The council has been forced to submit revised plans for the bridge after the Environment Agency raised concerns around its impact on flood risk, reports James Cracknell

Bridge B1 at Meridian Water will carry the central spine road (credit Matt Burn)

Enfield Council is facing an £11million bill after being forced to redesign a new bridge at Meridian Water over flooding concerns.

The ‘B1 Bridge’ spanning the River Lee Navigation is one of the four bridges being constructed as part of the £195million strategic industrial works (SIW) which are essential to make council plans for thousands of new homes across the Edmonton redevelopment zone viable.

The bridge will carry the new central spine road and cycle lane linking the western and eastern parts of Meridian Water, and work is well underway on its construction, but a council report published late last year revealed the bridge has had to be redesigned following objections from the Environment Agency.

The issue relates to the council’s desire to reduce the width of the canal to create more space for the bridge abutments – something which it had not been “explicit” about in its original 2019 planning application.

The report states: “The Environment Agency stated they would not agree to encroachment into the canal as this would create an unnecessary flood risk upstream.

“Following a series of optioneering workshops and additional surveys, the decision was made to increase the bridge span width instead. This adjustment resulted in the Bridge B1 abutment being relocated westward. The earthworks required recontouring. This resulted in reducing the size and levels of the Phase 2 developable area.

“This risk was made further complicated because the affected area lies within the site of two overlapping planning permissions.”

The redesign has pushed back the expected completion of the bridge to November this year, with new planning applications needing to be submitted with multiple revised drawings. Even though construction is ongoing, some of the revised plans have yet to win planning approval, having only been submitted last month.

The council decision report – signed off by chief executive Perry Scott – authorises the council to pay an initial £5million-worth of “programme delay fees” to Taylor Woodrow, its SIW developer, as part of conditions included in the contract with the company relating to unexpected “change events”.

But the report also warns: “Although this request is for approval of £5.05m to be paid over to TW as compensation for delays, the overall cost of delays would be close to the £11m projected by [infrastructure consultants] AECOM due to the certainty of payment of £5.1m covering the period July 2026 to November 2026.”

The bridge delay and cost overrun – which follows another recent council admission that an underground water main was preventing the redevelopment of a Meridian Water bus garage – has been slammed by opposition councillors.

Conservative councillor Lee Chamberlain, the Tory group’s housing spokesperson, said: “The Meridian Water project has been running 16-plus years, cost about half-a-billion pounds, and delivered less than 300 out of the 10,000 homes promised.

“The bridge delay with further multimillion pound costs adds another shameful chapter to the Labour council’s ongoing saga of failure. Never in Enfield has so much been spent to deliver so little.”

Matt Burn from campaign group Better Homes Enfield, who has been a frequent critic of the council’s handling of its flagship housing project, said: “This appears to be another very expensive and avoidable mistake. Meridian Water is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Enfield, yet repeated failures in planning and governance are now costing residents dearly.

“More than 1,000 jobs have been lost [from demolishing industrial estates], and over 3,000 homes were meant to have been delivered by now, yet only around 300 have been built. Over the past year alone, the council has made a series of serious errors, including failing to address known infrastructure constraints, overlooking land it owns that could deliver hundreds of homes, and incurring substantial delay costs.

“Despite the scale of public money at risk, there has been no effective external scrutiny of performance, nor any clear mechanism for intervention when things go wrong. The lack of meaningful accountability is deeply concerning and cannot continue.”

A council spokesperson said: “Meridian Water is a major project, and the strategic infrastructure works will bring important long-term improvements to Edmonton. For projects this big, changes and adjustments are normal and expected over time. Extra funds are included in the budget to cover any delays or changes.

“We planned ahead for any obstacles we may face. Construction has faced challenges across the UK with costs skyrocketing due to the economy crashing in 2022, Brexit, international conflicts and other challenges.

“In the past few months, four 40-metre steel beams for Bridge B1 have been installed, and the bridge is on track to be finished this year. Other important infrastructure works are continuing as planned, with most of it expected to be substantially completed by 2027. These improvements will help reduce traffic around Meridian Water and make it easier to reach this exciting new neighbourhood.

“Meridian Water will become home to thousands of people and businesses, which means Edmonton needs major infrastructure upgrades. The strategic infrastructure works will provide new roads, bridges, public spaces, and parks to make this vision a reality and prepare the area for future growth.”

No news is bad news

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.

Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.

Monthly direct debit

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else.