St James Quarter

St James Quarter Newsletter

A key development area for the council is the St James Quarter which already has a massive amount of redevelopment underway. The council has recently refurbished properties in the Conservation Area and new businesses are starting to move in - my favourite greasy spoon cafe being replaced by a Coffee Grind!

701 flats are due to be built adding another 1,500 people to the area.

South Grove

518 flats in blocks up to 16 storeys

After many years as an underused car park and then when it received planning permission for a Morrisons store they pulled out, this site has been underused for decades. Planning Permission was granted for residential but the developer decided to let Network Rail use the site for storing the equipment for the upgrade of the Barking to Gospel Oak line. At last development is underway and the groundworks have been completed and work has started on building the flats.

Essex Brewery

183 flats in 8 storey blocks

Despite being planned much later than the South Grove site work started before the other site and the flats are nearing completion and are on sale for £600k.

Brunner Road

This part of the site may be developed by the council's new development company Sixty Bricks.

Companies House - Sixty Bricks

Tottenham Hale - thousands more homes coming

Continuing along Forest Road you come to Tottenham Hale which has already had thousands of new homes built. Now even more are planned. The latest ones amount to 1,725 flats which means at least 3,500 more people in the area.


Hale Works

279 flats in 32 storey blocks

Hale Wharf 
Lock 17

500 flats in 21 storey blocks

Albermale Court

120 flats in 6 storey blocks

Ashley Road South

826 flats in 20 storey blocks

Forest Road - thousands more homes coming

Having taken a stroll to the Wetlands I thought it would be interesting to see how over developed the area will be in a few years time. Bearing in mind the Victoria line is already at capacity and these new homes are still unfinished. As to Forest Road and the Tottenham gyratory road network it can barely cope with the existing traffic let alone thousands more people moving in to the area.

The Mayor of London is to blame and his planning guru Jules Pipe (ex Mayor of Hackney) thinks you can create higher density and still keep London moving. The only major infrastructure improvement for getting around London is the Queen Elizabeth line and that opens at the end of this year so it will be interesting to see how quickly that fills up! No wonder people are now starting to leave London and move away from the inevitable congestion.

This is not a definitive list of developments in the LBWF part of Forest Road area but it indicates the scale of the looming problems. Total number of flats 1,498 - at least 3,000 more people moving into the area.

1 Hoe Street

18 flats in 5 storeys

Blackhorse Point

350 flats in 3 blocks highest being 21 storeys

4 to 10 Forest Road
4-10 Forest Road consultation

353 Student flats in 9 to 17 storey blocks

Equipment Works
LBWF Regeneration Equipment Works

337 flats in 7 storey blocks




Blackhorse Mills
LBWF Regeneration Blackhorse Mills

440 flats in 16 storey blocks

Blackhorse Point - update

Blackhorse Point

It is depressing how developers use a public consultation to push their plans to the limit. This is the Blackhorse Road Car Park site and TfL own it so the Mayor should not be selling it for expensive flats. The land should be reserved for social housing. 

Somehow the developer has decided that the public want an even higher block, so in typical "willy waving" architects are so good at, the height is going up to 21 storeys so that it is the highest block around! How a 21 storey building can reflect its Victorian history is interesting - I interpret that as meaning that the Grenfell disaster means bricks now have to be used as cladding will not be accepted by the public!! I hope it also has enough lifts to let people escape! It is nice to know that at one of the busiest traffic junctions in the Borough they will be providing play space for the up to 11 years old!

Good afternoon,

Thank you for your interest in our proposals for Blackhorse Point.

We have now held our second public exhibition where we displayed our updated plans for the car park opposite Blackhorse Road station. If you were unable to attend this, you can download copies of the boards from our project website (www.blackhorsepoint.com).

Throughout our public consultation period we have listened carefully to the feedback we have received and this has resulted in the following:

·         We have reduced the heights of four of the proposed buildings adjacent to neighbouring developments towards the northern and eastern parts of the site. These buildings now range from five to eleven storeys.

·         In order to ensure that we deliver the same number of onsite affordable homes, we will be increasing the height of the building on Forest Road – closest to the Blackhorse Mills development – to 21 storeys. This is only slightly taller than the 18 storey tower at Blackhorse Mills, and the 17 storey student accommodation on the south side of Forest Road.

·         The materials of the tallest building continue to reflect the history of the area.

·         Play areas will be provided within the public amenity spaces for all ages up to 11 years old.

·         With regards to the proposed commercial facilities - we will look into delivering a range of facilities across 9,000 sq ft of retail space. These facilities could include a bakery, grocers, gym and restaurant or pub.

This summer we will be submitting a full planning application to Waltham Forest Council. In the meantime there is still an opportunity for you to provide us with your comments on our proposals. You can do so by completing the Feedback Form on our project website or by emailingBlackhorsePoint@londoncommunications.co.uk with your comments.

Yours sincerely,

The Blackhorse Point Consultation Team

Hightide Festival

Enjoy while you can. Once the trees are felled and the tower blocks built there will be no land left for the festival!

Hightide Walthamstow

Hello,

I’m writing about the upcoming HighTide Festival in Walthamstow. Returning for its second year between 18-30 September after success in 2017, the programme is made up of new theatre, comedy, music and this year the site will be expanded to include bar area with two tepees and a rotating menu of food provided by local suppliers.

Straight to Walthamstow from acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe at the Festival include two brand new pieces of gig-theatre Sparks and Songlines. Sparks explores how we deal with grief, and Songlines includes live folk from TRILLS – recently acclaimed as Britain’s answer to Haim. There will be a grown up magic show in The Extinction Event and a comedy musical about Nordic gods in Thor and Loki as well as Busking It – a play with songs about the playwrights experiences busking around London and drawing on tales taken from years of busking on the tube, blending chance encounters with live music.

Locally, the Festival are looking for local talent for their Stars Over The Forest young people’s showcase at the Festival on 22 September. They will be holding three nights of open mics on 4,5,6 September to select performers for the evening at the Festival.

Last year HighTide became the first fixed space theatre in the borough and so they are delighted to come back to the Waltham Forest area.

It would be great to know if you might be interested in covering the Festival – chatting to the producers about how they are bringing their Festival but tailoring it so it’s a truly local experience, or to any of the writers about their plays? Do also let me know if you’d like to come along to anything.

Look forward to hearing from you, more info here and attached.

Best

Maisie

Maisie Lawrence

Senior Publicist

The Corner Shop

36 Great Queen Street

London

WC2B 5AA

T: 020 7831 7657

M: 07786075979

www.thecornershoppr.com

Coppermill Survey

And another survey!

Coppermill

Road Safety Survey

Another survey by the Council

Road Safety

Borough of Culture logo

Creative Director

Borough of Culture

TfL Walking Action Plan

Walking Action Plan

Good afternoon Adrian

I am in our Local Communities & Partnerships team at TfL, and lead on engagement with organisations in Waltham Forest. I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself, and share with you a plan we launched today.

Today we have launched our Walking Action Plan. The plan, which is supported by Public Health England, has an ambitious vision to make London the most walkable city in world, with a million extra walking trips taking place each day by 2024.

The Mayor of London wants to increase the proportion of people walking, cycling and taking public transport to 80 per cent of journeys by 2041, from 63 per cent now. He is investing a record £2.2bn in streets across London to make them better for walking and cycling, and to improve air quality.

Walking is an easy and affordable way for Londoners to integrate more physical activity into their daily lives. However, research shows that too many people are put off because of concerns about road danger, overestimating the length of journeys or worries about their levels of physical fitness.

The Walking Action Plan aims to help Londoners overcome these barriers by:

• Designing, building and managing streets for people walking, by delivering better public spaces, more walking routes and safer pedestrian crossings
• Ensuring that walking is prioritised in every new infrastructure scheme, through London’s first ever pedestrian design guidance and a range of other tools and analysis to support boroughs to deliver local schemes
• Enabling thousands more children to walk to school by doubling the number of Gold accredited STARS schools which champion healthy routes to school, and by supporting timed road closures, car free days and 20mph speed limits around schools
• Rolling out innovative new traffic signal technology that makes it safer and easier for people to cross roads, while minimising congestion
• Creating new ‘Active Travel Hubs’ at TfL stations, making it easier to walk as part of an onward journey

Major projects are already underway to enable more walking across London, such as Highbury Corner, where a new public space and new pedestrian crossings are being installed, and at Old Street where work will begin to transform the roundabout in 2019.

We will work with London’s boroughs and other partners to develop and publish London’s first design guidance for walking in 2019, which will help ensure walking is at heart of the design process for London’s streets.

The published plan is attached. Please take some time to read it, and share with any colleagues who may find it helpful. We are keen to hear your thoughts on the plan, and how you believe we can work together to meet our aims. If you would like to discuss the plan further, please contact me.

Best wishes

Peter Fletcher

Community Partnerships Specialist – North and Active Travel Lead | Local Communities & Partnerships

Public Affairs & External Relations | Transport for London

5 Endeavour Square, London, E20 1JN

020 3054 7208 (int 87208) | 07595 066919

peter.fletcher@tfl.gov.uk

www.tfl.gov.uk

Post Office moving

Post Office Moving

BGORUG

Barking to Gospel Oak latest

Subject: NEWS FROM THE BARKING - GOSPEL OAK RAIL USER GROUP 15 JULY 2018

A NEW CRISIS

Since our train shortage started on 2^nd July, barely a day has passed without cancellations and delays. Those with long enough memories say that the situation is every bit as bad as the last days of the heritage diesel sets, before the arrival of the second-hand Sprinters from the West Midlands in 1999. Below are the figures for the first week.

 

02 July – 7 July 2018	2/7	3/7	4/7	5/7	6/7	7/7	Totals
Planned Cancellations	1	1	1	1	0	0	4
Planned part cancellations	0	0	0	0	1	0	1
Unplanned cancellations	4	11	0	18	9	3	45
Unplanned part cancellations	0	1	0	2	0	0	3
3+ minutes late	10	19	20	11	15	0	75
10+ minutes late	0	12	4	5	6	0	27

 

 A small group of dedicated members is kept busy monitoring the service on the ground and from open data sources on the internet. The latter enable us to monitor movements from and to Bombardier’s Derby Litchurch Lane works. On Tuesday, 10^th July, while Jerry Gold and I were attending City Hall, another Class 710 unit, believed to be 710 263, was delivered to Willesden TMD. Through contacts at Modern Railways, it was discovered that Network Rail had still not issued the needed approval for Class 710, but Bombardier was moving units to Willesden in anticipation of receiving NR approval. The cynical might say that the move was because Litchurch Lane works was stuffed full of stored Class 710s!

 

BGORUG AT THE LONDON ASSEMBLY

The London Assembly Transport Committee is embarking on an investigation entitled The future of rail in London. BGORUG was invited to attend and make a presentation on Priorities for the rail network to a round table discussion at City Hall on Tuesday 10^th July. Jerry Gold put together an excellent presentation which was well received by the Assembly Members. They also accepted a supplementary paper on the current rolling stock crisis. To see both the presentation notes and the supplementary note on our website go to https://tinyurl.com/ydhk57rq .

 

QUESTIONS TO THE MAYOR

Three Assembly Members have tabled questions to the Mayor regarding the current crisis.

Our former Secretary, the late Richard Pout with Caroline Pidgeon MBE AM on 23/03/2012

Barking to Gospel Oak Overground service (1)

Caroline Pidgeon (19-Jul-2018)

When does the lease that Arriva Rail London holds on eight Class172 diesel multiple units (172001 - 172008) owned by Angel Trains leasing expire?

An answer to this question will be uploaded within one week of the meeting.

Barking to Gospel Oak Overground service (2)

Caroline Pidgeon (19-Jul-2018)

What contingency planning has Transport for London carried out to ensure that the eight Class172 diesel multiple units (172001 - 72008) will not be transferred to West Midlands Railway before eight New Class710 electric multiple units have entered service on the Barking to Gospel Oak Overground service?

An answer to this question will be uploaded within one week of the meeting.

Jennette Arnold OBE AM with BGORUG's Jerry Gold & Glenn Wallis on 19/01/2018

New trains on Barking - Gospel Oak Line

Jennette Arnold (19-Jul-2018)

Will the Mayor confirm whether new trains will be available for passenger service on the Barking - Gospel Oak by November 2018, given that the existing diesel fleet is being moved to enhance services in the West Midlands?

An answer to this question will be uploaded within one week of the meeting.

On-platform signage to the lifts at Blackhorse Road Station.

Jennette Arnold (19-Jul-2018)

Transport for London (TfL) has still not installed on-platform signage to the lifts at Blackhorse Road Station, months after they started operating.  As a result, people struggle up the stairs with buggies, luggage etc, because they don't realise there are lifts further along the platform.  Questions and chasers to TfL about this have so far produced vague promises but no action - not even temporary signs. Does the Mayor share the despair of so many of my constituents who are regular users of this station, and what will the Mayor do about it?  

An answer to this question will be uploaded within one week of the meeting.

Improved Platforms, Stairs, Access & Exit Routes at Blackhorse Road Station.

Jennette Arnold (19-Jul-2018)

The extensive regeneration and building programme around Blackhorse Lane is bound to put increasing pressure on Blackhorse Road station, where the Overground platforms and the steps leading to them are very narrow and in need of widening, leading even now to congestion especially at peak times.  What measures are planned by Transport for London to address this?

An answer to this question will be uploaded within one week of the meeting.

Walthamstow Central tube station

Jennette Arnold (21-Jun-2018)

You have recently announced funding for improvements to Walthamstow Central Tube Station if the Walthamstow Town Centre Redevelopment goes ahead. However, there is no mention of any improvements to Walthamstow Queens Road station nearby. This is also very near the development on the increasingly busy Overground Gospel-Oak Barking line, but it has no direct access from the town centre area. Will you please consider extending the planned transport enhancements to include improved access to Queens Road station, e.g. by means of a direct subway link under the Chingford line?

The Mayor (21-Jun-2018)

Transport for London (TfL) does not plan to change the existing link with Walthamstow Queen's Road station as part of its improvements to Walthamstow Central Tube station. Customers interchanging between the two stations can use the existing direct pathway.

TfL believes that the cost involved in building such a link as proposed in your question would not be good value for money considering the number of customers expected to use it.

Andrew Dismore AM

Barking to Gospel Oak Line

Andrew Dismore (19-Jul-2018)

In May, Transport for London promised users of the Barking to Gospel Oak line that there would be 5 extra peak time trains until the longer electric trains were introduced later in the summer. Now that extra service has been withdrawn; and the electric trains introduction has slipped to November: what has been going on? And is this acceptable?

An answer to this question will be uploaded within one week of the meeting.

Glenn Waliis

Secretary

Barking - Gospel Oak Rail User Group

barking-gospeloak.org.uk

@RidingtheGoblin