Local Plan Campaign

 

WALTHAM FOREST CIVIC SOCIETY

A CALL FOR ACTION AGAINST THE COUNCIL’S PROPOSED LOCAL PLAN

Local Plan Proposed Sites 

Local Plan Policies

Local Plan Examination by Government Inspectors 

The Council’s proposed Local Plan sets a “requirement” of 1,800 new dwellings to be built each year. The Plan is intended to apply for 15 years, making a total of 27,000 new dwellings in Waltham Forest. The requirement imposed on Waltham Forest by the Government and the London Plan is 1,264 new dwellings per year. The extra (536 extra new dwellings each year for 15 years) is being chosen by the administration of Waltham Forest Council. 

(The Homebase development is for 583 flats and Coronation Square is 750 flats))

The Planning Inspectorate has refused to approve the proposed Local Plan, questioning the target of 1,800 new dwellings per year. The Council intends to submit a revised version in mid-September, but with the same target of 1,800 per year. The months between now and September are an opportunity for residents to persuade elected Councillors to reject the higher target and for the Council to adopt the lower target of 1,264.

Why does this matter?

·        The Council’s proposals involve allowing developers to build tower blocks on almost every possible site in the Borough. Below is a map which the Council intends to submit with its revised version in September: it shows the locations where tall buildings (10 storeys or more) would be allowed.

·        Studies by academic engineers say that tower blocks are much less environmentally friendly than blocks of mansion flats of 6 or 8 storeys.

·        The “Skyline Studies” published by the Council with Part 2 of the draft Local Plan show that many of the tower blocks are intended to be 14 or 18 storeys high. The new tower blocks would:

o   loom over the town centres of Leyton and Leytonstone and intrude on the settings of historic buildings and conservation areas (similar to the curent tower blocks at Tottenham Hale)

Proposed development on the Leytonstone Tesco site 

o   be built along the edge of the Lea Valley, walling in the Walthamstow Wetlands and the open land of the Marshes (similar to the huge tower blocks beside the Woodbeery Wetlands)

Woodberry Downs Wetlands

o   be built next to Epping Forest land by the Hollow Ponds (“Leyton Flats”) and at Wanstead Flats, intruding on the views from the open land, and they would not allow for gardens or for enough green space for the residents to sit out in, so that the Forest land would be overcrowded and overused.

Hylands adjacent to Epping Forest

·        There may be too little capacity on the main roads within the Borough to take the cars and vans servicing so many extra residents.

·        Air quality in the Borough is already poor and the extra vehicle movements would make it worse.

·        The Victoria Line and Central Line, and the railway from Chingford to Liverpool St, would not have capacity to take the extra commuters into Central London.

·        The new tower blocks would destroy the character of the Borough. What would be built would be flats that people would not choose to live in, in a Borough that they – and the existing residents – would move out of as soon as they could.

 

Please support our campaign by sending the enclosed text as an email to your ward councillors – you can find contact details for them by entering your postcode on the Council’s website at

  https://democracy.walthamforest.gov.uk/mgFindMember.aspx

PLEASE SEND THIS AS AN EMAIL TO YOUR COUNCILLORS

Dear Councillors ...................

I am a resident in your ward at [ADDRESS AND POSTCODE]. I am concerned about the difference  between the housing target imposed on Waltham Forest by the London Plan and the higher housing target in Waltham Forest Council’s draft Local Plan and the likely consequences of the higher target for the character of the Borough as a place to live. Partly because of Covid, the Council has not yet consulted residents properly about its proposal to adopt the higher target. I am writing to call upon you to hold a Ward Forum to discuss this proposal with your constituents, in good time before the Council re-submits its draft Local Plan in September this year.

Yours sincerely, 

INSPECTOR's FINDINGS

Waltham Forest Local Plan (LP1) ‘Shaping the Borough’

Examination

Inspectors - Mrs S Housden BA (Hons) BPl MRTPI &

Mrs C Jack BSc (Hons) MA MA(TP) MRTPI

Programme Officer – Ms Andrea Copsey

copseyandrea@gmail.com

07842 643988

Ms S Parsons

Assistant Director

Waltham Forest Borough Council

SENT BY EMAIL

27 May 2022

Dear Ms Parsons,

Waltham Forest Local Plan Part 1 Examination

Thank you for your letter of 11 May 2022.

We have no further comments on the Council’s response but in order to

assist the development of a work programme and to inform future

timescales, we have outlined below the various work streams that we

consider need to be actioned going forward. We have listed them in order

of the priority that we consider will be necessary to ensure a logical

sequence of events to address the issues raised in our post hearing letter.

1. Undertake a strategic level, Borough-wide Sequential Flood

Risk Test.

2. Undertake further Sustainability Appraisal work to assess

reasonable alternatives, including the 10 year target for net

completions in Waltham Forest set out in Table 4.1 of the

London Plan.

3. Update the latest version of the Air Quality Study in

accordance with Natural England’s requirements and liaise

with Natural England, the Conservators of Epping Forest and

other organisations as necessary to finalise the Air Quality

Management Strategy in response to any updated modelling.

4. Liaise with Natural England, the Conservators of Epping Forest

and other organisations as necessary to revise the draft

Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace Strategy to provide

further clarification of the capacity, quality and deliverability

of the proposed sites, and to confirm whether any additional

sites would be needed.

5. Housing Delivery

• Update of the trajectory in the Housing Position

Statement, including updating completions,

commitments, updated timescales for delivery and

evidence of consultation with site promoters for key

sites, in addition to the Follow Up items from Matter 3.

• Update the evidence of the five year housing land

supply position over the Plan period.

6. Evidence and justify the proposed changes to the approach to

Tall Buildings, including any implications for the strategic

approach to housing growth and delivery. Also, evidence and

justify the areas mapped and identified as appropriate for tall

buildings.

7. Main modifications to Appendix 2 and a change to the Policies

Map and Figure 9.1 to deal with the changes to Blackhorse

Lane Strategic Industrial Location.

We would be pleased to receive a realistic assessment of when these

various work streams could be completed by in order that we can

establish a timescale for the future progress of the Examination.

Given the varied topics and nature of the work streams and the evidence

that underpins them, the Council should produce a Topic Paper

summarising how the issues identified in the post hearings letter have

been addressed and outlining the evidence base that underpins the

approach taken. This could also include an indication of where any further

Main Modifications will be necessary for soundness, in addition to those

included in the Follow Up Lists.

We propose that in order to avoid any duplication of public consultation,

the various evidence base documents for the above work streams and the

Topic Paper form the basis for the Matters, Issues and Questions for

Stage 2 of the Examination. The evidence base documents and Topic

Paper would be made available for consultation and comments/responses

on them would be sought through our Matters, Issues and Questions.

Given that some of the potential changes to the Plan may be significant,

the scope of notification on the Topic Paper, accompanying evidence base

and Matters, Issues and Questions should be broad eg including everyone

who was notified at the Publication stage for a period of 6 weeks.

Stage 2 hearings would be convened to cover the matters in the Topic

Paper, the evidence base and responses to the Matters, Issues and

Questions. A timescale for those hearings will be established in due

course.

We are not seeking comments from anyone else on the contents of this

letter, but we would be pleased to receive the Council’s response and any

comments on the way forward for the Examination proposed above.

Yours sincerely

Catherine Jack and Sarah Housden

INSPECTORS