The proposal by Transport for London and Grainger plc to develop housing on the two car parks at Arnos Grove Underground station was the subject of a second “consultation” event 6/7 November 2019. (Similar schemes are afoot at a score of London tube stations - including Cockfosters where 350 housing units are in prospect with consequential dispersal of vehicles from the carparks).
The Arnos Grove scheme envisages apartment blocks comprising some 150 units, all to be rental, with 40% being classed as “affordable”. The development would be essentially “car-free” with tenants ineligible for access to the surrounding CPZ. A public square would be part of the scheme and the setting-down/bus stops area in front of the station would be reorganised. Surpluses arising from the project would go towards public transport improvement.
A planning application is scheduled to be made in Spring 2020. Completion of the development is envisaged for 2023.
Further details to be found at www.givemyview.com/arnosgrove
Comments to kharris@conciliocomms.com or 020 3890 7318
If you want to STOP this development sign the petition on change.org http://chng.it/HqH7bkhs
Feedback: This event added little flesh to the bones laid out at the event in June.
From a BHORA perspective, several aspects require more hard facts and clarification:
Design: the site is a sensitive one with the Listed 1930s Charles Holden Station superstructure and surrounding trees etc. How will the housing blocks (up to 6 storeys) not compete with or overshadow the distinctive drum of the station building either in bulk or in materials? How environmentally-friendly will these housing units be?
Infrastructure: what guarantees are there that a further enlarged local population will have access to decent community facilities of the kind that have yet to be provided for residents in new housing along the NCR put up by Notting Hill Housing Trust and for which BHORA has endlessly lobbied?
“Affordability” – will the “affordable” rent levels be affordable in any normal sense of the word for those on low or average incomes?
Parking – on the face of it, cars currently parked in the two carparks would simply be displaced into the surrounding residential streets. Is that something that local residents, already afflicted by chronic traffic jams and invasive vehicle parking, would welcome? The promoters of the scheme are apparently in discussion with Enfield Council about revising the existing CPZ. Will anything approaching a parking strategy for the borough come any nearer as a result? Have the promoters considered the traffic queues likely to build up in front of the station at rush hours to set down or pick up users of the Underground line? Have the promoters taken into account the impact of the projected CrossRail2 terminus at New Southgate?
Consultation: the impact of this scheme, along with similar plans for Cockfosters, is not just parochial, so the promoters need to keep a great many Enfield residents fully informed and to take account of their views – and that goes for Enfield Council too.
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