Broxbourne Local Plan Brookfield Area Planning Policy Team Development Options April 2016 3 Contents 1. Purpose of this report pg 2 Development Options Reports 2. The Brookfield Area pg 3 Introduction to the Brookfield area Purpose of this report History and settlement pattern In preparing its new Local Plan the Council has considered a Previous local plans number of Borough-wide options as set out in the Development Options and Scenarios Report (April 2016). The Council has 3. Issues to consider for future development pg 6 prepared five local area options studies in order to assess Landscape and character development potential in more detail. These studies have informed Visual appraisal of Brookfield’s green belt land the Borough-Wide Options and Scenarios Report and all six studies Environmental designations should be read together in order to understand the development Roads and rights of way strategy for the emerging Local Plan. Public transport Facilities and utilities In addition to this study for Brookfield, Development Options Protecting the green belt Reports have been prepared for Bury Green, Goffs Oak, Park Plaza, and West of Wormley. A further study had been proposed for Land ownership West of Hoddesdon but this was overtaken by the granting of 4. Development options pg 19 planning permission for strategic scale development at High Leigh in Option 1 – ‘A do nothing option’ April 2015. Option 2 – ‘2005 Local Plan Plus scheme’ Option 3 – ‘Comprehensive development’ This report sets out and discusses potential development options for the area. Although the report concludes on the performance of 5. Summary and Conclusions pg 28 each option within the area’s local context, it will be the Local Plan which decides on the preferred option in the context of overall Borough-wide considerations and the merits of other potential Questions on this document should be referred to the Planning Policy options for other areas within the Borough. This report is one of a Team: [email protected] number of evidence studies which have been produced to inform 01992 785559 and support the Local Plan decision making process. April 2016 2 The Brookfield area Introduction to the Brookfield area The Brookfield area is approximately 180 hectares in size and is located to the north of Cheshunt and Cheshunt Park and west of Wormley and Turnford. It is also within close proximity of the Turnford Junction of the A10 to the north west of the Brookfield Centre and New River Industrial Estate. 3 History and settlement pattern The Brookfield area and land surrounding it began as a handful of small farm holdings including Cheshunt Park Farm and Brookfield Farm. The New River, an artificial waterway opened in 1613 to supply London with fresh drinking water, ran through the area close to these farms. Brookfield Lane was the only east-west route in the vicinity, providing access between a number of small villages including Flamstead End, Turnford and Wormley. By the 20th century these villages expanded into a number of distinct settlements adjoined by a number of glasshouse buildings located to the east of Brookfield. Halfhide Lane, which was a 500 metre track enabling access for a small farm, was also built. The area intensified significantly post war, with many glasshouses being redeveloped for housing developments. A single lane carriageway, which is now the Great Cambridge Road or old A10 route, was built to aid north-south movement through these housing areas. This road filtered off towards Wormley, to the east of Brookfield. In 1968 Cheshunt Park became a public open space providing 235 acres of parkland and an 18- hole golf course. In the 1970s the A10 Hoddesdon bypass was constructed immediately to the north of the Brookfield area with a new roundabout junction at Turnford. Brookfield Lane, the major east-west route, was intersected by the associated realignment of the A10 in this area and instead Halfhide Lane became a major connecting route between settlements to the east and west. Halfhide Lane also provided a vehicle route to Brookfield’s new retail facilities, office and industrial units, traveller site and allotment site. On the eastern side of the A10, a new hotel and office space was built in the 1990s. More recently a number of significant residential developments have been built in the Brookfield area, including Canada Fields and Cheshunt South Reservoir, and the Hertford Regional campus at Turnford has been redeveloped to provide a new College with surplus land released for residential development. The location of major settlements and roadways has created the settlement pattern seen at Brookfield today. The Brookfield area to the west of the New River however is still rural in character. The development pattern of Brookfield has evolved but more significantly in the late 20th Century. 4 Previous Local Plans The 1983 District Plan identified a sub-regional need for a hypermarket in Broxbourne and allocated land at Brookfield Lane for this use. The same Plan identified the Brookfield area for industrial and residential development. It also proposed a spur road from the A10 in order to access these facilities and as an alternative to using Halfhide Lane. Cheshunt Park was still allocated as community open space and the remaining green belt land to the north was identified as an agricultural priority area where only agricultural/forestry related uses would be acceptable. The 1994 Plan proposed to remove land between Halfhide Lane and the New River from the green belt, relocate the Halfhide Lane traveller site and allotments, and redevelop this area for retail warehouse uses or large specialist stores. Housing, leisure and entertainment uses were also supported in this location. By the early 2000’s the area between Halfhide Lane and the A10 had been developed for a shopping centre, an employment area and housing. The Brookfield Retail Park had 1983 Local Plan and the allocation of Brookfield for retail/industrial use been built between Halfhide Lane and the New River but the traveller and allotment sites had not been developed. The 2005 Local Plan identified several issues in the Brookfield area including traffic and congestion problems, the need for better public transport, a lack of pedestrian/cycle links and a requirement for a small amount of retail uses. It proposed a comprehensive masterplan which would convert the employment area to retail uses and seek to implement the 1994 proposal of relocating the allotment and travellers sites to make way for further bulky retail goods. This scheme was never implemented and the 2010 Submission Core Strategy sought to allocate the area for a more comprehensive scheme which would not only allocate the traveller site, employment area and allotment site for redevelopment but also approximately 15 hectares of green belt land between the New River and the A10 Turnford roundabout. The proposal would provide up to 50,000 sqm of retail uses, about 15,000 sqm of leisure uses and up to 300 homes. This quantum of development would improve and attract comparison shopping and associated leisure facilities into the Borough clawing back lost expenditure. This scheme was rejected by the Planning Inspector at the end of 2011 on retail impact grounds. 2010 Submission Core Strategy proposal 5 Issues to consider for future development The topography creates a ‘bowl’ or valley shaped area at Brookfield Landscape and character The Landscape Character Study identifies this area as having plateau ridges and slopes with mostly wooded parkland and farmland. It contains a varied sense of enclosure and tranquillity depending on proximity to denser wooded areas located in the central part of Brookfield or vehicle noise generated from the A10 to the east. A vast majority of the area is classified as greenfield and over 160 hectares is classified as green belt land. The green belt area contains various agricultural fields, tracks, distinct woodland areas and hedgerows. However the presence of landfill sites, farm buildings and allotments provides a human influence on the landscape. The land is mostly grade 3 agricultural land i.e. it is of good to moderate quality. The New River, located between the urbanised part of Brookfield to the south and east and open green belt, provides a pleasant waterway feature although it is not particularly visible due to surrounding tree cover and buildings. Cheshunt Park to the south is also within the green belt and mostly grassland although it contains several man-made structures including play equipment, sports related buildings, a golf course and pylons. A strip of trees and hedges demarcates this community open space from the open green belt of Brookfield to the north. Beyond Brookfield to the west and north, the land becomes far less developed and contains a broad mix of countryside, open fields with bridleways, dense wooded areas and buildings found in semi-rural locations. The Brookfield area has an undulating landscape and has been described as a ‘topographical bowl’. The eastern part is relatively flat, whereas the western end slopes steeply upwards towards Park Lane Paradise. Land north and south of the central tree area also slopes away from Turnford Brook. This land profile consequently produces an open vista looking eastwards and a valley shape in the central area and towards the western end. The flat eastern part of the site is visible from the A10. However most of the land in the central area is invisible from view points along the A10 to the east and Park Lane Paradise to the west as it sits within the valley. There are long views towards this area from across the Lee Valley to the east. Any development must have regard to the topography and landscape of the area. 6 Visual appraisal of Brookfield’s green belt land A more detailed visual appraisal of the area shows that there is an extensive tree belt along the eastern part of the southern boundary of the Brookfield area which means that it is well screened from Cheshunt Park golf course to the south.