Forum topic: Examination in public of Enfield Local Plan begins
Examination in public of Enfield Local Plan begins
PGC Webmaster
22 Jan 2025 10:53 7302
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Following the submission by the council of its draft Enfield Local Plan, the government-appointed planning inspector, Steven Lee, will be holding the first series of hearings for the Examination in Public between 22nd and 30th January, with 31st January allocated as an overspill day if required.
Selected groups and individuals will be able to speak at the hearing sessions at the Civic Centre, which will be open to the general public (to watch only). The public will also be able to watch a live stream of the hearings by clicking on the links below.
Date | Session times | Link |
Wed 22nd Jan |
09:30 - 13:00 14:00 - 17:30 |
Watch on YouTube |
Thu 23rd Jan |
09:30 - 13:00 14:00 - 17:30 |
Watch on YouTube |
Fri 24th Jan |
09:30 - 13:00 |
Watch on YouTube |
Tue 28th Jan |
09:30 - 13:00 14:00 - 17:30 |
|
Wed 29th Jan |
09:30 - 13:00 14:00 - 17:30 |
Watch on YouTube |
Thu 30th Jan |
09:30 - 13:00 14:00 - 17:30 |
Watch on YouTube |
Fri 31st Jan |
09:30 - 13:00 |
Watch on Youtube |
Daily hearings timetable - click to view/hide
WEEK 1 |
Morning Session 9:30 – 13.00 |
Afternoon Session 14.00 – 17.30 |
22 Jan |
OpeningsMatter 1 – Legal Compliance & General Matters• Duty to cooperate • General Conformity with the London Plan* • Engagement • Equalities • Local Development Scheme • Climate Change • Any other general matters * This issue will also be addressed under specific Matters where necessary. Speakers: Enfield Council Berkeley Homes/Lichfields Better Homes Enfield David Harbott Enfield Road Watch Enfield Society Encaf Working Group Greater London Authority Hadley Wood Neighbourhood Planning Forum Home Builders Federation Landvest Over 50’s Forum The Conservative Group |
Matter 1 – Legal Compliance & General Matters continued (if necessary)Speakers: (as morning) |
23 Jan |
Matter 2 – Housing Need & Requirement (Issue 2.1)Speakers: Enfield Council Berkeley Homes/Lichfields Better Homes Enfield Comer Homes/Savills Enfield Society Enfield Road Watch Encaf Working Group Hadley Wood Neighbourhood Planning Forum Home Builders Federation Ladderswood Estate/Savills London Diocesan Fund/Causeway Over 50’s Forum The Conservative Group
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Matter 2 – Housing Need & Requirement (Issue 2.1) (morning continued)Speakers: (as morning) |
24 Jan |
Matter 1 – Legal Compliance & General Matters - continued• Integrated Impact Assessment • Habitat Regulations Assessment Enfield Council Berkeley Homes/Lichfields Better Homes Enfield David Harbott Enfield Road Watch Encaf Working Group Greater London Authority Hadley Wood Neighbourhood Planning Forum Home Builders Federation Landvest Over 50’s Forum The Conservative Group
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Not sitting. |
WEEK 2 |
||
28 Jan |
Matter 2 – Housing Need & Requirement (Issues 2.2 and 2.3)Speakers: Enfield Council Berkeley Homes/Lichfields Better Homes Enfield Comer Homes/Savills Enfield Society Enfield Road Watch Encaf Working Group Hadley Wood Neighbourhood Planning Forum Home Builders Federation Ladderswood Estate/Savills London Diocesan Fund/Causeway Over 50’s Forum The Conservative Group |
Matter 3 – Employment LandSpeakers: Enfield Council Blackrock/MSA Enfield Society Encaf Working Group Enfield Road Watch IKEA/Quod Landvest Thames Water/Carter Jonas |
29 Jan |
Matter 4 – Green Belt
Speakers: Enfield Council Berkeley Homes/Lichfields Better Homes Enfield Campaign to Protecy Rural England Comer Homes/Savills David Harbott Enfield Road Watch Enfield Society EnCaf Working Group Fairview/Iceni Fox Lane District Residents Association Friends of Whitewebbs Park Hadley Wood Association Hadley Wood Neighbourhood Planning Forum Home Builders Federation Landvest London Diocesan Fund/Causeway London Greenbelt Council Over 50’s Forum Robert Morgan Thames Water/Carter Jonas The Conservative Group |
Matter 4 – Green Belt (morning continued)Speakers: (as morning) |
30 Jan |
Matter 5 – Spatial Strategy and Site Selection MethodologySpeakers: Enfield Council Better Homes Enfield Broxbourne Borough Council Berkeley Homes/Lichfields Blackrock/MSA David Harbott Enfield Road Watch Enfield Society EnCaf Air Pollution Gorup EnCaf Working Group Fairview/Iceni Hadley Wood Neighbourhood Planning Forum Home Builders Federation IKEA/Quod Ladderswood/Savills Landvest London Diocesan Fund/Causeway Over 50’s Forum The Conservative Group Transport for London |
Matter 5 – Morning continued.Speakers: (as morning) |
31 Jan |
Overspill (if needed) |
Not sitting |
Links to information about the Enfield Local Plan examination in public
Information on Enfield Council website
Stage 1 Hearing Statements (these are the answers to the Inspector's questions submitted by organisations or individuals who will be questioned by the Inspector during the Stage 1 hearings)
Information on Enfield Society website
Information on Enfield RoadWatch website
All reporting about the Enfield Local Plan on Palmers Green Community
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Examination in public of Enfield Local Plan begins
Karl Brown
22 Jan 2025 18:59 7303
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Much of the day was legal and compliance related. The consultation process took quite a hammering with much time spent trying to untangle why so many representations had failed to make it into the council’s process / system; whether such responders had the opportunity to take part in the hearing; and if all information was then available to all parties to help in their case. A monumental Horlicks was outlined over a couple of hours, with the council indicating they had now outsourced the task to a professional outfit. The implication for the inspector was whether this compromised the whole process, essentially whether he would wind the hearings up early doors, either putting in a sizeable delay for things to be sorted (months) or I imagine asking the council to start the process again and get it right this time. (My first waste plan attendance ended up in such a position before lunch on Day 1 before returning afresh several years later.) Several times the Inspector referred to this possible course of action. Something he needed to go away and ponder.
Councils have a duty to cooperate with nearby councils as well as statutory bodies and that element formed the second major strand of today. The questioning suggested all was not necessarily well there either. Technical stuff and the outcome will need to wait on the Inspector’s deliberations and considerations. Further evidence may be needed, and the council ended the today’s session by saying they had “homework”.
There was a flavour of some meat later in the day as the session looked at compliance with the London Plan. A GLA representative emphasised the point made in earlier submissions that the proposed large-scale housing expansion into the green belt was not in compliance with the London Plan. (Earlier, TfL had outlined how the two main housing sites being suggested were not bus friendly, nor was there the capital to put on high frequency bus services, meaning travel would default to cars and that was not where the London Plan stood.)
The recent change of government and its focus on much housebuilding was however changing things. A new NPPF (National Planning Policy Framework) was indicating 88,000+ new homes required in London each year for ten years – an awful lot in the decade of this plan. The GLA indicated Enfield were overegging our borough’s needs; that the move as planned into the green belt was premature (brownfield first); and anyway, the housing density being proposed was too generous – pack more homes in. Instead, the suggestion was to wait for the Mayor to determine a borough by borough allocation of the London target across the capital, and consider together with his updated view on green belt use (the Mayor accepting some, somewhere, will now be required given the scale of the government’s housing target).
Housing is tomorrow and green belt next Wednesday when more detailed oratory will presumably be available, but it was already clear that the proposed green belt take is not going to be an easy ask for the council, relying it seems on “exceptional circumstances”, to get this part over the line as Sound planning.
Everyone thought the plan was too long, badly laid out, hard to follow etc, going as far as the Inspector saying he needed to get reading glasses for the first time when trying to read it.
Possibly not the greatest day for the council, although I thought the legal rep they had fronting their case – name missed as I tuned in post the kick off – seemed to play a smooth blinder despite the hand he was given.
Fortunately, I’m somewhere else tomorrow.
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Examination in public of Enfield Local Plan begins
Basil Clarke
23 Jan 2025 00:23 7304
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Two things I'd like to draw attention to:
First, it's not out of the question that the Inspector might yet abandon the whole she-bang before it gets much further (it's scheduled to last for six days in all). This is because he will be "pondering" over allegations raised by the Enfield Society and others that the council failed to "engage" properly with all the interested parties, chief among them being, of course, the borough's residents. If he agrees that this was the case, then he might cancel remaining sessions and send the council back to the drawing board. I think probably not, but it's a possibility...
The second big issue has been reported on by James Cracknell on the Enfield Dispatch website under the headline Khan set to support new housing on London’s Green Belt for first time, inquiry hears .
Here's my (very rough) take on what I remember from the discussion - but my memory isn't too brilliant and I may have misunderstood some of what was said, so if this is something that interests you I recommend listening to the recording and drawing your own conclusions.
It's a major change of attitude by the Mayor with regard to building on the green belt. Previously Sadiq Khan was dead against this, despite a change of policy by his fellow Labour Party people at the top of the UK government. The main driver of Sadiq's change of mind seems to be the likelihood of the government demanding a big increase in housebuilding throughout London. However, it did seem to me that the total amount of housebuilding that will be demanded by the government is not yet decided, the situation is "incredibly fluid".
However, despite now supporting buildingon the green belt, the Mayor is not at all happy with the council's plans for new housing at "Chase Park" and Crews Hill. He wants new housing to be (a) near stations - Oakwood and Cockfosters - so much more to the west than the council is proposing, and (b) much denser than is proposed for Chase Park. Otherwise the developments will not be sustainable in terms of transport. As revealed in a document submitted by TfL, the Mayor want the first new housing to be built further west, within 15 minutes walk of either of the stations, including part of Trent Park (compensated by a new extension of Trent Park eastwards).
It sounds like the Mayor/TfL would support development of Chase Park further eastwards at a later stage and then only with much denser development, to allow sufficient local infrastructure and new bus services so that the new housing doesn't just generate large amounts of new car traffic. The council's expectations that TfL will lay on new bus services for Chase Park and Crews Hill (set out by them in one of the papers submitted to the enquiry) are clearly unrealistic at the proposed housing density.
If the council persists with its current plans for Chase Park, then the Mayor/TfL will completely drop their support for building on green belt. They think that building at the lower densities the council wants would squander the opportunities provided by this land.
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Examination in public of Enfield Local Plan begins
PGC Webmaster
24 Jan 2025 16:02 7307
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James Cracknell reports on Thursday's second session of the examination in public of the Enfield Local Plan.
Council admits it won’t be able to meet London Plan housing target for Enfield
His report on the first day of the hearings:
Khan set to support new housing on London’s Green Belt for first time, inquiry hears
You can watch recordings of sessions that have already been held and watch new sessions live by clicking on the YouTube links . (The YouTube videos start around ten minutes before the beginning of the first session of the day and fill in the gap with "elevator music", so just jump forward until you find the actual start of the session.)
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Examination in public of Enfield Local Plan begins
Basil Clarke
29 Jan 2025 23:43 7308
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This Thursday is the last of six days of hearings for the first stage of the Examination in Public of the Enfield Local Plan - with the possibility that it might spill over into Friday morning.
I've listened to quite a bit of the proceedings via YouTube, and I assume that the recordings will remain online for some time. Inevitably, there are some boring moments, but overall I've found it interesting and not too difficult to follow.
The most interesting topic for me, and do doubt for many others, is the question of the council's desire to build housing on large areas of Green Belt at "Chase Park" and Crews Hill (in return for which the council allegedly stands to gain some £800 million), which has raised the hackles of many groups and societies across the borough.
The layout of the room used for the hearings reflects this divergence of views very well. There are two rows of tables facing one another across the room and Inspector sits at one end at 90 degrees. To his left are people representing the council and other organisations (eg housebuilders) that are more or less aligned with the council's point of view on this issue.
On his right are a brave collection of representatives of organisations such as the Enfield Society, Enfield RoadWatch, Better Homes Enfield, opposition Conservative councillors etc. They have been developing their arguments in their own time and at their own expense, but are remarkably good at getting across counterarguments to the lines taken by the opposite table.
On the green belt issues, the initial assumption (mine anyway) was that there would be two clearly divided sides. However, this has not turned out to be the case. The cat among the pigeons has been the line taken by the representatives of the Mayor of London/Greater London Assembly/Transport for London.
Not so long ago the Mayor was clearly indicating that he was dead against any large-scale construction on the green belt, so the people to the Inspector's left most likely expected support from him and his representatives at the hearings. But this has not been forthcoming. Having been told by the government that London needs much faster housebuilding than the Mayor was envisaging, Sadiq Khan is now saying that housebuilding on the green belt will be necessary. As a consequence, his line on Enfield's green belt plans has changed. He still opposes LBE's proposals - but now not because building on the green belt is out, but because the homes would be too far from public transport and the construction density would be too low, "squandering" the potential of the sites that are to be built on. The Mayor now wants housing within fifteen minutes walk of Oakwood and Cockfosters stations, some of it on part of Trent Park (with Trent Park being extended eastwards in compensation).
This is a highly simplified account of this debate. No doubt in due course it will be written up more clearly and in more detail by the Enfield Society, Better Homes Enfield, Enfield RoadWatch or Enfield Dispatch. For what it's worth, my money is currently on the Inspector insisting on Chase Park and Crews Hill being removed from the proposals pending a review of the whole of the London green belt, and the council being told to do a more thorough search for housebuilding opportunities within the borough's existing urban footprint. But the Inspector is playing his cards close to his chest, as indeed one would expect, so who knows?
For a much more detailed and accurate exposition of the Mayor's view, read this document which was added to the plan documentation earlier this week.
Turning to another hot topic, on the basis of things said on Wednesday, I think that the examination process might well put paid to the council's plan to hand over a big chunk of green belt at Whitewebbs to a large foreign-owned "corporation", ie Tottenham Hotspur.
Finally, in addition to following Enfield Dispatch reports, I recommend reading an item about the Enfield Local Plan on the On London website.
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Examination in public of Enfield Local Plan begins
PGC Webmaster
01 Feb 2025 18:57 7311
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The Enfield Society have published reports about the Enfield Local Plan hearings at the Civic Centre.
Week 1 report
Week 2 report
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Examination in public of Enfield Local Plan begins
Neil Littman
06 Feb 2025 09:34 7314
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