The density of new housing being built on the final two phases of the Ponders End site has been nearly doubled, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

The new plans for phase 2b of Alma Estate in South Street, Ponders End (credit Enfield Council/Pollard Thomas Edwards)

Plans to build an additional 322 homes at a Ponders End redevelopment project have been green-lit.

At an Enfield Council planning committee last night (Tuesday 18th), councillors approved plans to nearly double the amount of homes being delivered on the final two phases of the Alma Estate regeneration scheme.

It means 723 homes will now be delivered across phase 2b in South Street and phase 3 in Alma Road – a significant uplift from the originally-approved 401 homes.

A row of existing shops in South Street will be demolished to make way for phase 2b but a similar level of retail space is planned to replace them.

The first plans for the Alma Estate, approved in 2017, proposed 993 new homes in total, but this was later increased to 1,080 and, with the latest plans also approved, now stands at 1,402 homes.

In total the scheme will now deliver 444 affordable homes. Of the 187 affordable units now included in the final two phases, 80 will be for social rent and 107 will be for shared ownership.

Planning chair Mahym Bedekova asked council officers about the impact of the blocks’ heights on the neighbouring Ponders End Flour Mill Conservation Area, which includes listed buildings within it.

Nicholas Page, Enfield’s conservation and heritage advisor, said the additional homes had increased the height of some of the blocks by six storeys and others by one or two.

He said: “This increases their visibility so it [the project] will have an urbanising impact on a picturesque view.”

The tallest block on phase 2b will now rise to 13 storeys, while on phase 3 it will be 16 storeys.

However, Nicholas said the overall “degree of harm” was at the “lower end of the scale” when balanced against the “positive elements of the scheme” such as its affordable housing provision.

The tallest new block on the estate, next to Ponders End Station, stands at 17 storeys. Despite this, some of the proposed buildings still exceed the maximum recommended height for the site as set out in the council’s draft Local Plan.

Conservative councillor and committee member Michael Rye asked about this “deviation from policy” as well as 44 homes not meeting “recommended internal daylight and sunlight guidelines in habitable rooms”.

Kathryn Williams, the case officer, said: “In order to bring forward these last phases and deliver them there has needed to be an increase in the density and that’s why the uplift is there.

“As you know it’s a planning balance, policies are there to guide, there are material considerations such as the delivery of the housing and there is a substantial amount of affordable housing also being delivered.

“The report acknowledges there are incidences of quite minor – compared to the scale of the project’s size – impacts on daylight levels. The standards, in terms of numerical values, should not be applied rigidly and circumstances should be looked at on a case-by-case basis.”

The meeting adjourned for 15 minutes so the planning officers could find out to what degree the daylight and sunlight levels fell short.

Kathryn later confirmed the majority of rooms where the standard fell short were “secondary bedrooms” and not “primary habitable rooms like a living room”.

Following the debate, all eight Labour councillors voted in favour of the scheme, while the four Conservative members abstained.

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