Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Hornsey waterworks - threatened by development - save land for nature
The Hornsey waterworks site at the eastern end of Alexandra Park includes the open reservoirs and an area of hard standing that was formerly four filter beds. It is designated Metropolitan Open Land.
When the filter beds were operational they provided habitat for a lot of insects, which in turn supported the House Martins that nested along the houses facing the Park; and the many bats that roosted in the park or in the New River tunnel off Station Road.
Haringey’s Wood Green Area Action Plan proposes that the filter bed area should be designated for a medium rise housing development for 304 units. Thames Water – which owns the site - has previously argued that the MOL designation should be revoked for this area.
Friends of the Earth think that if the filter beds are going to lose MOL status and be designated for development, then at least 50% should be set aside to restore the rich habitat it used to be, to compensate in part for the impact on visual amenity caused by building housing several storeys high on the remainder of the site.
You can help by responding to Haringey’s consultation at localplan@haringey.gov.uk
- please use your own words but include the point that this is open land, and any development should be compensated for by high quality habitat creation within the site, and that shallow water habitats could provide the richness that used to exit here.
You can see more of the proposals in the main document here http://www.haringey.gov.uk/sites/haringeygovuk/files/aap_med_res_16... - the Hornsey Filter Beds site is discussed in WG SA25 on p161.
It says “Development will need to be consistent with green belt policy, i.e. it should not have a greater impact on the openness of the Green Belt and the purpose of including land within it than the existing development “ (Para 89 of NPPF).
It is hard to see how building medium-rise housing on what is currently open or low-rise will not have a greater impact on the openness of the Green Belt.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Konrad B on
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Do we really have a housing shortage? If you go along Green Lanes or Tottenham Lane at Crouch End at night what do you see shops and above them dark empty flats - unoccupied. If you go up to Manor House, the Berkley Skyline tower block (photo attached) has been completed for over a year - and its at least 90% (probably 95%) empty. Sold to Hong Kong property investors?
So why is this relevant? Behind the filter beds to the east is the East Coast main line railway tracks. These tracks are higher than the filter beds and the park to the west and so form a barrier between the park and the urban development of Wood Green to the east. If one is in Alexandra Park down on what used to be the race course it is quite nice not to see the houses etc. to the east, there is an impression of being in the countryside. Row upon row of flats on the filter beds will completely destroy this.
So, before we start building even more homes lets fill the empty ones we already have.
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Permalink Reply by Ceri on
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Responded this morning. Any reduction of Metropolitan Open Land is of concern.
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Many thanks to Quentin Given for bringing this to residents' attention.
Whilst the site may be brownfield/previously developed land, the National Planning Policy Framework has a presumption against developing sites of high environmental value. Section 111 states: Planning policies and decisions should encourage the effective use of land by re-using land that has been previously developed (brownfield land), provided that it is not of high environmental value.
The fact that Haringey has apparently failed to fulfil its statutory duty to protect and enhance this site's nature conservation value should not be used as an argument in favour of development. Savill's submission to the 2015 Site Allocation consultation, about infrastructure and flooding concerns, seems to have been one reason for the site's removal from Haringey's Site Allocations document and are plainly an added concern.
The site is also part of the ecological corridor which runs along the railway through the borough.
MOL is part of the wider London infrastructure. Its designation can only be revoked after consultation by Haringey with the Mayor and with adjoining authorities. Has Haringey provided any evidence of this?
London Plan 7.56 states: Appropriate development [on MOL] should be limited to small scale structures to support outdoor open space uses and minimise any adverse impact on the openness of MOL
Planners can always make expedient arguments in favour of developing individual sites which have nature conservation value, and planning committees can often be persuaded to postpone protection of nature conservation until the next planning application, and so on to the next.
Beware also of the weasel word 'mitigation', which can mean anything that it suits developers and planning officers to make it mean.
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