Harringay online

Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

There's a major new development proposed for an 'unused' area bordering the railway lines at Seven Sisters and South Tottenham.

HGY/2012/2241

Land at Plevna Crescent and Ermine Road N15      

“Proposal:  Erection of 158 residential (1-3 bedroom) flats and terraced housing (3 bedroom), together with the regeneration and enhancement of an existing ecological corridor, and landscaping scheme with associated parking and necessary infrastructure. Outline application with some matters reserved”.

It's called 'regeneration' which is odd.  'Enhancement' is worrying. I've often wondered how to get into the green space that you get glimpses of in walking along this end of Seven Sisters Road, behind Wickes, that you can see from the railway line. Now it seems it has been spotted as a prime development site.  The details on the planning portal are a bit skimpy and maybe it will be a super-sensitive gentle exercise in adding necessary housing. Maybe it won't. Those of you who see the green corridors along both the east-west and north-south railways, enjoy them while you can. 

As they include red squirrels in their illustrations of their knowledge of local wildlife, I am just a little concerned that eg trees with preservation orders on the site may be doomed.

Residents heard loud noises at dusk for several days before the bat survey took place, then funnily enough they only saw one bat.

It's that famous area on Google Maps with a plane parked on it.

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Tags for Forum Posts: N15, development, green corridor, plevna crescent, railway

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The national housing shortage is part-real but part-illusory - there are almost 800,000 empty houses in the UK. Until councils/governments put the effort into opening them up/taxing the hell out of people who sit on empty properties I think new houses are not the priority. Secondly, as a way out of recession, it's bonkers, though I agree it's a fairly standard route. Much like road-building, though, it's simply creating worse problems further down the line. Another private housing bubble is all we can hope for. 

*Unless* it's social housing at heavily-regulated rents. But it won't be. Because nobody can subsidise the private sector that way, and if you can't do that, you won't get anywhere these days...

I really do think it's important to group dense and well built housing though as you suggest. The only place it's really sensible to do that in London though is Heathrow. If you shut the airport you could build half a million well connected spacious apartments there without needing to invest in public transport.

I agree about the desperate need to bring empty properties into use and think that a land tax should be levied also on developers with landbanks that have planning permission but are not being used.

But a lot of those 800,000 are in northern England so that won't solve the problem here in London.

I suspect this will be a shoddy development with few facilities - in which case I am opposed to it. But if it was a decent quality development by a reputable company, then I think that we need to build on as much brownfield sites as possible.

If everyone stopped replacing their gardens with decking and patios, we'd increase the actual  planted space in London hugely with all the air benefits that would bring.

Tottenham Marshes do have a lot more protection than brownfield sites- the Lee Valley Authority was created through an act of parliament so it can't just be built on at Haringey's request.

Yes, agree with a lot of that - and I think homeowners should be financially incentivised to 're-green' gardens too.

"Gate of Eden Ltd was incorporated on 21 Nov 2006. The company's status is active, with a team of 2 directors. Jechiel Smaya Weiser is Gate of Eden Ltd's sole shareholder. They have no known group companies. Gate of Eden Ltd have total assets of £0 plus total liabilities of £291,623. They owe £291,623 to creditors and are due £48,500 from trade debtors. Their book value is £-476, and the value of their shareholders' fund is £-476."

Ummmm..........

Registered address, 115 Craven Park Rd

Peasants.

The area at the back of the Wickes site, belonged to my Grandfather and he ran a business from there.

The Stonebridge Brook used to run along the back of that site. Has it been covered?

'Gate of Eden Ltd' is the company proposing this development. From their 2011 published accounts, they have a net debt of just under a quarter of a million pounds (-£243,123). They don't own the land, I guess it all belongs to Network Rail. I don't have the resources to go back through their accounts and see their history since being set up in 2006. Presuming that the LBH planning dept does have those resources, can we see more information on the planning portal please. 

Given the above, this looks like a speculative proposal. If they get planning permission it can be sold on and they make a massive profit, GoE doesn't have to carry on with the project. That would explain why the houses are so poorly designed, they are off-the-shelf patterns. Many many questions are coming up here for me.

Some valuable digging, Pam. And a good example of how a community website can be used to gather and share such information. (Supplementing what appears on the Council's "Planning Portal" i.e. website.)

The Council itself should be playing a part in this process and making reliable "hard" information available to residents. Although subject to the constraint that - in its planning function - it needs to be neutral. Local ward councillors are not so constrained - unless they sit on the Planning Committee.

Can I suggest that it might be valuable to have a contact person for anyone on this site who has some solid information about this development proposal; or is willing to take on part of the work of finding out.

One way to make planning issues more open is for people to agree to collaborate on the information gathering and sharing. This needn't necessarily mean agreement on outcomes. For instance, there may well be local residents who strongly support particular redevelopment plans. But making a judgement first needs having access to clear, accurate and understandable information.

In this spirit, I'd very much appreciate hearing from anyone who's interested in investigating the Council's/Spurs plans for the Love Lane Estate in North Tottenham.  After I and some other councillors raised the issue, a Leader's Conference was arranged. Such a conference is a device - one I've always thought dubious - to enable meetings of Labour councillors to get private briefings from council officers. (There have been a few exceptions where all councillors were invited.) As I've been awarded Freedom from the Labour Whip, I'm no longer invited to the Leader's Conference on the North Tottenham plans.

Our railway verges are important arteries for urban wildlife. Land at Plevna Crescent and Ermine Road is a node where wildlife can flourish and young humans can learn the importance of this biodiversity for the worlds future health. Part of the land could be protected as natural open-air infrastructure/parkland.

Many sites like this are being built on in London in an effort to meet the so called housing shortage, but they are not truly affordable as developers make more luxury flats. The hungry developers care for their short term wealth at a detriment to the future of the broader community. 

It is clear this site needs to be carefully considered. All too often councils cannot afford the appeal process and let the developers walk over them. The Council needs support from higher up the ladder to protect their decision if they do choose to protect the land.

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