Enfield Council is keen to get its Local Plan adopted with under 10,000 homes allocated to the Green Belt despite twice as many now being proposed by the government, reports James Cracknell

Enfield Civic Centre and (inset) planning inspector Steven Lee

Enfield Council insists there is “no need” for the government’s recent ‘new towns’ announcement – proposing more than 20,000 homes on the Green Belt – to be considered during the Local Plan examination.

The council has spent several years drawing up its draft plan and undertaking multiple rounds of public consultation, with the mammoth process now nearing its end as the third stage of public hearings commence from 9.30am tomorrow (Tuesday 21^st) at Enfield Civic Centre.

But since the second stage of hearings ended in August, the government has published a report by its New Towns Taskforce which names both Crews Hill and ‘Chase Park’ – better known locally as Vicarage Farm – as being suitable for 21,000 homes.

As well as more than doubling the number of homes allocated for Metropolitan Green Belt land in Enfield, as proposed in the current draft Local Plan, the proposed new town’s size of 884 hectares is also twice the size of the existing site allocations.

But in a letter to planning inspector Steven Lee ahead of the start of Tuesday’s hearing, the council’s head of strategic planning and design, May Hope, writes that “while the [new town] announcement provides support for the underlying strategic proposition that significant new housing is appropriate at Crews Hill and Chase Park, and should be given some weight in that regard, it should not be used as a reason to slow or delay examination”.

Hope adds: “In the event that the government confirms the new town proposal during the examination process of the Local Plan, this would provide greater support for the Crews Hill and Chase Park allocations.”

Hope claims that any new town proposal “may have implications for densities, infrastructure and other matters” but that “it would not be appropriate or feasible to try to consider how the draft allocations [in the Local Plan] might interact with any future detailed proposal [from the government] given the current level of knowledge”.

Both the government and the council have insisted that “nothing is set in stone” regarding the new town and that the proposal will not be confirmed until next year.

Hope concludes: “There is no need or ability for the examination to consider the potential implications of the draft allocations on such new towns proposals as may finally emerge.”

Nonetheless, it seems highly likely that the new towns announcement will at least be mentioned at the civic centre on Tuesday, with Lee still having the discretion to invite speakers to offer their views on it.

In a statement reacting to the new towns announcement at the end of last month The Enfield Society, which has had representatives throughout the Local Plan hearings, stated on its website: “We are very concerned that this announcement may cause major difficulties for the inspector.”

All of the Local Plan hearings are available to watch live on the council’s YouTube channel:
Visit youtube.com/@EnfieldCouncil/streams

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