At the Local Plan hearings Enfield Council admits that a recent setback at the Edmonton housing zone has led to a rethink on its strategy, reports James Cracknell

Construction work is ongoing at Meridian Water

The discovery of a “significant water main” is the latest stumbling block to building new homes at Meridian Water, Enfield Council has admitted.

The council had been hoping to “intensify” industrial land use on a site within the Edmonton redevelopment zone currently occupied by a bus garage, which would in turn have enabled new homes to be built in the area without a major loss of industrial space.

But that plan was recently scuppered, the council has now revealed – prompting fresh concerns over its long-term aim to build 10,000 homes at Meridian Water.

At the ongoing third stage of hearings on the council’s draft Enfield Local Plan, a session last Thursday (23rd) discussed economic policies within the plan and heard evidence from Richard Pestell, a planning consultant from Rapleys who is representing the council at the public examination.

While housebuilding is underway on phases one and two of Meridian Water, the eastern ‘hinterlands’ area has proven more difficult to redevelop. The chief problem has been that much of the area remains designated as strategic industrial land (Sil) by City Hall, meaning these sites can only be used for industrial purposes at present.

The council’s strategy had been to create areas of multistorey, or “stacked” industrial development, as a trade-off that would enable the land to be de-designated as Sil and then allow new homes to also be built in the area.

This plan was central to achieving the long-term target of building 10,000 homes across Meridian Water in total, but at last week’s Local Plan hearing, Pestell explained: “What has transpired, as part of the master-planning work and investigation and trying to firm up this strategy, they came across some quite significant underground water mains running diagonally through [the site].

“Now that, with a big water main that requires offsets, the logic of very high density, stacked industrial is called into question, the parcel gets split up, and the access required for the water main becomes a huge issue that we just weren’t earlier aware of.”

Pestell continued: “This now means that while the council was hoping to assemble land […] and have the funds to do so, at the moment the council’s focus at Meridian Water is on the western side.”

He added: “The council needs to assemble land but there is no realistic prospect of funds being available to do that while they are focused on other things. It is a combination of significant ground constraints being discovered and delays elsewhere across Meridian Water which pushes this down the list of priorities.”

The draft Local Plan itself had not included the 10,000 homes figure for Meridian Water, instead opting to include 6,700, although this was later revised up to around 7,400 homes after four small sites previously omitted from the plan were added prior to the start of the stage three hearings this month.

The council insists the 10,000 homes target remains the long-term objective, but the latest revelation about difficulties with a water main suggest that the civic centre has no realistic strategy for hitting the target.

At last week’s hearing, Pestell concluded: “It remains the council ambition, but to deliver 10,000 homes you would have to release further Sil. It isn’t that that aspiration has gone away, but for the purpose of the plan-making, we don’t have the evidence to be able to release the Sil today.

“We don’t have somewhere for the bus garage to go, most obviously.”

Also giving evidence at the hearing was Matt Burn, from local campaign group Better Homes Enfield. In response to Pestell’s comments he asked whether it was appropriate to still be including a housing site on the eastern side of Meridian Water that would be sandwiched between two industrial areas, when there was now no prospect of them being developed for housing instead.

Burn said: “We are not aware of another site in London that squeezes residential land in between two strategic industrial sites, and we haven’t seen any evidence that this is reasonable and will actually get through and win planning approval given the challenges of being positioned between two Sil in terms of living arrangements, traffic and the noise.

“Living next to that would have challenges. We were concerned with this as it is, but that has now been heightened with the [revelation about] Sil remaining for the foreseeable future. That is our concern.

“We want more housing, but we want the council to show us that this is possible.”

In response Matthew Reed KC, the council’s barrister, said: “As a matter of principle Better Homes don’t say that it isn’t possible to deliver, so it really comes down to the question of design in the context of these sites.”

Stage three of the Local Plan examination continues today (Thursday 30^th) with a discussion on tall buildings and rural Enfield, before taking a break until Tuesday, 11^th November, when the hearings resume with a debate on climate change and the environment. All sessions are livestreamed on the council’s YouTube channel:
Visit youtube.com/@EnfieldCouncil/streams

No news is bad news

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.

Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.

Monthly direct debit

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else.