Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
The future of Wood Green
TOMORROW (Monday) night the Council Regulatory Committee meets to consider the future of Wood Green.
The Council paper has the snappy title, Wood Green Investment Framework & Area Action Plan: Broad Options for Regulation 18 Consultation. Of the four options listed for Wood Green's future, the Council favours Option 4 (below):
- High Street Rejuvenation
- Residential Led Town Centre
- Comprehensive Redevelopment
- Complete Transformation*
* This option promotes a complete transformation of the town centre through significant interventions aimed at unlocking the development potential of the wider town centre area through radical changes in the layout of existing urban blocks. It promotes shifting the heart of the town centre further down High Road to benefit from a new Crossrail 2 station that will be located below a new public square in the vicinity of the current library, at the heart of the new town centre. Around this square taller buildings would be located while the depth of both sides of the High Road would expand to provide larger retail floorplates with greater potential for residential above. …
For those interested, more information can be found here.
CDC
Haringey Councillor
Liberal Democrat Party
Member of the Regulatory Committee
Tags for Forum Posts: complete transformation, regulatory committee, wood green, wood green spd
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
-
I have a friend who lived on Blackboy Lane right opposite a speed table. The endless thump of the 341 bus and heavy vehicles drove him to distraction and he eventually felt he had no option but to move even though he loved the flat. When you sat in his living room stuff on his coffee table actually rattled from the vibration.
-
Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
-
Hugh, following your comment about traffic displacement yesterday, I passed it on as a point last night. Given the size of the more dramatic proposals, there was in my view, not enough attention given to the impact on all the surrounding areas.
Despite much critical comment by most Committee members, the four options go to Cabinet for approval in just 10 days. There was particular concern about the brevity of the six week consultation.
The four options are largely predicated on different outcomes for Crossrail 2: but the public consultation for that does not even close until (this) Friday.
There seems to be undue haste about these proposals, parts of which seem to over reach.
-
-
To be clear Clive, these are four options to start consulting on, not to actually put spades in the ground. I agree that six weeks is not anywhere near long enough to consult on a proposal of this magnitude.
-
-
Yes, although the planning department/Council prefers one of the four ('Complete Transformation'). That one claims to look out as far as 20-30 years.
One of the points I made was that, while we are in the midst of rapid change of patterns of shopping (internet, home-delivery) we need to be careful not to over-emphasise WG as a bricks & mortar shopping destination, because the retail landscape is likely to look quite different in 30 years time. The need for jobs and housing will endure.
-
Permalink Reply by Omotn on
-
Presumably the outcome of the meeting was that the four options will be put to Cabinet on 19th and the 6 week consultation will follow shortly thereafter.
There do seem to be a number of difficulties with this approach.
The preferred option is predicated on getting TfL to change its mind about the route of Crossrail 2.
When has a Haringey consultation ever resulted in anything but the preferred option?
The impact on surrounding areas is paid lip service only. All the pre-existing consultation seems to have taken place in Wood Green only. I don't believe I received one of the 18,000 flyers, nor have I been approached in person.
Hugh makes the point about the Wood Green by-pass.
Dropping Turnpike Lane from the plans would deny Harringay, Crouch End and Muswell Hill residents easy access to Crossrail 2 either on foot or by bus.
Meanwhile other areas also in need of regeneration/maintenance over the next 20 - 30 years are plundered for cash to fund this (I'm thinking of the ill-advised badly handled disposal of Hornsey Town Hall) as Haringey converts itself from local council into property developer/estate agents (see Sell Off Stampede).
This feels to me like a strategy being born out of a series of tactics.
-
-
Presumably the outcome of the meeting was that the four options will be put to Cabinet on 19th and the 6 week consultation will follow shortly thereafter
Yes, that's my reading and I also read, undue haste. TfL probably won't make a decision about the route for some while—possibly years—during which time the Council may be expected to lobby for their favoured WG redevelopment option (No.4).
TfL won't necessarily chose the option favoured by LBH. In that case, much time and effort will have been wasted. In any event, the Consultation on the four options looks premature to me.
The reason for the haste and brevity of the Consultation was said to be in order to be clear of the period of purdah ahead of the Mayoral and GLA elections (5 May). Of course, it could be held afterwards.
-
-
As the ultimate decision on where the station sits will be down to whoever ends up funding the lions share. I can't imagine the commercial success of Wood Green will be that high on the list of priorities. Cost, speed and effectiveness (insofar as how well it connects to other transport) will be much more of a driver. Connecting at Alexandra Palace gives easy access to both the Hertford and Welwyn Garden City branches.
-
-
Councils have very little say in transport infrastructure projects like this. The Sectretary of State will be the one giving the thumbs up (or down). If each of the local authorities Crossrail 2 passed through was the ultimate decision maker it would be a very interesting route indeed! I think Crossrail 2 is authorised by act of Parliament anyway.
-
-
Sorry, that should read "will be authorised by act of Parliament". The Crossrail Act of 2008 says
9 Extinguishment of rights of statutory undertakers etc.
(1)Sections 271 to 273 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (c. 8) (extinguishment of rights of statutory undertakers etc.) shall apply in relation to land held by the Secretary of State as being land which is required for or in connection with the works authorised by this Act as they apply in relation to land acquired or appropriated as mentioned in section 271(1) of that Act.
In other words, the company set up to deliver Crossrail is largely exempt from planning and other local authority permissions. In effect they can do what they like as long as the Secretary of State is happy. I would imagine the Crossrail 2 act will have a similar provision. -
-
-
Yes; I think the new Mayor (after 5 May) may have a hand in the decision too. TfL need to work out what's best in the long run for London as a whole, rather than necessarily accede to what a local authority might want, taking a shorter, narrower view.
-
-
Permalink Reply by Alice Lemaitre on
-
At the consultation in Turnpike Lane we asked what the decision for this part would be based on and the information person said it would be based on meeting housing needs . Hence presumably the quick and not yet available housing plans for WG. It makes it impossible in my view that the Wood Green option could be taken into account as they have not provided the new AAP. The Crossrail consultation taken on facts alone, during and at the end of the consultation, surely excludes the option for WG presented by the council without them also providing substantial elements for comparison??
-
Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
-
Cost, speed and effectiveness (insofar as how well it connects to other transport) will be much more of a driver. Connecting at Alexandra Palace gives easy access to both the Hertford and Welwyn Garden City branches.
Maybe, but only seen from a N4 N8 N11 N22 point of view.
This branch of CR2 is in my opinion, not a good investment for London as a whole. (Set out by me on another thread). The choice of prime sites to plant stations is also being pushed to get as much profit as possible out of the developments. Local authorities see a new line/station as a way of getting higher value local development, at the price of having 7-10 years of building work disruption, as well as blight before work starts.
Connect the CR2 Branch up to the Overground at Dalston and you'd have me on board. But I'm not the only one who thinks the present plan is a dog's dinner. Do you follow transport forums and the railway press?
- ‹ Previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- Next ›
© 2025 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
