WOODFORD BRIDGE: Concerns raised over housing plans (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

WOODFORD BRIDGE: Concerns raised over housing plans

12:31pm Monday 15th August 2011 in Redbridge News By Clare Hardy

CONCERNS are being voiced over plans to demolish historic farm buildings in green belt land and replace them with a housing estate.

Development Securities wants to build 28 houses in place of the farm buildings off Roding Lane North, next to the Elhap adventure playground in Woodford Bridge.

But Richard White, 61, who has lived in Roding Lane North all his life, is gathering objections to the plans.

He said: “We’re going to lose the historic buildings, which would be a tragedy for the community. They’re the only historic buildings we have now got in this road.

“There are some that go back to the 19th century.”

He added that he was concerned about the layout of the homes, which would mostly front onto a green off Roding Lane North.

“If they were building more houses along the road, (residents) would at least integrate with the existing community,” he added. “They want to build a little cocoon, using our road to whizz in and out.

“There will be traffic from the site – I estimate about 90 to 100 cars.”

He said he had objected when developers planned to build about 40 homes at the site a few years ago and he wants to start a petition against the latest plans.

Tom Mitchell, of Metropolitan Workshop, the architects behind the plans, defended the proposed layout of the housing estate.

“We’re limited to building within the area of the existing buildings,” he said. “The site is covered by storage containers that the (council) planners regard as being temporary, even though they have been there for 10 to 15 years.

“The site is being returned as much as it can be to green belt. Some of it will become a meadow.”

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