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Southgate Green Association
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Local Heritage Project

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The London Borough of Enfield, in association with the National Lottery Heritage Fund, are seeking project ideas from across the Borough.
They are particularly keen to hear from people or groups who have not applied for Lottery funding previously.
LBE is running a special training event on Thursday 30th January at the Dugdale Centre starting at 6pm to help people with their project ideas and bid submissions.
Funding is available for projects from £5000 upwards.

 

Southgate Green Association will be submitting an application and we  are preparing a list of possible projects for consideration and we are very keen to hear from SGA members who may have ideas of their own.
Currently, our list includes:
Reinstating the Duchess Pond on The Green
Replacing the steel posts and rails around the Village Stocks on The Green
Installing a public notice board on Cannon Hill to promote local events and community group notices

Please let us know if you have any ideas that you would like us to put forward. !

ENFIELD COUNCIL PLANS AFFECTING ALL RESIDENTIAL ROADS IN THE FOX LANE AREA (QUIETER/LOW TRAFFIC NEIGHBOURHOOD SCHEME) DEADLINE FOR COMMENTS THIS SUNDAY 16 NOVEMBER

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The FLDRA committee want to encourage all residents in this area to read the plans on the Enfield website letstalk.enfield.gov.uk/foxlaneQN and make their response through the online survey by SUNDAY 16 NOVEMBER which is the deadline for comments at this Stage 3 of the overall consultation.

Many of you will have attended the exhibition at the former Starbucks shop on Tuesday but many others will not have been free to attend or may not have received the drop through letter boxes to the streets within the FLDRA area. We are aware that residents living on the main roads . ie, Aldermans Hill, Cannon Hill, High Street, Bourne Hill and Green Lanes did not receive any notification of the exhibition and they need the opportunity to give their views as well.

Please look at the map shown on the website in detail as it significantly affects all roads within the FLDRA area  and those outside it and urge any neighbours to make their views known.

Fox_lane_QN_boards_with_plan

Latest on Southgate Office Village

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As you will see below, the meeting re Southgate Office Village has been deferred.  We will circulate details of the meeting when it is announced.

Message from Councillor Derek Levy

PLANNING PANEL ….. 21ST NOVEMBER 2019   ……. POSTPONED

 

Acting on the advice of the Council’s Director of Law and Governance, and having also discussed the matter towards the end of this week also with senior officers in the Planning Department, it has become necessary to defer this meeting until the New Year.

 

In addition to the many local sensitivities and concerns over the Southgate Office Village redevelopment proposals, it has now become subject to a number of additional and specific political sensitivities which brings the whole matter into the orbit of the Purdah period presaging the upcoming General Election. To have proceeded with the meeting in this climate, with all of the restrictions that purdah brings, would have devalued and diluted the whole raison d’etre of convening such a meeting. And that is too big a price to pay.

 

The likelihood currently is that this all-important and pivotal Planning Panel should now take place during week two or three of January 2020 – more probably week 3. A potential date has already been identified but a suitable venue capable of accommodating the large numbers of people anticipated has not yet been secured.

 

The additional knock-on impact of this is that the matter could and will not be determined by Planning Committee until the mid-March meeting at the earliest given everything that needs to be done to absorb and accommodate matters arising from the Planning Panel – and both considered and acted upon – by the scheme proponents and Planning Officers between the Panel and the Committee

 

Furthermore, given the scale, significance and the immense interest in the scheme, it is felt that the item should be dealt more comprehensively and as part of a single item committee Agenda, which opens up the possibility of an early April meeting for this very purpose.

 

Put simply, consider this as the pause button having been applied. Although there is now an unforeseen two month gap between the deferred and proposed Planning Panel dates, this doesn’t mean that significant time has been bought. The issues remain the same; the Officers’ analysis would not materially differ from that which they would have brought forward on 21st November, and the reference points for debate, discussion, and questions have not changed.

 

I am holding to my previous advice that drip feeding members of the Planning Committee remains a good and purposeful idea. It is just that the time shift allows for more of a realistic drip than a overflow of submissions, and definitely not a torrent. It buys you more time to gather your thoughts and pace your lobbying needs more sensibly.

 

Above all, it allows you all to take a bit of a break yourselves from devoting so much of your thinking (and worry/anxiety) time to what must have felt like an all-consuming issue in recent months. So, apart from the drip drip drip approach, allow yourselves to take a deep breath, relax a while, concentrate of the impending seasonal period and the many other aspects of your lives. Essentially, nothing much or nothing new or significant is likely to happen in the intervening two months.

 

Today is 17 days shy of what would have been the Planning Panel. I suggest that all of us release the handbrake / pause button on the Mon 6th Jan 2020 (my birthday, by the way; a  milestone one at that) and pick things up again with the same amount of run-up to the revised Planning Panel date.

 

It is my understanding that Andy Higham from the Planning Team at the Council is intending, indeed is obliged, to formally write to many if not all of you (and may already have done so) as well as to all those who have submitted comments so far, and also to other key stakeholders and interested parties in this matter.

 

The postponement, I’m afraid, is unavoidable. I don’t know whether this will come to you as welcome relief or an immense frustration. The fact is that that it really is unavoidable. My advice to you therefore is to use the additional time you now have at your disposal as wisely, sensibly, and beneficially as each of you in your own way can; and come back to this refreshed, replenished, revitalised, and reinvigorated in the very early New Year

 

Kind regards; and may I be the very first person to offer you, if somewhat pre-emptively, Seasons Greetings!

Councillor Derek Levy

Update on Southgate Office Village

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From Cllr Derek Levy:

Dear All –

 

Since I last wrote to you at the back end of July, the Planning Team has spent an extensive amount of time poring through the fine detail of the SOV application, reviewing this against policy, and taking into account the significant objections and more general comments raised not just by those of you who had corresponded via me directly, but also the many others who went directly to Officers or used the Planning Portal – when it worked, that is.

 

In addition, and as part of the entire robust assessment process, there have been regular, extensive, and ongoing discussions/negotiations with the developer by Panning Officers to reflect the concerns that Officers and residents both would have had with the scheme as it existed at the time. This has resulted in a variety of detailed modifications to the scheme, with revised drawings coming forward which themselves now need to be considered.

 

I am not going to comment or speculate as to how these will be received by local residents and stakeholders, and/or how acceptable they will be deemed by you; indeed even the three Councillors have yet to see these in detail, as they weren’t available to us when we held our review meeting with the lead Officers last Thursday afternoon. But I am here to share with you what happens next:

 

1: The Officers were in the process last week, and have been since, in reviewing the latest iteration of the scheme. As I said last time, these things are always a moveable feast, and can be so right up to the point at which the final version of a proposed scheme is brought to Planning Committee.

 

2: It was the intention the that of all goes well, and there are no significant interruptions, they would hope to be in a position by this time next week, to put the scheme out to as second and further consultation.

 

3. There is no statutory need to do so, but I insisted that given the scale, scope, extent, and degree of local interest in the scheme, and in the interests of openness and transparency, such a consultation should be undertaken to ensure residents are fully engaged in the process.

 

4: The consultation will last for three weeks, just like in June/July and as would be the case were this to be a statutory requirement. In addition, I also insisted (and the Officers agreed) that letters should and will go to precisely the same addresses as were consulted last time – and which itself, again at my/our insistence, took in a more extensive radius that is laid out in policy.

 

5: I further asked that some simple but clear narrative should accompany the consultation papers to explain what are the key changes, how these were arrived at, and why, in order to give a context beyond the very basic nature of the scheme in what will be its present form.

 

6: It is impossible, for all sorts of reasons to be precise on timing, but it is currently anticipated that the Application could well be considered and determined at the mid-January Planning Committee. But even that is conditional upon what happens between then and now.

 

7: This means the role of the Planning PANEL becomes even more critical. It will  always be a pivotal moment. As you know, I established at the outset and insisted that there really must be a Planning Panel in this case. This is the pivotal public meeting at which the widest possible views can be canvased and expressed. I won’t repeat here the nature of a Planning Panel, but it my from belief that from a resident perspective, this session is far more important to you and for you than the Committee meeting itself (where you are heavily time and otherwise constrained). This was spelt out at length in my previous update.

 

8: If consultation letters do go out at the back end of next week and early next,  this will take things to the end of October. After that, all the feedback needs to be gathered and assessed, alongside the ongoing assessment of the scheme, whilst negotiations with the developer and other meetings between Officers and key stakeholders need to be factored in.

 

9: Should this time frame play out, all the indications are that the Planning Panel will be convened between the middle and end of November. An indicative date has been pencilled in, but it would be imprudent for me to share that now because there are still so many variables that cold impact upon that, and occasion a further push back in the timetable.

 

10: In normal circumstances, one would seek to have a 6-8 week period between Panel and Committee in order for all parties to assimilate, process, accommodate, and make changes to proposals and reports in readiness for final presentation to and discussion at the Committee, whenever that should occur.

 

11: In summary, indicatively, and possibly still subject to change – but nothing will happen sooner, and could only become later still:-

 

  • 2nd Consultation ….. the last three weeks of October
  • Planning Panel  ….  No earlier than 18th November
  • Planning Committee  ….  Mid-January 2020

 

As soon as I am confident that Officers have a clearer picture that all is going to the currently intended schedule, I shall get back in touch with you to confirm the date for the Planning Panel, and then share with you some advice as how best to approach that meeting to ensure that all the key concerns you have with the expressed and fully articulated, with clarity on each of the issues and with the minimum of duplication and repetition.  After all, the general nature of the objections are already more than well known, and overegging the obvious pudding will serve no useful purpose.

 

It will be about seizing the moment, proper and organised mobilisation of voices, and making the most of the opportunity afforded to you by the occasion – at which you will be in direct dialogue with the Applicant, their professional advisers (architects and designers etc), some members of the Planning Committee (who need to be on listening mode to avoid any hints of predetermination) and of course the Officers from the Planning Authority who will be able to make observational and policy related comments on the night, and minute the entre proceedings.

 

I have known Planning Panels lead to significant last minute and often critical changes in Applications, which is why I place such faith in them as being a major forum for residents and their advocates to influence opinion and make a difference.

 

Kind regards

 

 

Councillor Derek Levy

LB Enfield: Southgate Ward

Walker School

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It was reported at the AGM that the school was no longer fit for purpose and would be demolished during the summer holidays.  Pupils would be accommodated in temporary buildings for approximately a year, until building work was completed.  Pupils numbers would not change.

The school had been awarded academy status and would in future be funded by national government rather than local government.  Because of this change LBE would no longer pay rent and insurance for the Walker car park, which was therefore likely to close.  Concern was expressed atthe AGM about the potential traffic problems created by school construction vehicles and by on-street parking by teachers.

Arnos Grove and Cockfosters tube station car park

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Another development that might not be welcome to members is TfL’s plan to build on both car parks at Arnos Grove tube station and on Cockfosters car parks.  A briefing on the Arnos Grove proposal will take place in Bowes Road Library, Bowes Road, on Wednesday June 19th from 3.30pm.  A briefing on the Cockfosters proposal will take place in Church House, 1B Chalk Lane on Tuesday June 18th from 3.30.  Both meetings are open to all.

Planning application for the redevelopment of Southgate Office Village

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Members should be aware of the proposed Southgate Village development on Chase Road next to the Hart pub backing onto Park Road and the railway line by M&S. This is a plan to rebuild Southgate Office Village as a mixed office and housing development, with several tall buildings, including a 17-storey tower.

The tower blocks would be visible for miles around.  The development would be likely to attract a transient renting population rather than families.  It would create a precedent for similar developments on other nearby sites such as Marks and Spencer.

Southgate District Civic Trust will be holding a public consultation day on June 22nd, 9.30 to 3pm at St Andrew’s Church and anyone interested is invited to attend.  Following this meeting, Civic Voice will produce a planning brief to represent the community’s view on the development.

Southgate District Civic Trust flyer_SOV_2019_A5