North East Enfield Area Action Plan [NEEAAP] Draft Interim Direction Document: Working Towards a Submission AAP July 2012 Version – 13/07/12 CONTENTS Foreword 1.0 Introduction 4.1 Overview 4.2 Strategic Planning Context 4.3 What is the purpose of this document? 4.4 AAP Study Area Boundary 2.0 Area Context 2.1 North East Enfield: Urban Structure, Form, and Land Uses 2.2 Socio Economic Profile 2.3 Regeneration Considerations 2.4 Regeneration Drivers 3.0 Regeneration Vision & Objectives 3.1 Draft Vision 3.2 Objectives 4.0 The Spatial Framework The Neighbourhood Places – A1010 Hertford Road Corridor 4.1 Ponders End 4.2 Enfield Highway 4.3 Enfield Wash 4.4 The Shopping Parades in North East Enfield - Enfield Island Village - Enfield Lock - Ordnance Road - Freezywater - Brimsdown - Bullsmoor - South Street, Ponders End - Southbury Road Kingsway The Areas of Improvement 4.5 Employment Growth and the Local Economy 4.6 Industrial Estates 4.7 North London’s Waterside and the Lee Valley Regional Park Infrastructure Investment 4.8 The Need for Community Facilities and Services 2 4.9 The Network of Open Spaces 4.10 The Highway Network, Transport and Movement Infrastructure 4.11 The Decentralised Energy Network 5.0 Next Steps 6.0 Appendices Appendix 1: Planning Policy Context Appendix 2: Document Context and Preparation Stages Appendix 3: List of Figures 3 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Overview This document is about the future of North East Enfield 1[NEE], an area stretching from the M25 southwards to Ponders End. It includes the communities of Enfield Lock, Enfield Highway, Ponders End, Turkey Street, and Southbury. At first glance the area has much to offer, its diverse neighbourhood places of Ponders End, Enfield High and Enfield Wash, thriving industrial areas of Brimsdown and Innova Park and an area of natural recreation in the Lee Valley Regional Park and Waterways. This area is home to a diverse community of 59,000 people and approximately a 1000 + businesses, and many people travel to and through the area to work. However it is home to some of London’s poorest communities suffering from high unemployment, low skill base, low educational attainment and benefit claimant level together with income deprivation affecting children and older people. The Council is preparing an Area Action Plan 2[AAP] which will provide a comprehensive planning policy framework to guide future development and investment in the area. The regeneration of the area, planning for new homes, businesses and the necessary future support infrastructure requirements have been ongoing considerations over a number of years through the Local Plan making process. An AAP is needed to achieve sustainable growth for the NEE area in future years and manage the delivery of key development potential in a holistic way. The AAP will be a shared strategy for the variety of stakeholders that live, work, visit and invest in the area. It will provide a clear planning policy framework for decisions about existing issues and problems, as well as a guide to inform the future comprehensive regeneration, development opportunities and targeted investment. 1.2 What is the purpose of this document? The Council is not starting from scratch on this project. The preparation process of the North East Enfield Area Action Plan 3[NEEAAP] has been on hold following consultation on the Preferred Options in May 2009. There has been significant change and progress made in this interim period, the Council has an adopted Core Strategy, 2010 for the Borough in place 1 NEE – North East Enfield 2 AAP – Area Action Plan is an optional development plan document specified in United Kingdom planning law forming part of a Local Plan 3 NEEAAP – North East Enfield Area Action Plan 4 that provides the strategic direction for NEE area. There has also been significant evidence base work undertaken, in particular: publication of the Ponders End Framework for Change, August 2009; adoption of the Ponders End Central Planning Brief, May 2011, the publication of the new London Plan – 2011 and the draft Opportunity Area Planning Framework 4[OAPF] for the Upper Lee Valley, November 2011. The key messages from the earlier Issues and Options, 2008 and preferred Options, 2009 stages of consultation have allowed a comprehensive process and understanding to develop as to the level of deprivation linked with the issues of accessibility and connectivity, the need for affordable family housing, community facilities and services, the need for jobs and training for residents of the area and the need to manage holistically the potential future development opportunities in the area. The time is right to move forward in the NEEAAP process to ensure that change is planned in a comprehensive way. This document is an opportunity to highlight and consider the regeneration drivers in the NEE area. Importantly it is an opportunity to re-engage with you, the stakeholders in the process, as to the regeneration drivers, development opportunities and potential growth for future years in order to inform the submission AAP document. We welcome your thoughts and views on the content of this document and what you like and dislike about the area and how you would like things to be changed. A series of question are asked throughout this document to help you provide your thoughts and comments. This document seeks to do the following: Provide an overview to the context to which the NEEAAP is set within and the need for regeneration, in particular highlight the significant progress that has been made in Ponders End and how it should be driven forward comprehensively given the scale of opportunity and its future impact on the entire AAP area; Identify a spatial structure to neighbourhood places, shopping parades, wider land uses and the infrastructure that supports their function in the area to which a planning framework can be framed; Identify key regeneration considerations and drivers that will help develop an understanding of neighbourhoods and wider land uses in the area, there future needs and how places will function to meet those needs; Provide a draft vision for the future of the area based upon a comprehensive understanding of the future needs of the communities in the area and set out objectives that help develop the draft vision through to the preparation of the Submission AAP; Set out the Councils AAP policy approach’s that can assist the preparation of the Submission AAP; and Identify the path to an adopted AAP working forward from this current stage of the Interim Direction document. 4 OAPF – Draft Upper Lee Valley Opportunity Area Planning Framework, November 2011, Greater London Authority Publication 5 1.3 Strategic Planning Context The North East Enfield [NEE] area occupies a key position in a wider growth area. It sits within the London-Stansted- Cambridge-Peterborough growth corridor and the Upper Lee Valley. This is defined in the London Plan as an ‘Opportunity Area’ and is a priority for regeneration which is illustrated through the Draft Opportunity Area Planning Framework for the Upper Lee Valley, November 2011 [OAPF]. The adopted Core Strategy for the Borough highlights NEE as a strategic growth area and Ponders End as a regeneration priority area. Core Policy 40 North East Enfield sets out the objectives for the North East Enfield area; and Core Policy 41 Ponders End recognises the area as a Place Shaping Priority Area, with three areas of future development opportunities identified Including Ponders End Central, Ponders End South Street Campus and Ponders End Waterfront. The broad objectives of these policies include: The Focus of New Development Opportunities - The focus for change and development will be in Ponders End where there is a string of key opportunity sites along an east-west axis; Industrial Estates – North East Enfield’s reputation as a thriving and competitive industrial business location will be enhanced with Strategic Industrial Locations being safeguarded; New Housing – Across the North East Enfield area there is scope to develop 1,000+ new homes with a range of typologies and tenures, including affordable housing; Local Centres and Community Facilities: The local centres will be enhanced to improve the shopping experience, recreation and leisure offer. Social and community infrastructure expansion will be supported to accommodate the needs of a growing population; & Infrastructure Investment: Improvements to public transport and access to the area by car, cycle and on foot in particular: Improvements to the busy Hertford Road corridor to improve the environment for pedestrians and road users alike; more attractive and green links to maximise access east- west to the Lee Valley Park and to the existing communities and employment areas; Improvements to north-south pedestrian and cycle routes within the Lee Valley Park; Work with its partners to ensure that negative impacts of the proposed new investment in the West Anglia main line are mitigated and continued consideration of the Northern Gateway Access Package 5[NGAP] and the likely improvements to accessibility and movement. These policies provide the broad basis for the regeneration and policy drivers the [AAP] process must explore further. The primary purpose of the AAP is to articulate in greater detail how these policies will be implemented, and to provide a more detailed policy framework to guide the development process for the area. [Appendix 1: Detailed Planning Policy Context to the AAP area] 5 NGAP – Northern Gateway Access Package – Explained at 4.10 of this report. 6 1.4 AAP Study Area Boundary The area that will be covered by the North East Enfield AAP is shown in Figure 1: North East Enfield Study Area, bounded by a solid red line. The initial boundary of the AAP to the west was defined by Hertford Road.