WALTHAMSTOW: Residents win development battle (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

WALTHAMSTOW: Residents win development battle

12:20am Wednesday 14th April 2010 in Your Local Areas By Carl Brown

AN application to build a massive housing development has been refused by the planning commitee – to the delight of residents who packed into the town hall council chamber.

Hadley Homes had applied for permission to build 562 homes, four shops, a restaurant, a medical centre, a creche and an underground car park on land at Billet Works, the Kimberley Industrial Estate and Tyco Works, off Billet Road, Walthamstow.

Residents, particularly those living in nearby Kimberley Road, voiced concerns about the impact on parking and the height and scale of the development which would be seven storeys high in places.

Ann Carter, of nearby Kimberley Road, said: “Where is the consideration for the residents of Kimberley Road? the increase in traffic and air and noise pollution will affect our quality of life.”

Residents were also concerned about the potential for crime and anti-social behaviour in the proposed 361-space underground car park, a concern shared by the Met Police crime prevention adviser.

Speaking during the committee meeting on Tuesday, Cllr Marie Pye, cabinet member for housing, said she was concerned that only 32 per cent of the units in the development would have been affordable housing, when the council requires 40 per cent.

She also said that Hadley Homes had failed to form a partnership with a housing association.

Cllr Pye said: “At this stage I have no confidence affordable housing can be delivered.”

Cllr James O'Rourke, of the planning committee, said he was concerned that there was no guarantee of a commitment from the primary care trust to support a health centre, while several councillors voiced concern about the potential strain on the borough's already over-stretched local schools.

The scheme would also have broken the council's policy on density, at 539 units per hectare.

Andrew Southern, Hadley Homes property director, said both the Greater London Authority and the Commission for the Architecture and the Built Environment supported the scheme.

But councillors unanimously rejected the officers' recommendation to pass the scheme subject to conditions including a payment of £2.5m for improvements to the local area.

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