Plans for further expansion of Montagu Industrial Estate approved by councillors, reports Simon Allin, Local Democracy Reporter

Plans to complete the redevelopment of an Edmonton industrial estate to provide more employment space have been approved by councillors.

The redevelopment of the council-owned Montagu Industrial Estate will see existing buildings demolished and replaced by new industrial units, with the increase in workspace designed to support between 695 and 1,000 full-time jobs.

Parts of the estate have already been redeveloped, and proposals to complete the works were presented to a meeting of Enfield Council’s planning committee on Wednesday. Officers told the committee the site currently supports 611 full-time employees.

Under the plans, an existing waste management area will be relocated from the centre of the site to its eastern edge. The rest of the site will then be redeveloped to provide up to 40,000 square metres of employment floorspace in modern industrial units up to 28 metres high.

Although the new industrial units will be taller than their predecessors, the reports state that the site is in a “well-established industrial area and has co-existed with residential properties for decades” and the scheme “would not be harmful to the amenities of nearby residential plots”.

A banqueting suite currently using the site will not be given space in the new development. Planning reports state that its temporary planning permission has lapsed and that its loss “does not represent a ground to refuse planning permission”. The council is working with a church using the site, which does have planning permission, to find alternative premises.

Under questioning from committee members, planning officer Gideon Whittingham told the committee the relocation of the church would be secured by a legal agreement, and the intention was to find a site within the borough.

He added that an independent tenant location agent had been employed by the council to help businesses affected by the development to relocate within their “catchment area” inside the borough.

The plans were unanimously approved by members of the committee. They will now be referred to London mayor Sadiq Khan, who will make a final decision on the scheme.

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