Better Homes Enfield believes that a new report commissioned by Enfield Council about green space at Meridian Water is misleading.
It claims that the plan for open green space is “best practice” but we think it is far from best practice.
The green space planned for Meridian Water will not be anywhere near enough for the additional 30,000 people who will be living there.
In fact, we can show the Meridian Water will deliver proportionally less open green space than Hong Kong.
It’s quite simple; the number of homes planned for Meridian Water has doubled from 5,000 to 10,000 but the amount of green space has not matched this increase.
Not only that, but the scheme will actually see local people lose some of their existing parkland to make way for Meridian Water.
The council report comes after the London branch of Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) criticised the current plans for Meridian Water for not providing adequate parks and green spaces.
The new report attempts to justify the shortfall of green space by claiming that the council’s current approach for calculating green space needs is “outdated”, despite it being the standard method used by the majority of councils. This is shifting the goal posts.
The report claims that 30% of Meridian Water will be green open space and that 30% should be “considered best practice”. The problem with this approach is that it ignores population density (i.e. the number of people that will be using the green space) and ignoring population density is problematic – you’re only getting half the story. Around 40% of Hong Kong is green open space, so Meridian Water will deliver comparatively less open green space than Hong Kong.
Our analysis of the council’s latest report can be accessed here:
Better Homes Enfield 