StAGS calls on Haringey Council to impose robust conditions on St Ann's New Neighbourhood planning application

As the world waits for global progress on Climate Emergency at COP27, Friends of St Ann’s Green Spaces are focusing on the regional and local scale. 

We call for an urgent revision of St Ann’s New Neighbourhood development to address local, regional and national Climate Emergency, health, traffic and air quality policies. Hundreds of people have put their objections on the planning website, and over a thousand have signed StAGS petition.

We urge the Greater London Authority (the current owners of St Ann’s development site), and Haringey Council's Planning Committee to listen to local concerns, and to place robust conditions on planning permission at St Ann’s, including:    

1. Keep more of the tree canopy to reduce the adverse health impacts of
   Climate Emergency

Retain as many existing mature trees, hedgerow and tree groups as possible to reduce the adverse health effects of higher temperatures and air pollution. Keep the trees and hedgerow in new build gardens along the shared walls with Warwick Gardens and St Ann’s Road and ensure that new residents maintain them.

2. Make St Ann’s New Neighbourhood a car-free development

Keep existing trees rather than removing them to make way for 106 new parking spaces. Support the health of local residents and users of the Hospital by making walking and cycling easier and reducing air pollution from local traffic congestion.

3. Sustain local biodiversity

Retain existing tree and hedgerow corridors so that precious wildlife can travel from the railway line woodland, across the site and into our local area: we welcome the new north-south corridor. Carry out ecology surveys and ensure that contractors protect rare plant, insect and animal species. Review plans for new build green roofs, and ensure that they are maintained and remain effective for increasing long-term biodiversity.

4. Recognise the value and rarity of many existing trees onsite and protect them

Ensure that the railway woodland Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation is protected for the long term and accessible for  local people. Add genuine Tree Protection Orders (TPO’s) on all trees in the Bevan Guide and others to be identified with StAGS.

5. Apply the emerging policy in the Tree and Woodland Plan

With Haringey Friends of Parks Forum, we call on Haringey Council to apply its emerging policies in the Tree and Woodland Plan before its April 2023 launch. Part of the new Parks and Green Spaces Strategy and four years in the making, this long-overdue Tree and Woodland Plan should apply to St Ann’s New Neighbourhood development. In public consultation until 27 November, it includes provision for enacting and enforcing several of our key points in the context of future developments.

We endorse the emphasis of this Local Plan on the significance of tree canopy for mitigating the adverse health effects of high temperature:

‘The Haringey Climate Risk Map shows those parts of the borough most at risk from the impacts of climate change. There is an uncanny relationship with those areas with the lowest tree canopy cover in the borough.’ (Tree and Woodland Plan, Key Issues and Challenges.)

According to the canopy cover chart (source GLA 2018), St Ann’s ward has one of the lowest tree canopy figures: 18.7% as opposed to Crouch End at 32.9%, for example.  This is even before the planned tree and canopy losses.
 
If you’re concerned about the price of tree and canopy loss and its connection with the effects of Climate Emergency in Haringey, it’s not too late to add your comments on the Council planning website here