Climate Emergency Consultation

Climate Emergency Consultation

Central Parade

Central Parade Consultation

Town Centre Consultation comments

Town Centre Consultation

Council's Consultation

Those attending the recent consultation about the plans for the Town Centre were concerned at the lack of consistent information given over the 2 days. Here are some examples:

1.      TREES

a.      The reason given for felling the avenue of lime trees was because the council is insisting the area is all at one level. This seems a feeble excuse for felling so many trees.

b.      Another reason given was that 3 trees have roots that will be damaged during the works.

c.       Is the true reason to clear the view from the bus station to the shopping centre?

2.      CLIMATE EMERGENCY

a.      The Council has issued a Climate Emergency and will be developing a Climate Change Strategy. Surely this ensures existing mature trees are properly maintained so how is this compatible with the felling of 81 mature trees in the Town Centre?

b.      Planting new trees does not create the same benefits to the climate that mature trees offer so for some decades the environment of the Town Centre will be damaged instead of improved.

c.       What is the Council doing to ensure the plans for the Town Centre are energy efficient? Will the scheme have a neighbourhood energy scheme, solar panels etc.?

d.      Surely building over the Victoria Line is going to increase the energy needed to create this scheme as the foundations will be extremely complex.

3.      GREEN SPACE

a.      The green space is being reduced by 30% despite even more people living in the area. This is bad planning as it does not provide for the openspace residents living near the Town Square or shoppers visiting the the Mall and market need.

b.      Surely a properly designed scheme would ensure a better public realm with enough space to cater for the growing number of people using the Town Square?

4.      PLAYGROUND

a.      From the information available the new play area has been moved from beside the bus station to the centre of the openspace but very little information about the play area was provided. Can a fully worked up plan of the equipment being provided be made available on a web site? How many children and what ages will it cater for?

5.      HOUSING

a.      From Tottenham Hale to Walthamstow Central getting on for 20,000 flats are being built. Meridian Water will be providing 10,000 new homes adjacent to Waltham Forest so is there any need for adding more flats into an already saturated Town Centre?

b.      Juniper House is about to start being constructed, Whipps Cross Hospital site will be mainly housing and the Town Hall complex will have more flats and over a thousand flats are under construction in Lea Bridge Road and Leyton. Surely these are more than enough to allow the Council to meet its housing target from the GLA of 1,800 per year? We can’t continue to pack in people without social cohesion breaking down especially in a short period of time.

c.       The proposed flats are for rent – what does that mean? If the rents are at market rates there will be no housing for those on limited incomes. If the rents are only affordable by those in city jobs paying large bonuses will the flats just be occupied by a transient population who add nothing to the community of Waltham Forest?

6.      TOWER BLOCKS

a.      Height – 31 storeys is totally out of keeping with the street scene around the Town Centre being more than twice the height of any nearby building. This is very bad planning and will make it an unattractive place.

b.      Massing – we are not clear how the reduction from 4 to 3 blocks improves the massing as the same number of flats will be built and the blocks appear, in the limited information available, to be squashed together making the massing worse.

c.       Building over the Victoria line – the consultation says the scheme re-design allows the scheme to be built quicker. From the limited information available to the public  the tower blocks still seem to be being built over the Victoria Line tracks which would involve massive foundation construction works so what is it that has changed to make the scheme easier to build?

d.      Full planning permission has not been obtained for the tower blocks and it appears the second partner, Mount Anvil, has pulled out as the consultation admitted a partner was not yet in place. When is the consultation on the full planning application for the tower blocks to be carried out?

e.      Grenfell – only the first report from the Grenfell Inquiry has been published. Surely no tower block of 31 storeys can be considered until all the building regulations relating to tower blocks have been reviewed in the light of the results of the Grenfell Inquiry?

7.      WALTHAMSTOW CENTRAL

a.      Congestion – the Victoria Line is already at capacity so where is the sense of creating more demand for the tube adding more flats right beside the new entrance?

b.      TfL were not present at the consultation so when are they going to reveal their plans?

c.       Is TfL rebuilding their existing station as well as creating a new entrance from the Mall via escalators down to the platforms?

8.      C&R TAKEOVER

a.      What impact does C&R’s financial situation and its talks with Growthpoint Properties about a takeover affect the funding of this scheme and the new tube station entrance?

b.      Why have they not been able to get a partner to fund the tower blocks? They lost Barratt Homes before the first planning application was submitted and subsequently Mont Anvil seems to have withdrawn.

9.      SECTION 73

a.      This process is normally used for minor changes to consented planning applications. The changes C&R are proposing are not minor i.e. 3 tower blocks not 4, new entrance to tower blocks and new entrance to tube station.

b.      It is not clear why any of the changes will reduce the time taken to build this development. Surely if that was true C&R should have made it clear at the consultation why using Section 73 makes a significant difference.

10.  OTHER TOWN CENTRE DEVELOPMENTS

a.      Construction Traffic – with Juniper House about to start, Strettons site not far behind and the council’s plans to refurbish the EMD and redevelop the Town Hall site there will be major congestion on Chingford Road, a residential street, as the construction traffic makes its way from the North Circular. Despite asking the council various times no clear answer has been given as to how the traffic will be managed. This route is already heavily congested and will make a mockery of declaring a Climate Change Emergency

Town Centre - New Consultation

Make sure you get along to the new consultation about the Town Centre

Revised Plans for Town Centre

https://capreg.com/media-centre/news/walthamstow-public-consultation/

When: Friday 25th October and Saturday 26th October 2019
Time: 10am to 6pm
Location: 202 Hoe Street, Walthamstow, E17 4BS

Find out what is being planned

Are we still losing 30% of the open space?
Is the Lime Tree avenue still to be felled?
Are the 29 storey tower blocks still in the plan?
How will the scheme be quicker to build when it still costs £200m?
What pressure has the GLA put on C&R to implement this new plan?
TfL are desperate to create a second exit to the station to deal with the overcrowding before a major accident occurs.
Why have the councillors not notified us of this change?

http://wfoc.blogspot.com/2018/06/town-centre-saga-part-2.html

Draft Local Plan

Waltham Forest's consultation on the Draft Local Plan is nearing its end. The experience was illuminating as now it is clear why it seemed such a farce. I have been involved with the Local Plans for many years and after the first one, about 30yrs ago, I decided it was too much work for very little gain.

Now it is clear it is worth no work as there is a guarantee there will be no gain! This may sound like a cynical old man speaking but the reality is more true than I had realised. It started with a friend of mine, who lives in Bromley, saying their council might have their planning powers removed because they were not reaching their housing target. This struck me as being draconian!

I attended the launch of the consultation about the London Plan and was horrified by the way Jules Pipe (Ex Hackney Mayor and now Chief Planning Officer of the GLA) wanted every little space built on and up to increase London's population by 3million! At the Waltham Forest consultations the officers made it clear that unless they agreed to these terms they would have their planning powers removed!

So coming to the detail this year Waltham Forest's new homes target from the GLA was 825 homes per year. Next year they have to ensure 1,800 new homes are built. The process means the officers have to identify every site, large and small, where homes can be built to meet the target. If they argue the target is too large the Planning Inspectors, who have to evaluate their Local Plan, could easily decide the figure is too low and should be increased! This give the council an incentive not to oppose the target from the GLA. 

The end result is there is no point in arguing as the officers have their hands (and their careers) tied and no one is prepared to fight. So we as residents might say that the Victoria and Central Line are at capacity, which no one denies, but that is no reason not to build more homes. Planning does not take in to account utility supplies, or Health Services or Schools so the chances are if the 3 million figure is reached London will just grind to a halt!

Adjacent to Waltham Forest is Meridian Water site where 10,000 homes are planned so why does Waltham Forest have an increased target when such a huge development is on its doorstep?

We all know the Government is in a mess and normal business is barely ticking over, but it now turns out, according to an article in the Evening Standard last night, which says the London Plan has been assessed by the Planning Inspectors who say that the GLA target of 65,000 is "undeliverable" and must be reduced to 52,000 which presumably means our Draft Plan target of 1,800 will be reduced! 

The whole process is wrong - you cannot design decent homes in a top down manner it has to be bottom up, and if by the time the figures get to the  Government and there are not enough homes being built in London, then a new town like Milton Keynes has to be planned for. So why was this not done as soon as Milton Keynes was finished - another fine mess various Governments have got us in to!!

Walthamstow Cricket Club fell 78 healthy trees

Walthamstow Cricket Club

Walthamstow Cricket Club (in Greenway Avenue) has felled 78 mature healthy trees purely to improve their bank balance! They have done a deal with the developer of the Crownlea site who wanted the trees removed to allow their proposed development to be squeezed as close to the boundary as possible. As far as I can establish a planning application has not been submitted for the site so I hope the Planning Committee reject it when it is submitted. The removal of these trees is environmental vandalism and contrary to the Council's declaration of an environmental emergency.

From Buck Walk

Area Action Plan

St James' Quarter Newsletter

St James' Quarter Newsletter