We have now submitted our response to the Draft Local Plan, which can be downloaded here (84 pages).
In our opinion, which is based on our detailed analysis of both the Draft Local Plan (DLP) and the accompanying Evidence Base, the DLP will not deliver the type of housing Enfield needs or make the best use of the land available:
- The plan will not deliver the type of affordable housing needed by Enfield residents.
- The potential and role of ‘Small Sites’ for housing has not been properly considered.
- The potential for redeveloped brownfield sites to deliver new housing, as well as new blue and green infrastructure, has been substantially underestimated.
- Plans for a large-scale mixed-use development on brownfield land in Brimsdown, which could potentially deliver thousands of new homes, and new employment space, have been too easily dismissed.
- The strategy for the ongoing redevelopment of brownfield land at Meridian Water is ill-conceived.
- The plan unnecessarily encourages the building of tall tower blocks. Tall tower blocks will not deliver the type of housing that Enfield needs, and there are far better alternatives.
- The opportunity to create a substantial new park and much needed greenspace in the southeast of the borough has been ignored.
- The new Edmonton Incinerator and the impact this will have on local air quality and the health of both existing and future local residents, has not been properly accounted for.
- The plan has not costed for the infrastructure necessary to deliver the proposed spatial strategy outlined in the DLP, which in turn impacts and undermines claims made about the affordable housing delivery.
We have set out our reasoning in full throughout our response but we have made some general observations.
It is our opinion, large sections of the DLP have been written as a sales pitch, rather than a serious planning or policy document.
We also think that a large number of the proposed “policies” are extremely vague and could be open to wide interpretation. If the DLP were adopted in its current form, these policies would be left open to interpretation by planning officers, who could interpret them at their discretion and make a case-by-case judgement. This would create a highly unpredictable and undesirable local planning system. We believe it would enable large developers with ample resource at their disposal to “win” or negotiate a planning permission. Conversely, smaller developers and local residents would be at a disadvantage, as they will not have the time, expertise or finance needed to engage with such a vague and unpredictable local planning system.
This plan is not the plan Enfield needs.
Better Homes Enfield
Better Homes Enfield 