Town Centre Playground

 As the developers of the Town Centre have shown no interest in involving the community in  this development or keeping the public updated on their progress it is down to the community to demand something from this outdated scheme. Contact your local Councillors and ask them to insist the developers create a new playground for children NOW. The Town Centre will remain a building site for over 5 years which means the planned new playground will not be completed before 2027 at the earliest.

The existing playground is worn out, outdated and too small for the number of users it has. Kept in its current state it will put carers off coming to the playground and why should they want to shop in a noisy building site?

The Councillors must demand a temporary high quality replacement for the current playground or its complete refurbishment NOW.

It already seems to have little use as it is in such poor condition and the ground cover is a real trip hazard. It has been heavily used but now needs to be brought back up to a modern standed so that it is a real attraction - we can't wait over 5 years for the final fountains and play area to be built.

This is the state it is in.......................

Town Centre Update

 Still no information from the developers of the Town Centre - C&R, Long Harbour or the Council. Work is now well underway with the hoardings completed and demolition of some of the Mall buildings to clear space for the construction of the 2 tower blocks.

Shopping will now be done in a very large building site, including, at the entrance to the Mall, a large hole for accessing the tube lines in preparation for the new entrance to the Victoria Line.

Site of the two tower blocks 34 and 26 storeys

Town Centre Factsheet 8 and 9

 

Who chooses the names?

 Why do developers overide the community when it comes to names for their developments?

Inland Homes, who bought the Homebase site, refused to listen to the residents' ideas for a name for the new development. Inland Homes decided on PATCHWORKS ignoring residents requests to link it to its industrial heritage (Hawker Syddeley transformer factory) or farming history.

Poll Tax House/ Juniper House/ Skyline E17,  Hoe Street E17 - where did SKYLINE E17 come from? This site changes its name depending on who is trying to market it!

The Mall, Walthamstow Town Centre now called 17&CENTRAL so what will the 34 and 27 storey tower blocks be called being built by LONG HARBOUR ?

MAGISTRATES COURT to MAGISTRATES to HEPWORTH PLACE 

BESIDE FELLOWSHIP SQUARE - the Town Hall site in Forest Road!!

Recent Eyesores in LBWF

 Why does this Borough have no aspirations for good building design? It can't just be about cost as the Motion at Lea Bridge is elegant and interesting despite it is tower blocks overlooking the marshes.

The Council implemented the strong leader model of administration and this has not benefited the street scene. Cllr Coghill and Miller (since departed so that can't carry the can!) encouraged developers to come in to the Borough with no thought to the damage done to the Victorian street scene which most people enjoy. Developers will do what they are permitted so let's hope Cllr Williams, the current leader, will lay down better guildlines than just housing, housing, housing! Many of the developments Coghill encouraged have now come to fruition and it is not a pretyy sight!

CHURCH HILL - block of flats in the backyard of Central Parade, Hoe Street

OLD INLAND REVENUE BUILDING, CHURCH HILL - with an extra storey

Notice the sunlight reduction caused by the extra floor.

DOMINION LONDON E17 - Dominion Apartments in Mission Grove replaces the old Buxton Road cinema/bingo hall. Ugly looking balconies and an uninspiring building. Due to Tax issues it took decades for this site to come on the market.

https://www.newlonliving.co.uk/properties/dominion-london-e17/

SOUTH GROVE AND ESSEX BREWERY

Surely we can do better than this. Far too many flats squeezed into a small area extremely close together with pathetic attempt at landscaping. On the railway line side the mature trees are having their life squeezed from them.

TOILETS IN SOUTH GROVE

Ok this may be a better street scene but an important public facility has gone and not been replaced.

Town Centre - work started

 

After more than 7 years trying to get their badly desinged, inappropriate scheme ready for construction C&R have at last managed to get another company to take on the major work of building two tower blocks, 34 and 27 storeys, in Walthamstow Town Centre. The whole concept of the scheme goes back to the halcyon days of the Olympics. So much has changed since then this scheme is just wrong and should be abandoned.

QUESTIONS FROM RESIDENTS

The new station entrance is not funded so will it ever be opened to passengers?

Will shoppers come to a 5 year building site when there are plenty of alternatives?

Will this be the end of the market?

Will a decent playground for children be available during the 5+ years of construction?

Over 50% of the current usable open space is being built over - no more sun bathing in the town square! How does that address the Climate Emergency?

More than a 1,000 people with substantial incomes will move in making the area even more congested.

Will a 34 storey tower block be safe from fire, and if not how will the fire brigade deal with a burning flat?

How will the construction traffic effect the bus station reliability?

Why have our Councillors allowed this unimaginative, out of date,  badly desinged scheme to be forced on us? 

Long Harbour - the Company

PRESS RELEASE from LONG HARBOUR:

From: Harry Gault <Harry.Gault@pagefield.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2022 at 00:43
Subject: Long Harbour and JV partners invest £260mn in Walthamstow to deliver 495 homes for rent

Good morning,

Please see below for an announcement from Long Harbour regarding a new development at 17&Central in Walthamstow.

We also wanted to share a project timeline which you’ll find below. Waltham Forest Borough Council will also be sharing this timeline with the local community later today.

Timeline

11–22 July
Hoarding to be erected along Selbourne Road

11–22 July
Hoarding to be erected along the boundary of 17&Central and the park

28 July–4 August
Hoarding to be erected along the main entrance of 17&Central

1–3 August
Hoarding to be erected along Selbourne Road

Do let us know if you have any questions or require any more information.

All the best,

Harry

 

Long Harbour and JV partners invest £260mn in Walthamstow to deliver 495 homes for rent

• New town centre development forms part of 17&Central, Walthamstow
• New homes for private rent to be operated by Long Harbour’s residential management business
• Long Harbour, alongside its partners PSP Investments and Cadillac Fairview, is continuing to target further deals across London and Southeast

11 July 2022: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Long Harbour, the specialist real estate investment, development, and management firm, is to start construction on 495 new homes for private rent at its latest development in Walthamstow town centre, marking the first deal within the Long Harbour, PSP Investments and Cadillac Fairview joint venture. Located on Selbourne Road in the heart of Walthamstow, the project is adjacent to 17&Central Shopping Centre in Walthamstow, which is owned by Capital & Regional Plc, the UK convenience and community focused shopping centre REIT. Long Harbour recently acquired the site from Capital & Regional having exchanged contracts in December 2020 and has appointed Tide Construction Ltd to deliver the scheme. 

The development will consist of 495 one and two-bedroom apartments within two landmark towers of 34 and 27 storeys. The towers will be connected by an expansive ground floor entrance and amenity space, including a publicly accessible reception with dedicated concierge, lounge area, and ground floor café. The development will also feature resident amenity spaces on the upper floors, including a lounge, shared kitchen area for events, and a roof terrace, with private winter balconies for each apartment. The project aligns with the partnership’s ESG targets including use of low-carbon building materials and measurement of carbon footprints during the construction period. The building has been designed with an increased focus on customer wellness and will form part of the joint venture’s GRESB submission once operational.

Capital & Regional also has planning consent to extend 17&Central as part of its ongoing strategy to provide shops, restaurants, leisure and other necessity focused services that are tailored to the needs of the local community. These plans also include a new entrance to Walthamstow Central Station in the future, public realm improvements and improved landscaping, with new trees planted along Selbourne Road, alongside improved pedestrian and cycle routes. The development will also create up to 99 affordable rental homes and over 800 cycle storage spaces for residents. 

Volumetric modular developer Tide Construction  will deliver the scheme using its Vision Modular System, which allows both companies to fulfil the programme faster, safer and more sustainably than using traditional methods of construction. As with Tide’s other developments, the carbon emissions of the construction process could be cut down by up to 45% with its innovative technology, as verified by independent academic research. Work on site will commence imminently and is expected to complete by Q3 2025. 17&Central, Walthamstow will continue to operate throughout the works.

Long Harbour Multi-Family targets expansion in London & South East

Long Harbour’s development at 17&Central, Walthamstow is the latest to be delivered through Long Harbour Multi-Family Fund 2 (“LHMF 2”), the firm’s £1.5 billion Build To Rent (BTR) fund, which targets high quality BTR schemes of over 150 units in London, the South East and selected regional cities. Other Long Harbour assets include 476 homes across two phases at Tottenham Hale. The first phase, The Gessner, opened 6 months ahead of schedule in July 2021 and is fully let to residents. Long Harbour is in active discussions on a number of other assets.

James Aumonier, Chief Operating Officer and Group Head of BTR at Long Harbour, said: “This is an exciting moment for LHMF as work begins to deliver our latest development at Walthamstow, which will not only offer a totally unique experience for residents in a highly popular location, but also contribute to the transformation of the town centre. Residents will benefit from direct access to Walthamstow Central Station, providing fast connections to Central London via the Victoria line, while new homes and retail will complement each other to create a vibrant new town centre with significantly improved public realm. This is an excellent example of how build to rent development can enhance footfall and diversify uses in town centres.”

Christy Hayes, CEO at Tide Construction, said: “We are partnering with Long Harbour on this substantial development to deliver high-quality homes efficiently and sustainably. Using the innovative technology of Vision Modular systems will enable us to reduce the carbon emissions associated with the construction process and minimise construction logistics, supporting our partnership’s strong environmental, social and governance credentials.

The flexibility of our volumetric system also allows Tide and Vision to fulfil the design brief within this town centre build to rent scheme which further highlights our company’s strong track record of revolutionising the way in which housing is delivered in the UK, demonstrating the potential of modular as a mainstream method of construction.”

ENDS

 

For further information, please contact

Owen Mitchell and Harry Gault, contact@mallwalthamstow.co.uk / 020 3327 4948

www.mallwalthamstow.co.uk

About Long Harbour

Long Harbour is a specialist real estate investment, development, and management firm. Uniting market leading expertise across a range of assets classes, Long Harbour generates attractive returns for investors whilst seeking to create buildings of lasting value through thoughtful design and exemplary stewardship. Long Harbour has a proven track record of AUM growth across its three investment programmes: Secured Income, Multi-Family/Residential and Regeneration.

Long Harbour’s approach to asset management is to make a positive impact in the communities in which it operates, whilst delivering long-term value to its investors through platform based, thematic strategies.

Last year, Long Harbour secured a £650m equity injection for its Multi-Family investment programme  bringing together international investors Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) and Cadillac Fairview (CF), the real estate arm of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, to create a £1.5 billion platform with significant fresh capital for acquisitions.

Long Harbour currently employs over 250 staff across its offices in the UK, Europe, and the US.

Longharbour.co.uk

 

About Tide Construction and Vision Modular Systems

Tide Construction is a world-leading property developer and contractor that uses both traditional and modular construction. Using its accredited 3D volumetric company, Vision Modular Systems, allows Tide to provide a high-quality, sustainable solution for delivering housing, co-living, build-to-rent, student accommodation and hotels at scale and at pace. Operating through a vertically integrated procurement model, Tide has a strong track record of delivering modular schemes safely and sustainably, and has delivered seven of the ten world’s tallest modular buildings including the current tallest, Ten Degrees Croydon. Tide has demonstrated years of significant and consistent growth, in terms of pipeline and financial strength, and long-standing partnerships with some of the world’s largest institutional investors, establishing volumetric modular as a mainstream method of delivery.

Tideconstruction.co.uk and visionmodular.com

 

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