Leyton Mills and Spitalfields

LBWF Consultation

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I attended a council online meeting about the future of Leyton Mill, Eaton Manor and Spitalfields. The council have employed Gort Scott to develop a Supplementary Planning Policy for the sites. The consultants explained their processes and consulted the community reps who attended the meeting. There was a good range of people attending and put forward numerous ideas. Inevitably when it came to the last session Gort Scott presented their plans which lacked imagination and were just complying with the London Plan. It was not surprising but very depressing.

The fundamental problem, as was pointed out to them, is the policy making is top down instead of bottom up. Nothing is likely to happen to these sites for at least 15 years so they are looking at the long term, but using current thinking! The Borough has a target to build 27,000 new homes by 2035 with a large percentage destined for the Lea Valley and South Leyton. This means Gort Scott were only looking at how they could maximise the number of homes and not how to build a sustainable community. Whether we managed to get them to change direction I doubt which means there will be a Gas Works and Lea Bridge Station type development on Spitalfields and the Leyton Mills except Asda will be retained, but with large tower blocks built over the car park.

A fundamental problem is the lack of capacity on the Central Line and the need for a station at Ruckholt Road. These will not have the capacity for large developments but that did not seem to concern them.

It seems to me the next generation is going to have to fight this in the same way we have been fighting to save the Lea Valley since they first planned to dig up Walthamstow Marshes for gravel in the 1960s. A few residents fought that and won. For years a group fought the Link Road to stop road access to the area and then the Olympics forced the creation of the Save Lea Marshes group and now it is time for the next battle which is to stop the over development of the Lea Valley. These 3 sites are being planned in isolation to what is being planned at Low Hall, Lea Bridge and further up at Meridian Water. All the precious open space will be spoilt by excessive use. The transport links will not be able to cope and the streets will be jammed with logistics vehicles trying to deliver to the car free blocks of flats. 

I also pointed out that Barts Health intends to reduce the size of the new Whipps Cross hospital by 51 beds as they expect people to be cared for in the community. This means much larger flats will have to be created to allow medical staff to be able to look after people in their homes. A new way of designing homes is vital if the hospital is going to be able to manage the numbers all this new building will create and the council and Gort Scott appear to have no understanding of these issues.