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Forum topic: Further consultation on future of Bowes Road site adjacent to Ritz Parade

Further consultation on future of Bowes Road site adjacent to Ritz Parade

PGC Webmaster

24 Nov 2017 19:29 #3418

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[Original article]

Notting Hill Housing Trust are inviting the public to view and discuss its latest proposals for developing a site in Bowes Road immediately adjacent to Ritz Parade.  The housing developer will be hosting an exhibition this Wednesday and Thursday (29th and 30th November) between 4pm and 8pm at Trinity at Bowes Methodist Church, Palmerston Road, N22 8RA. Plans will be available and the development team will be present to answer any questions you may have and importantly take on board any suggestions.

People unable to visit the exhibition are being invited to find out more about the plans by contacting Leo Jameson (020 7242 0170 or .

site adjacent to ritz paradeThe site comprises the car park and the terrace of shops to the left, plus the land behind them

At a previous exhibition, in November 2016, Notting Hill displayed the two outline drawings shown below. Nothing is known about how much these concepts have changed. The areas referred to as Site 1 and Site 2 are both part of the site covered by next week's exhibition.

notting hill site 1Site 1. The large building to its right is the auditorium of the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses (originally the Ritz cinema).  To the left are the existing buildings on Site 2.

notting hill site 2Proposed outlines of development on Site 2

Enfield Council's vision for how this stretch of road might best be developed was set out in a draft Opportunity Site Development Brief, which was consulted on in December 2015.  The council did not exclude the option of demolishing the former Ritz cinema and its surrounding parade, to the dismay of the Broomfield Home Owners' and Residents' Association, who are very keen to preserve this very distinctive local landmark. A search of the council website has failed to find any later versions of the development brief.

ritz paradeRitz Parade, centred around the former cinema, now used by the Jehovah's Witnesses

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Further consultation on future of Bowes Road site adjacent to Ritz Parade

PGC Webmaster

09 Dec 2017 18:31 #3419

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The document used by Notting Hill Housing for their consultation event is now on the website (thanks to Matthew Kitching for uploading it to Bowes & Bounds Connected).

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Artist's impression of the proposed new buildings just to the west of Ritz Parade. Ritz Parade is on the very far right of the drawing. A tall building behind the right-hand block is hidden in this view, but would be visible from most perspectives.

Currently Notting Hill do not own all the land needed to build the blocks on the left. Their intention is to build Phase 1 (the right-hand blocks) first. They expect to submit a planning application this month.

As well as flats, there would be provision for shops and other facilities on the ground floor:

At Phase 1, around 300 sq. m is provided within the frontage building and the current thinking is that this would accommodate a foodstore. There would be no parking provided for this as its primary purpose is to serve pedestrians. There would be a dedicated service bay provided at the front of the store to allow deliveries.

At Phase 2, at ground floor level a multi-functional space, approximately 150 sq m in size, will be provided and we intend to apply for a mix of uses that would allow the space to be occupied as a community facility, office, shop and restaurant. Previous plans for this unit included a GP surgery; however, following consultation with the NHS and local healthcare providers over the past year it is clear that this site does not meet the location requirements for such a facility. Notting Hill Housing are continuing discussions with the NHS to establish if there is another opportunity to provide such a facility along the North Circular Road.


Curious that the NHS doesn't want a surgery along here, in view of the large number of people who will be living close by.

You can let Notting Hill have your views using the form below:

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What next for Ritz Parade?

PGC Webmaster

23 Feb 2018 22:47 #3648

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Notting Hill Housing will be talking about their proposals at the Southgate Green Ward Forum on 27th February. A council planning officer will also be at the meeting.

See the article at the top of this page for more background information.

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Further consultation on future of Bowes Road site adjacent to Ritz Parade

Roger Blows

01 Mar 2018 08:30 #3657

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The Southgate Green Ward forum was well-attended and both councillors and Notting Hill representatives were well grilled about the developer’s plans for the two Western sections of the Ritz Parade Site. The planning application reference number is 18/00388/OUT. Local residents and others should take a look at the application and send in comments ASAP.

I am not sure that anything very new was revealed at the meeting beyond what has been publicised before. NHHT want to press ahead on the so-called Esso Site which it owns and is working at getting full ownership of the site to the West of the Esso Site where more housing blocks will be added in due course.

The picture remains unchanged: hundreds more people wedged into the toxic-air delights of Calamity Gulch aka the North Circular. Parking provision will be severely restricted. Nothing firm by way of infrastructure is in prospect, be it medical facilities, retail outlets, community space or the sort of social apparatus that a housing scheme might be expected to include. NHHT spoke in speculative terms about a possible “mid-range” food store and maybe a cafe.

Local councillors acknowledged that the Council has no power to ensure either health provision (the NHS controls this and seems to have rejected the idea of a health centre on this part of the NCR) or provision of a meaningful community space or of course a serious cleaning up of the debased air quality in the district.

These issues are real ones as is the question of the architectural character and quality of what will be built. Will a green roof or two ameliorate blocks that will be up to 7 storeys high? This development is destined to rumble on for many years given that the current occupants of the Art Deco Ritz Parade building have a lease running well into the next decade. Getting the scheme right and in accord with the wishes and needs of local people is therefore important.

And sorry, in the midst of all this, forgot to raise a question about the Fish ‘n’ Chip van in the Park.....

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Further consultation on future of Bowes Road site adjacent to Ritz Parade

PGC Webmaster

01 Mar 2018 22:14 #3661

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Roger, thanks for a typically insightful summary.

A second person has written up the meeting. Sarah Dodgson posted the following to the Enfield Voices Facebook Group as part of the Enfield Voices Citizen Journalism initiative.

Southgate Green Ward Forum Tues 27/3

It's hard to go out on a cold night but this is the next Ward along from Bowes so...

There were about 50 people there to hear a presentation by Notting Hill Housing Trust. There are real problems being discussed here, even though very few of them could be solved by the Council under the present political arrangements.

Nevertheless a strong presence of informed council officers had come to back up the planners and developers, together with all three Councillors and the cabinet member for this corner of the Borough. A formidable panel.

The audience was also experienced in outcomes. Great potential for a stand off but actually a good informative exchange of ideas.

(So tempting to write this up as a boxing match but people were being polite ...)

The Ritz parade on the north side of the North Circular west of Clockhouse Junction, east of the turn at Wilmer Way, has been scruffy for years since the sell off by Transport for London of "road expansion space" in 2009. As it is a patchwork of ownership and upkeep, it is planning and road blight exemplified.

Notting Hill Housing are working with the council to provide housing on the site based on two years of consultations, but at present only have a portion of the site in their possession and ready to go.

(I was amused by the "indicative images" on the slide show featuring about three cars on the North Circular and some very elegant pedestrians.)

The current plans can be seen here www.nhhg.org.uk

Ref 18/00388/OUT. or email

Input from the audience focussed on several interesting aspects from which other wards can learn
(ding ding round one...)

1. The ratio of units to parking spaces. 37 flats to 17 spaces is a recipe for more overflow parking on the streets already crowded with Tube station parking overflow. Free participation for three years in a Car Club for new occupants was not considered enough by those with prior experience of local developments with too little parking space. They were asking for residents in the new blocks to be automatically excluded from any local prospective CPZ, and by implication on the consultations relating to that, as a restrictive clause in the sale of the flats. Reduction in value of development versus existing community just before an election. Residents might win that one....

2. Inclusion of solid planting of shrubs along the borders between the traffic and the pavement to reduce air pollution on the pedestrian route. OR provision of a green pedestrian route through the site to allow people to walk parallel to the north circular away from the pollution. A route passing through the "underground" car park did not sound ideal. The developers were challenged to rethink this kind of provision for pedestrians in their plans. The developers did not look keen....nobody actually mentioned gates on the site but through pedestrian routes are not compatible with raised gardens, privacy and security.....

3. Financial Contributions from the developers, legally paid to the council towards the costs of reducing the impact of their development. ( see "CIL charges" and "Section 106" charges) Now here it became obvious that some of the "generous" funds, given to the council out of the developers "profits" under these national legal arrangements, were not going to be spent directly in the area under pressure, but in those areas identified by the council as a priority ie not in Southgate Green or on local schools. The sheer size of Enfield creates issues here. But if the Southgate Green community come up with a plan everyone behind the table promised to look at it and it might attract some of the funds back........at which point the point was made very clearly that the residents had already said what they wanted, in two consultations, so why should they do their Councillors' jobs for them......

4. Just what is a community space? When is a cafe a "chain coffee shop" and when is it a "community space"? When the outcome of a long consultation requests inclusion of a meeting space in the plans, and the developers offer a commercial space that might house a community cafe....or might not....are they meeting the design brief? (This ward meeting was not actually meeting inside the ward boundaries, such is the shortage of community meeting spaces)

5. Impact on schools and doctors' surgeries of additional people. This was so obviously outside the remit of developers, council officers and even Councillors that discussion here was pointless. Nevertheless a two week wait for an appointment (personal experience) means that interest in exactly where the local NHS Commissioning Group would commit to a new health centre was keen. A half promise from the developers to look at a site near Clock House Junction needs a strong follow up.
6. No comfort was offered to the parents of the overflow Bowes New Southgate primary school currently occupying spare classrooms in Broomfield School. Due to be evicted from that site by Broomfield after 2020, (B need the space back for secondary provision), the parents present were outspoken in their quiet desperation. They are caught in a trap, between developers prioritising housing, land-banking in the borough, and that their educational trust was not top of the list for the few sites and funds available.

Boxing aside, the reality is that there are no grounds for an appeal in all this. It would cost too much and likely lose. The adverse effects of increasing the number of people expected to live in our spaces, whether it be local water shortages or more rubbish collections or poor access to schools or GPs, none of these effects have the power to override the need to maximise the housing available in these sites. Meanwhile buildings sit empty elsewhere in the borough.

It all felt a long way away from the optimism of the 2012 North Circular Development Plan.


Source: www.facebook.com/groups/763895757039726/permalink/1548353958593898/

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Further consultation on future of Bowes Road site adjacent to Ritz Parade

Colin Younger

01 Mar 2018 22:46 #3662

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Two good summaries of the forum.

On the medical centre issue as with much else neither developers nor council are able to deliver the much needed infrastructure.

The Ritz parade site didn't suit local GPs or the CCG . The space was too little for current requirements and not where the demand is. The need is for facilities East and west of the Ritz parade as I heard it.

Notting Hill Housing said the next stage of development at the Green Lane junction could provide space more suitable for a polyclinic type operation and I think that they said that were in discussion with the CCG, but this is years away from likely development.

Neither councillors nor residents were happy with the situation but the litany of problems has been rehearsed at so many such meetings that resignation rather than rage seemed to be the predominant feeling.

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