Action for Enfield’s Future is asking residents to write to their local MPs and Sir Sadiq Khan to share their concerns , reports James Cracknell

Green Belt land west of Crews Hill Station, owned by developer Berkeley Homes

A coalition of Enfield community groups has launched a campaign against the ‘new town’ designated by a government taskforce at Crews Hill and its surrounding Green Belt land.

Action for Enfield’s Future lists eleven reasons why the area in north-west Enfield now earmarked for at least 21,000 homes is “sub optimal” for housing development, including that the majority of land is “pristine countryside” rather than the “low value” Green Belt described in the New Towns Taskforce report published last September.

A new campaign website also warns the development will “sweep away” existing businesses and disputes the claim the area is “well connected” because of its railway station, as tens of thousands of homes will “place a substantial level of pressure on local transport and health services”.

It asks Enfield residents to share their views on the new town by writing to their local MP and Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan.

Action for Enfield’s Future is a coalition of community groups with shared interests, comprising Enfield Climate Action Forum (EnCaf), The Enfield Society, Better Homes Enfield and Enfield Road Watch.

The same groups previously raised a series of concerns about Enfield Council’s draft Local Plan, which proposed just under 10,000 homes for the Crews Hill and ‘Chase Park’ Green Belt sites and underwent a public examination last year. Both of these areas are included within the new town proposal, along with several other as-yet unknown sites – covering a total of 884 hectares – that have yet to be revealed.

Emphasising that they are not opposed to new homes in general, the Action for Enfield’s Future website states that “some development at Crews Hill is reasonable” but that it is “not the right place” for a proposed new town of such a size.

Vicki Pite, a campaigner with EnCaf who is also a former Labour councillor, told the Dispatch: “We are not Nimbys, we understand the need for housing and we don’t want people to be homeless […] we know there is a huge housing problem, we want something done, but we just don’t think a new town on the Green Belt is the answer.

“We don’t believe developers building on virgin Green Belt land will solve the homelessness problem, because we don’t have confidence it will be affordable with the cost of the infrastructure that will be needed.”

Action for Enfield’s Future is also emphasising the need for strong democratic engagement on the new town.

Announcing at last year’s Labour Party Conference that there would be twelve new towns in total across the country, with Enfield borough’s likely among the first three to be developed, Secretary of State Steve Reed said: “We will mobilise the full power of the state to build a fresh generation of new towns and restore the dream of home ownership to thousands of families right across the country.

“We will go ahead with work in at least twelve locations with Tempsford, Leeds South Bank and Crews Hill identified as three of the most promising sites.

“We’ll build homes people feel proud to live in. Communities with schools, hospitals, good public transport, green spaces on the doorstep, and the investment that brings good, well paid, unionised jobs to the area.

“And we’ll work with world-class architects to design each new town with its own character and distinct, unique identity.

“We’ll back the builders by streamlining planning rules so local people have a voice, but we can get spades in the ground much faster.”

A more detailed announcement confirming the Crews Hill new town, including where the 21,000 homes will all go, is expected later this year.

For more information about the Action for Enfield’s Future campaign:
Visit actionforenfieldsfuture.org.uk

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