and the plant.

The proposed trading hours are:

  • Monday to Friday, 6.00am to 7.00pm
  • Saturday, 6.00am to 7.00pm
  • Sunday, 8.00am to 5.00pm

A 6.00am start is early for the High Street. The advertisement application asks for consent to run from 1 November 2026 to 1 November 2031, which is the standard five-year term for advertisement consent.

The plant application covers AC condensers and new extract ductwork and grilles at ground level. Greggs says the equipment will be screened, and its heritage statement places it on the rear elevation of the building.

The signs, and what changed since last year

The advertisement application is for three signs:

  • two fascia signs, each 2.15 metres wide and 0.5 metres tall, with letters up to 28 centimetres high, mounted about three metres above the pavement
  • one projecting sign, 0.7 metres square, with letters up to 15 centimetres high, projecting 0.7 metres from the building

All three are described on the form as internally illuminated, at 350 candela per square metre, with static rather than intermittent lighting.

That is a change from what was last approved here. Greggs’ own cover letter cites the most recent application at the site, 25/00941/ADV, for “2 no. externally illuminated fascia signs, 1 no. non illuminated projecting sign”, approved on 11 August 2025. In other words, the fascia lighting would move from external to internal, and a projecting sign that was consented unlit would now be lit.

The site sits inside the Brentwood Town Centre Conservation Area, which is why a heritage statement was submitted at all. The building itself is not listed. Greggs’ statement says the conservation area’s significance derives from “its historic street pattern, traditional commercial frontages, varied architectural character and its role as the historic commercial heart of Brentwood”, and argues the proposal has been designed to cause it no harm.

One detail in the file does not line up. The heritage statement, dated 8 September, describes the proposal as including a “new externally illuminated projecting sign”. The application form filled in a month earlier says that sign is internally illuminated. The council will have to resolve which it is before it decides.

Greggs already has three shops here

The chain’s own shop finder lists three trading branches in the borough:

  • 19 High Street, Brentwood
  • 68 to 70 High Street, Brentwood
  • 204 Hutton Road, Shenfield

Number 42 sits between the two existing High Street shops. If the applications succeed, Greggs would have three units on one street and four in the borough.

42 High Street: the dates that matter Greggs applications 26/00863/FUL and 26/00864/ADV 4 Aug submitted 8 Sep validated 1 Oct consultees 4 Oct your comments close 6 Oct site notice ends 3 Nov decision due Advertisement consent is sought for five years, from 1 November 2026 to 1 November 2031. Source: Brentwood Borough Council planning register, dates tab, read 16 September 2026. Graphic by Brentwood Online
Graphic by Brentwood Online

What it means for you

You have until 4 October to comment. The council’s register gives the neighbour consultation expiry as Sunday 4 October 2026 and the standard consultation expiry as Thursday 1 October. The site notice runs to Tuesday 6 October. Comments go through the two application pages on the council’s planning register, under references 26/00863/FUL and 26/00864/ADV.

Nothing has been decided. Both applications were showing as “Pending Consideration” when we checked the register on 16 September. The council’s own determination deadline is Tuesday 3 November 2026.

The parts worth reading are the plant and the lighting, not the shop. A bakery in a Class E unit does not need planning permission for the use. What the council is being asked to judge is whether illuminated signs and external extraction equipment sit comfortably in a conservation area. That is the ground any objection would have to stand on.

More applications in the borough are tracked on our Brentwood planning news page, and the town’s car park charges are set out in parking in Brentwood.

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