Enfield Council has been accused of a “serious oversight” by not including the sites in its original draft of the plan

Work continues at Meridian One, where 268 homes have now been completed — Work continues at Meridian One, the first phase of Meridian Water

Enfield Council has submitted an amendment to its draft Local Plan seeking to add nearly 700 extra homes at Meridian Water – after admitting its error omitting them previously.

The council was admonished during the second stage of Local Plan hearings over the summer when it became clear it had failed to correctly calculate how many homes were being planned at Meridian Water, its flagship housing development in Edmonton.

Now, as preparations are made for the third stage of hearings to commence later this month, the council has published a document with a series of amendments – essentially admitting that it had left off four individual sites from the draft plan submitted to the inspector Steven Lee.

The sites all sit within the Meridian One development currently being constructed, and include two ‘meanwhile’ areas where a community garden and construction skills academy are temporarily being operated at present. Although the council does not plan to build homes on these sites for around 15 years, they still need to be added to the Local Plan.

Another two sites, used as a temporary base for utilities and construction equipment, will also now be added to the plan.

Together, these four sites can accommodate 667 homes, the council now states.

During a day-long hearing discussing Meridian Water in July, Lee had asked why only 6,700 homes had been included in the plan when the overall council target for housing there was 10,000.

A council planning manager explained the higher target was “an aspiration” rather than something it had any solid plans for at present.

Now, in a new ‘note’ submitted to the inspector which requests to add the four previously omitted sites to the Enfield Local Plan, the council states: “The allocation capacity for SA5.1 [Meridian One] was taken from planning permission reference 16/01197/RE3.

“However – as discussed at the hearings – not all land was proposed for development as part of that permission and there is some, limited, additional capacity that could be included.”

The council adds: “If all [additional] sites are developed, 667 homes would be delivered, but the construction skills and community garden parcels may not be delivered within the plan period.”

With these amendments, as well as a higher level of homes on the Ikea site, there are now around 7,600 homes planned in total at Meridian Water.

Reacting to the amendments, Matt Burn from campaign group Better Homes Enfield said: “This is a serious oversight. The council overlooked land with an estimated gross development value of around a quarter-of-a-billion pounds, purchased at considerable expense to the taxpayer.

“Not only does Enfield Council own this land, but the council is also master developer for Meridian Water. It seems extraordinary that the council failed to notice it was missing from the Local Plan.”

Stage three of the Local Plan public examination resumes at 9.30am on Tuesday, 21st October at Enfield Civic Centre. All hearings are livestreamed on the council’s YouTube channel.

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