Contents Harrow and Wealdstone Area Action Plan Final Chapters 1. Introduction 4 2. Context, Issues, Challenges and 10 Opportunities 3. Vision and Spatial Strategy 26 4. Heart of Harrow Policies 32 5. Sub Area and Site Specific 81 Guidance 6. Delivery, Implementation and 156 Monitoring 7. Retail, Employment and Other 168 Planning Designations Appendices A. Harrow Unitary Development Plan (2004): Deleted Policies and 177 Proposal Sites B. Glossary 180 List of Policies Policy AAP1: Development within Harrow town 32 centre Policy AAP2: Station Road 35 Policy AAP3: Wealdstone 37 Policy AAP4: Achieving a High Standard of 39 Development throughout the Heart of Harrow Policy AAP5: Density and Use of Development 40 Policy AAP6: Development Height 42 Policy AAP7: Creating a New Public Realm 44 Contents Harrow and Wealdstone Area Action Plan Final Policy AAP8: Enhancing the Setting of Harrow 47 Hill Policy AAP9: Flood Risk and Sustainable 51 Drainage Policy AAP10: Harrow & Wealdstone District 54 Energy Network Policy AAP11: Provision of Open Space 55 Policy AAP12: Improving Access to Nature 57 Policy AAP13: Housing within the Heart of 59 Harrow Policy AAP14: The Consolidation of the 61 Wealdstone Strategic Industrial Location Policy AAP15: Supporting the Business Sector 63 in Wealdstone Policy AAP16: Supporting the Service Sector in 66 Harrow Town Centre Policy AAP17: Primary Shopping Areas and the 68 Primary Shopping Frontage Policy AAP18: Secondary Frontages, Neighbourhood Parades, and Non-Designated 71 Retail Parades Policy AAP19: Transport, Parking and Access 73 within the Heart of Harrow Policy AAP 20: Harrow & Wealdstone Green 75 Travel Plan Policy AAP 21: Harrow Waste Management Site 76 Policy AAP 22: Supporting Site Assembly within 78 the Heart of Harrow Introduction Chapter 1 Harrow and Wealdstone Area Action Plan Final 3 Chapter 1 Introduction Harrow and Wealdstone Area Action Plan Final The ‘Heart of Harrow’ 1.1 The Heart of Harrow is the term the Council has given to the area that encompasses the two town centres of Harrow and Wealdstone, the Station Road corridor linking the two centres, and the industrial land and open spaces surrounding Wealdstone, including the Kodak site, Headstone Manor and the Harrow Leisure Centre (see Figure 1.1). Figure 1.1 Area Action Plan Location 4 Introduction Chapter 1 Harrow and Wealdstone Area Action Plan Final 1.2 This area has been identified by the Council and the Mayor for London as priority area for regeneration and is designated in the Harrow Core Strategy and the London Plan (2011) as an Intensification Area. The area will be the subject of significant growth and change over the next fifteen years and beyond, with the Council aiming to improve the standing of both Harrow and Wealdstone within the London-wide town centre hierarchy. Capacity exists within this area to deliver substantial employment growth through an uplift in retail and hotel development and office renewal within the town centres and through redevelopment and intensification of employment generating uses on the industrial sites in Wealdstone. There is also scope to accommodate a substantial portion of the Borough’s future housing need through the delivery of higher density residential and mixed use development on key strategic opportunity sites and renewal areas, where residential development enables employment growth, is matched by investment in infrastructure and achieves high standards of design and sustainability. Purpose of the Area Action Plan 1.3 The Area Action Plan (AAP) is being prepared in order to ensure that this scale of change is guided by policies that meet the aspirations that the local community and the Council have for the area as a whole, as well as the places within it. It is particularly important that the local community can understand and see how the changes proposed will affect local residents and businesses. The AAP is therefore not just about providing for new development and physical growth, it’s also about regeneration and the realisation of the social benefits and improvements that new development can help deliver to the overall quality of place. 1.4 The aims of the AAP are therefore to: guide development and investment decisions in the Heart of Harrow over the next 15 years; provide clarity and increased certainty about how places and strategic sites are to develop and change; deliver the agreed vision for the area through policies and site allocations aimed at managing the distribution, scale, form and function of development across the Heart of Harrow; identify and secure the coordinated delivery of social and physical infrastructure improvements; determine the appropriate phasing of development, taking into account the need to ensure regeneration occurs across the whole area, including on sites with greater constraints than others; and assess and direct decisions on planning applications. 1.5 It is important to note that delivery of key developments within the Plan’s timeframe is critical to the success of the AAP and sites that can feasibly be developed within this timeframe have been prioritised. However, it is acknowledged that other sites, currently unidentified, may become available during this fifteen year period. Therefore guidance is proposed across the entire area to ensure coordinated development over the whole area, and not just on currently identified sites. The AAP also sets out the approach the Council and the Greater London Authority, along with their partners, will take to deliver and implement the AAP. The key proposals being advocated through the AAP are summarised in Figure 1.2. 5 Chapter 1 Introduction Harrow and Wealdstone Area Action Plan Final Figure 1.2 Summary of Key Proposals 6 Introduction Chapter 1 Harrow and Wealdstone Area Action Plan Final Development of the Area Action Plan Stakeholder and Community Engagement 1.6 The AAP has been developed with the help of a range of stakeholders and other bodies, whose assistance is acknowledged. 1.7 Engagement forums, representing key groups within the community, were set up at commencement of the plan to help test initial proposals and options for the area or places within it, ensuring these responded to the needs and aspirations of the local community. 1.8 The policies and proposals set out in this Area Action Plan are the end result of a process which identified and considered a range of options for achieving the plan’s objectives for the regeneration of the Heart of Harrow. Strategic options were identified and consulted upon in the Issues and Options report (May 2011), and evaluated in the Preferred Options report (January 2012) and by the sustainability appraisal. The results of the two rounds of public consultation then informed the final draft of the AAP which was subject to further consultation (July 2012) and an Examination in Public (January 2013). 1.9 The preparation of the AAP has also benefited from joint working arrangement with the Greater London Authority, Transport for London, Design for London and the Homes and Communities Agency who have provided specialist advice on specific land use issues, such as transport, housing and employment, as well as more general advice on the long-term project management of the implementation and delivery of the proposals set out in the AAP. 1.10 In addition to the above, the involvement of private developers on a one-to-one basis, through the pre-application process and other avenues, has also been useful in alerting the Council to the issues likely to arise from their proposals or aspirations for their sites, and has enabled the proposals set out in this document to be moderated through knowledge of the likely means of implementation. Supporting Evidence Base 1.11 In the course of preparing the AAP the Council has gathered evidence to inform and justify the approach set out in the final Plan, and will continue to do so. The evidence base for the AAP draws on existing studies undertaken for the Borough through the Core Strategy and supplemented, where necessary, with further studies specific to the ‘Heart of Harrow’. A key piece of evidence base already prepared is the Heart of Harrow Baseline Report (February 2011) (available on the Council’s website) which collected and analysed existing information about the Heart of Harrow in order to gain an understanding of the key issues and opportunities to be addressed through the AAP. As each evidence base study has been completed, these have been made available on the Council's website. 1.12 In addition to the evidence base studies, the AAP is also supported by a Sustainability Appraisal and Equalities Impact Assessment. The Sustainability Appraisal tests the policies and proposals to identify the likely social, environmental and economic impacts that may arise, and evaluates options for mitigation of negative impacts and the enhancement of positive impacts. The Equalities Impact Assessment examines how the AAP meets the needs of the whole community and makes sure that the proposals and policies being advocated through the Plan do not result 7 Chapter 1 Introduction Harrow and Wealdstone Area Action Plan Final in any disproportionate disadvantage to any group in the community. A Sustainability Appraisal and Equalities Impact Assessment has been undertaken at each stage of the Plan’s preparation and are published alongside the AAP for public consideration and comment. Status of the AAP and Relationship to Other Plans 1.13 The AAP is being produced to give effect to the policies of the Core Strategy and the London Plan (2011). Figure 1.3 shows where the AAP fits within the policy hierarchy for the Borough. As a statutory Development Plan Document, the AAP will form part of the Council’s Local Plan and will be used to appraise planning application proposals located within the AAP boundary. At this Pre–Submission stage the AAP will be a material consideration in the determination of planning applications.