Introduction

In 2010 several extensive tracts of land and housing along the North Circular, between the Cambridge Intersection to the East and Bowes Park/Telford Road junction to the West, were sold to the Notting Hill Housing Trust with a view to their being developed to improve and increase the housing stock. This was land which had earlier been subject to compulsory purchase to make provision for widening of this stretch of the North Circular. When, after a long delay, road widening was eventually implemented, it used less land than had been envisaged by some of the schemes proposed earlier.

The first phase of Notting Hill's programme involved refurbishment of 1930s-built houses to the East of the Green Lanes junction, many of which had been occupied by squatters. Attention is now focussed on much more controversial proposals to the West of Green Lanes and the railway bridge, which would involve demolition of some existing houses and construction of a much larger number of houses and flats in their place, some of them on land which is currently vacant.

Planning applications submitted by Notting Hill have prompted considerable opposition from individuals and groups representing communities and residents, who among their complaints include concerns about high residential density, tall buildings not in keeping with the area and the impact on parking and on traffic density. A complicating factor is that Notting Hill's proposals are not fully compliant with the principles of Enfield Council's North Circular Area Action Plan. However, completion of work on developing the latter is still some way off, and much of the money allocated by the Greater London Authority to the Notting Hill Trust will have to be spent in the relatively near future.

Palmers Green CommUNITY will be reporting developments relating to these plans as they occur and we will have a Forum section devoted to the topic.