Town Centre Update 31-3-22

The Town Centre as conceived in 1983. 

Now the owners, Capital and Regional , want to bring it into the 21st century by expanding the shopping space as more people shop online, build two residential tower blocks 34 and 26 storeys, over twice the height of any other block in the Borough. To make space for this they have closed the Heart Charity shop and Costa Coffee and will be building over 32% of the open space, leaving less than 50% of the existing green space for informal leisure, despite needing more open space for the people who will live in the 538 new flats.

Unlike the majority of the large developers in the Borough C&R have made no effort to keep in touch with residents. At Christmas we managed to get them to admit they would be starting work early this year. So far no information has come from them and now they have closed the chairty shop and Costa Coffee. When will they let us know the timeline for turning the Town Centre into a building site for well over 5 years?

In addition the Grenfell Inquiry has not completed it's work so what evidence is there that these flats will be safe, especially as they will be constructed off site and bolted together on site?

Come and make your protest on Saturday 9th April at 1pm 

in the Town Square.

 

Heart Charity Shop closed

Costa Coffee closed

Winsbeach of the future?

Radbourne Crescent

 Many of you know that the Forest Road end of Fyfield Road is named Winsbeach. The local WF Echo has discovered plans to increase the size of the Radbourne Estate by building on top of the existing buildings. This has to be resisted as it will overcrowd this residential area.

1. Hylands, an adjacent council estate, has been demolished and rebuilt with modern flats. Building on top of existing council flats is messy and creates a poor environment for the residents while the work is underway.

2. To save money by turning people's homes into a building site is not accpetable. The noise, dust, construction traffic over years creates an unhealthy environment.

3. We cannot keep filling London up with homes as it will be unliveable in with severe congestion and a complete lack of facilites such as health services, electricity, water, transport etc. We need to encourage people to move north to the brownfield redundant industrial areas.

4. The London Plan is not fit for purpose as it is designed to increase the density of homes in London which doesn't have the space for more people.

5. This site is not mentioned in the Waltham Forest's Local Plan so is not part of the future vision of the Borough's planners. It is just about getting money in to line developer's pockets.

6. Upper Walthamstow is a new Ward and with the elections coming up we must lobby the candidates to reject this scheme which will overcrowd this residential neighbourhood.

7. Developments already underway in the Upper Walthamstow and Wood Street Ward areas are:

Hylands 120 flats

Homebase 583 flats

Family and Homes Hub (Old Wood Street Library site) 90 flats

Marlowe Road 436 with an additional 144 if planning permission is granted.

Picture House (Wood Street) 33

Fyfield Road  9

Willow House and Sterling House (adjacent to Homebase site) 112

Thorpe Coombe House (Forest Road) site  100

Vallentin Road (old garage site) 17

In addition 433 flats are being built around the Town Hall and next to the college plus the small development at the top of Spruce Hills. And what is planned for the old Texaco site that has been boarded up for years - so much for the refurbishment that was due before Covid?

Within a year or so a total of 1,644 more flats will be completed in the 2 Wards meaning an additional population of over 3,000 whith no extra infrastructure to support them.

Hylands