Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Mayor of London identifies "dormant" public land in Harringay but...
...the only trouble is these sites are far from dormant!
Evening Standard journalist, Richard Godwin, who is also a Harringay resident, highlighted in his column this week that the mayor's office has published an interactive map of "underexploited" public land. 40,000 sites have been identified of which Boris says,
“[For] far too long, land owned by public bodies has lain dormant or [been] sold off with no benefit to the capital. [We] must build on the work done at City Hall in releasing land for development.”
However, when Richard looked closely at the areas he discovered that this "underexploited" dormant land is far from asleep but is in fact our local primary schools, Ducketts Common, Fairland Park, my beloved Railway Fields (over my dead body Boris), the Kurdish centre and various bits of Chestnuts Park to name but a few!
Public land is under scrutiny like never before - our parks, libraries, nature reserves, even it seems our schools are not safe from the developers beady eyes.
Tags for Forum Posts: public land
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Gillian on
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In November Haringey announced a new development plan working with 'private sector partners' to build houses on regeneration sites and 'commercial land'.
Building houses is a good thing of course, but if any of these 'dormant' sites is designated as 'commercial use,' they could become part of the scheme. The Council have promised to exclude community centres, such as Hornsey Vale Community Centre; yet the centre also appears on the map, and its existing use is listed as commercial.
Best to be vigilant I feel.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Best to be vigilant and as well informed as possible and oppositional now. In my experience, once the policies and 'masterplans' have been accepted and agreed, objections to individual applications several years down the line can fall on the basis that: 'Well it's policy" and "It's in the masterplan". So both residents and elected councillors who want to object may be advised on the lack of "material" planning considerations on which to base objections and to resist subsequent appeals.
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Once again, let's remember the Vogon Constructor Fleet. Coming soon to a neighbourhood near you and me.
"... the Vogons turned on their PA again. It said:‘There’s no point acting all surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display in your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for fifty of your Earth years, so you’ve had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it’s far too late to start making a fuss about it now.’
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Permalink Reply by Mr Wodjacallim on
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I could not agree more. There is a lot of land that it is not used to best effect.
I have approached Thames Water about the land along the banks of the New River to see if it can be prompted to participate in transforming it. I am awaiting a reply which I hope will be favourable.
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I think you'll find Thames Water have their hands tied on that one. I can't remember where I read it but the width of the bank area is too narrow to allow safe public access without barriers at the water's edge and 24 hour CCTV and the costs associated with that, shoring up the banks to take additional weight and the required public liability insurance would be untenable.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Ther was a proposal to open the New River walk along the Ladder Roads (if that's the bit you're thinking about) something like 10 years ago, maybe even further back. It would have entailed having gates at each intersection, unlocking them in the morning and then locking them again at night. Also there was an issue with the bank being so narrow in some places that two people couldn't pass each other. Swans have nested and reared signets for many years along the river and there were worries about the impact on them and other wildlife. The idea didn't get very far.
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Yes that's what I was thinking of, thanks Michael.
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Come to think of it, can you imagine what the cost of cleaning up all the dog muck would be...
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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The land that our terraced houses sit upon is underutilised. If everyone could agree then a terrace could be demolished, rebuilt denser and you could have the same amount of space as now but with some flats above and maybe a bit less garden. It would all look completely tasteful of course and not at all out of keeping with the surrounding Victorian terraces. I mean, just look at the wonders Paul Simon can work.
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Why be so lateral, John? Think inside the box. There are oodles of ways developers can use existing buildings and their "footprint" far more intensively.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7ahIGLNNwo
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Permalink Reply by Junior Bennett on
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Wow...just, wow.
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