A HOUSING development could get the go ahead despite concerns for schoolchildren’s safety.

Developer Taylor Wimpey hopes Redbridge Council approves their plan for 68 homes on the disused Dairycrest site in Chigwell Road, South Woodford next week.

But residents on nearby roads have written to object to the local authority as they believe the expected increase in traffic would heighten the safety risk to local schoolchildren attending Oakdale Junior School in Oakdale Road.

And the school itself has objected to the proposal as it feels the buildings, which reach a maximum height of five storeys, are too close to its playing fields, and children would be in danger from objects falling from the balconies.

The development would comprise 58 flats, four large flats and six houses with gardens. It would also provide 50 car park spaces and 135 spaces for bicycles.

Although nearby residents do not approve of the plan themselves.

Bill Layzell-Smith, 74, of Southview Drive, said: “The empty site has been an eyesore for a number of years now but I’m not sure 68 flats is the answer. What about a swimming pool for Redbridge?

“It’s surprising that we have only one swimming pool in the borough and even that’s had some problems.”

Melvyn Marks, 56, of Peel Close, said: “We don’t want this to turn into a place that will downgrade the area. I don’t really have a problem with the plans but there’s the issue of whether this will be all, or could there be more built?”

And the council has recommended its councillors to approve the proposal next week, despite the development breaching guidelines on how many homes it plans to build.

Lying close to the South Woodford “district centre”, the proposed build should have a ratio of no more than 120 rooms per hectare, yet it surpasses this by 28 rooms, constituting overdevelopment.

However, as the Guardian reported on February 15, a planning application may have left Wanstead and Woodford vulnerable to overdevelopment.

A plan to build flats was rejected by the council four times before the Planning Inspectorate, based in Bristol, said the proposal did not constitute overdevelopment because the road was “close to” a designated town centre, where a higher density of homes is permitted than in suburban areas.

Jackie Phillips, of Granville Road, wrote to the council to say: “There are not enough doctors, dentists, [or] schools for the people that already live in the area.

“There are only 50 car parking places, but have 68 flats/houses being built, which is not enough. This would mean even more people parking in Granville Road.”

The decision will be made by the Regulatory Committee at the town hall in High Road, Ilford, on Thursday, February 23 at 7.15pm.

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