Development Brief for The Gants Hill Area Action Plan Opportunity Sites C, D & E at Eastern Avenue, Gants Hill Planning & Regeneration Adopted February 2014 0 1. Introduction 1.1. This Development Brief is based on a planning assessment of the Opportunity Sites C to E as identified in Map 3 of the Gants Hill Area Action Plan, adopted by the Council in May 2009. These sites are all located on the west section of the Eastern Avenue at Gants Hill, on the southern side of the road, and include: C. Commercial House (406-410 Eastern Ave); D. Montrose House (412-416 Eastern Ave); and E. The Vauxhall Car Showroom (418-420 Eastern Ave). 1.2. The purpose of this Development Brief is to inform prospective developers and the community of the Council’s planning requirements for the development of the above sites; the quality of design expected, and the type of development the Council envisages occurring on these sites. The Brief does not take into account any rights of way, access over the site, or other legal issues that may require resolution prior to development. 2. Site Location and Description 2.1. The Gants Hill Area Action Plan Opportunity sites C, D and E are located on the south-western section of the A12 Eastern Avenue, at Gants Hill district centre, which lies in the southern, central area of the borough. Gants Hill is a district centre and key investment area within Redbridge that has a strong urban environment, and good local public transport services (but with some tall buildings generally removed from the central area of the roundabout). Traffic flows around the roundabout are very busy with some 55-60,000 vehicles travelling through the centre on a daily basis. There is a local retail economy but it has struggled for several decades, needs reviving and is not a significant draw for shoppers compared to other centres in the borough. This situation has improved in recent years with the completion of additional residential development and new retail attracted to the area. However the centre does have a strong evening economy, with a healthy number of bars and good quality restaurants on offer, and in recognition of Gants Hill’s performance in the evening and through the night, its number of venues, local transport, crime levels, cleanliness and character, it was awarded Purple Flag status in 20131. 2.2. This brief covers three of the remaining opportunity sites in the Area Action Plan (AAP) for Gants Hill: Commercial House (406-410 Eastern Ave); Montrose House (412-416 Eastern Ave); and the Vauxhall Car Showroom (418-420 Eastern Ave). These sites have all been identified in the Gants Hill Area Action Plan, and were originally recognised as opportunity sites in the Gants Hill Area Action Plan Supporting Studies document (January 2007) as sites suitable for well-designed, higher-density, multi-storey development within the district centre, as well as being suitable for the promotion of mixed-use development and mixed-use areas. 2.3. The maps on the pages below show where Gants Hill is in the context of the borough as a whole and looks closer in detail at how the three sites are actually split up in terms of boundaries and ownership. The current uses on the sites include office use (Commercial House and Montrose House; B1 use class), and a former car sales show room (Sui Generis). Section 4 below on current and preferred uses goes into more detail on the uses on the sites. 1 See Purple Flag website for further information on the Purple Flag programme: https://www.atcm.org/programmes/purple_flag/WelcometoPurpleFlag 1 Map 1: Location of Gants Hill in relation to the borough. 2 A12/Eastern Avenue (West) A Wentworth House, 350 Eastern Ave B Big Yellow Storage, 374-404 Eastern Ave C Commercial House, 406-410 Eastern Ave D Montrose House, 412-416 Eastern Ave E The Vauxhall Car Showroom, 418-420 Eastern Ave Map 2: This Map shows all the sites on the south side of Eastern Avenue (West), but this brief is focused on sites C, D and E only. 3 2.4. In terms of the size of the sites, their collective area is approximately 6,046sqm/65,078.6sq ft/0.6046ha, which is a large site area for a key district centre, and is able to accommodate a major development scheme. Their individual footprint areas are: • Site C - 1,671sqm/17,986.5sq ft/0.1671ha; • Site D - 1,596sqm/17,179.2sq ft/0.1596ha; • Site E - 2,779sqm/29,912.9sq ft/0.2779ha. 2.5. As stated above the heights of the buildings on these sites range from a single storey at the former Vauxhall Car Showroom on site E, to ground and five storeys above for the office blocks on sites C and D. Generally however heights in the immediate area are fairly low at predominantly two storeys (residential). All the opportunity sites front onto the A12 Eastern Avenue, a very busy arterial road that flows westward into central London, and back onto Clarence Avenue (one way with exit only from the roundabout), which is a road serving both residential and non-residential properties. The relationship that the buildings have with these two roads differs first in that none of the buildings use the A12 road as a vehicular access point but they all have vehicular access at their rear from Clarence Avenue, which is still accessible from the Gants Hill roundabout. In terms of the character of the buildings on the opportunity sites, again their relationship with the A12 highway and Clarence Avenue differs, which is discussed further below. 2.6. In terms of the make up of the character of the surrounding area there is a strong divide here too; on the one hand there is the very busy A12 road and roundabout area, with fairly active business and retail areas and high volumes of traffic and some tall buildings, and on the other there are the low rise residential streets to the rear of these businesses. Sites C, D and E represent part of a dividing line or band of buildings along Eastern Avenue west between these two town centre characters, and this occurs elsewhere within the town centre, where there are a line of shops and businesses fronting the main, busy roads and residential streets to their rear. 2.7. Much of the pedestrian movement within the district centre does not occur around the opportunity sites A to E on the west side of Eastern Avenue, which the Council believes would change if these sites were redeveloped for uses that attract pedestrian activity. This does have an effect on the character immediately around the sites on this part of Eastern Avenue, which becomes more isolated the more one journeys west along Eastern Avenue. From a land use perspective there is a strong sense that much of the true potential of this part of the district centre has been limited by the type of development that has to become established there namely office development with limited active frontage). 2.8. Traffic Issues and Public Transport 2.9. As stated above the Eastern Avenue A12 is a major road in London which runs through Gants Hill district centre. Traffic volumes are very high in the centre (approximately 60,000 vehicles each day) creating major traffic issues and problems for the Gants Hill area. The A12 road flows westwards until it reaches Mabley Green Park, Homerton where it turns south and continues past Victoria Park and Hackney Wick Rail and Tube Station and becomes the Blackwall Tunnel Approach. In the east the A12 travels on to Romford as the Eastern Avenue until it reaches Gallows Corner where it becomes the A12 Colchester Road which links with the A1023/M25 Nags Head junction, and continues northwards on to Ipswich. Clearly this is a major road within the southeast region and naturally creates a large volume of traffic, which is evident in the daily traffic volumes at Gants Hill. A further very busy and key route through Gants Hill is the Cranbrook Road North and South, or the A123, between Barking Park in the south, where it links with the A124 Longbridge Road, and the A113 in the north where it connects with the High Road in Chigwell. 4 Aerial Photography 1: Opportunity Sites C, D and E at Eastern Avenue Gants Hill 2.10. Public transport at Gants Hill is very good with multiple bus routes (12) travelling through the centre to various parts of the East London sub region; and with the Gants Hill Tube station providing a convenient underground service to central London via the Central Line. The Public Transport Accessibility Levels (PTAL) in the area are at 5, which is very good. 2.11. The opportunity sites are well positioned to benefit from the very good public transport services in Gants Hill being located close to the Eastern Avenue (West) subway entrance/exit on the southern side of the road. They are also located close to the Central Line Underground Station 5 under the roundabout, where a very good variety of bus services pass through, making the sites highly accessible in terms of public transport. 2.12. Recently there have been significant improvements made in the area by Transport for London (TfL) and the London Borough of Redbridge. Resurfacing work has been carried out on the carriageway around the roundabout; traffic flows have been made safer and more efficient with the closure of Clarence Avenue to two way traffic (exit only from the roundabout), improved, easier turning points and alignments on the roads around the roundabout; and the installation of pedestrian and cycle signal controlled crossing facilities which are co-ordinated with the roundabout signals, significantly improving pedestrian connectivity across the roundabout and within the District Centre generally.