North London Waste Plan: Hearings

NORTH LONDON WASTE PLAN

Public Examination

DRAFT HEARINGS PROGRAMME

 Day 1 – Tuesday 12 June 2012, 10.00am
  

Main Matter 1:  Legal Issues

Draft Participants

The Councils	120 - Southgate Green Association
2 - Pinkham Way Alliance Ltd	126 - Bestway (Holdings) Limited
36 - Thomas Rice-Smyth	133 - Legal & General Life Fund         Limited Partnership
57 - East of England Waste Technical        Advisory Body
	271 - Evelyn Ryan
79 - South East Waste Planning        Advisory Group	277 - Freehold Community Centre
	296 - Greater London Authority
96 - Rockcliffe Technology Ltd

Main Matter 2: The Need for Waste Management Facilities

Draft Participants

The Councils	81 - FCC/Skanska
2 - Pinkham Way Alliance Ltd	103 - Thames Water Property
7 - London Development Agency	126 - Bestway (Holdings) Limited
48 - Barnet Labour Group	133 - Legal & General Life Fund         Limited Partnership
57 - East of England Waste Technical        Advisory Body
	135 - Ms Stefania Porcu
62 - Enfield Conservatives	296 - Greater London Authority
65 - Michael Scholand
79 - South East Waste Planning        Advisory Group

 Day 2 – Wednesday 13 June
 

Main Matter 3: Spatial Strategy

Draft Participants

The Councils	87 - Lee Valley Regional Park
2 - Pinkham Way Alliance Ltd	103 - Thames Water Property
32 - Stephanie Milverton/Mary Smith	126 - Bestway (Holdings) Limited
62 - Enfield Conservatives	133 - Legal & General Life Fund         Limited Partnership
79 - South East Waste Planning        Advisory Group
	296 - Greater London Authority
81 - FCC/Skanska

Main Matter 4: Sites (Policies 1 and 2)

Draft Participants

The Councils	126 - Bestway (Holdings) Limited
2 - Pinkham Way Alliance Ltd	133 - Legal & General Life Fund         Limited Partnership
81 - FCC/Skanska
89 - Lichen Renewal	134 - NLWA
125 - Bywaters Ltd	296 - Greater London Authority

 Day 3 – Thursday 14 June
  

Specific Sites: Geron Way

Draft Participants

The Councils	267 - Brent Cross Cricklewood (BXC) Development Partners
126 - Bestway (Holdings) Limited
296 - Greater London Authority

 Days 4 and 5 – Tuesday 19 and Wednesday 20 June

Specific Sites: Pinkham Way

(lengthy list, shown here)

 Day 6 – Thursday 21 June

Main Matter 5: Policies 2 and 4

Draft Participants

The Councils	133 - Legal & General Life Fund
2 - Pinkham Way Alliance Ltd	Limited Partnership
87 - Lee Valley Regional Park	134 - NLWA
89 - Lichen Renewal	296 – Greater London Authority
126 - Bestway (Holdings) Limited

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Link to HOME (see all posts).

Institute of Economic Affairs: "Abundance of Land, Shortage of Housing"

Link to PDF files

"... The most likely explanation for [opposition to reform] is that. besides a lot of scaremongering and plain misinformation, these groups were able to revert to straw men, red herrings and blind alleys which have muddled the housing policy debate for far too long.

In the housing debate, supply-side conditions are too often taken as given, and high housing costs, poor housing conditions and overcrowding are then erroneously treated as ‘market outcomes’. This results in a counterproductive tendency to concentrate on what are at best side issues, and more often just non-issues. 

The latest British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA) provides a good summary of the state of the debate. It shows that a majority is aware of the problems in the housing market, but would like to see them resolved without additional development. 

When asked, ‘if the government were going to do something to make homes more affordable, what do you think the most useful action would be?’, 69% of respondents favoured demand-side measures, such as subsidies for home buyers.

Only 5% chose the rather straightforward option ‘allow developers to build more homes’.

River Island at Brent Cross: FASHION SHOW & GREAT OFFER

"Click, download and print out the voucher, to save £5 off spends over £25. Valid 9th to 21st April."

Daily Telegraph: "Are these the ugliest buildings in the world?"

Link to Daily Telegraph

[The rebuilt North Circular Road will go through the two arches.

And the thing will be painted white.]

"Are these the ugliest buildings in the world?"

In pictures: "21 of the ugliest buildings ever designed and built." 

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Just Fancy That ...

Daily Telegraph, 29 March:
"Access denied: the London landmark skyscrapers off limits to the public"

BBC, 9 April
"Trespassers reached top of London's Shard skyscraper"

Westfield and Brent Cross's Hammerson fight for Croydon

Link to Croydon Guardian

"Westfield is 'determined' to be present in Croydon, despite an announcement they had missed out on their bid to redevelop the Whitgift Centre.

"[Brent Cross's] Hammerson was announced as the development partner for the Whitgift Centre last Monday, amid anger from its freeholder, the Whitgift Foundation, which called the decision 'inexplicable'.

"... Michael Gutman, Managing Director for Westfield Europe and New Markets, said:

"Westfield remains determined to work with the owners and local authorities, to help create a town centre that the people of Croydon and surrounds can be truly proud of." [Whereas Hammerson ...]

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Link to Property Mall web site

"The Whitgift Centre provides approximately 580,000 square feet of retail floorspace comprising 154 shop units, department stores and a supermarket, and attracts around 28 million shoppers annually.

"In a joint statement, [lease-holders] RLAM and IBRCAC commented:

"The Whitgift Centre lies at the heart of Croydon and its successful redevelopment will be a crucial element in the regeneration of the town itself. This consideration underlined every step of our rigorous process of selecting the best partner for the job.

The quality of submissions from all parties was very high, although in Hammerson we recognised a partner who could demonstrate a long-term commitment to reasserting Croydon as a centre of retail excellence through a combination of redevelopment and organic growth. Of equal importance, Hammerson possess the necessary resources to complete a project of this scale successfully." [Whereas, at Brent Cross ...]

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Link to HOME (see all posts).

The Independent: "What do North Korea's buildings and landmarks tell us about [Barnet]?"

Link to The Independent
(A406, North Circular Road)

"Some of Thongil Street's residential blocks rise to 40 storeys, and each contains hundreds of housing units. Vast apartment blocks in the city centre, Meuser explains, 'are typical of communist cities'. [And like Barnet.] 

"Pyongyang is an interesting example of what happens to a city when there is no trade in real estate. Planning decisions are made, not by the market, but by party members who know little of urban design, and are guided solely by their ideology' [Yes! Like Barnet, then!]

Drapers: "Hit or Miss - Brent Cross"

Link to Drapers web site and free registration

"Although not the most outwardly charming of centres, for Drapers' seasonal Womenswear Hit or Miss, it was the quality of retailers being judged and not the centre’s aesthetic.

"Judging by what Drapers saw at Brent Cross ..., with the likes of Whistles, Topshop and Hobbs proving that even when not sitting in a shiny new shopping centre, the cream still rises to the top."

Planning: "Barnet shortlists two firms to take over planning work"

Link to web site and subscriptions

"A council document leaked on a local blog has revealed that Capita was scored highest of the bidding companies. The document said: 'Capita Symonds is the clear leader in this evaluation.'

"Trade union UNISON, which represents almost 90 per cent of the council's planning and regeneration staff, said its members were worried about the transfer to a private firm.

"Barnet UNISON branch secretary John Burgess said a survey by the union of the council's planners showed that 91 per cent are looking for jobs elsewhere."

Brent Cross Shopping Centre: "Easter Fun The Kids Will Love"

Saturday 7 & 

Monday 9 April:

11am – 1pm & 

2pm – 4pm

Children's make 'n' paint Easter activity workshops:

Children will have plenty of fun making and decorating Easter hats, masks and banners at our professionally-run workshops.

Children's petting farm:

Kids will love being up close with Belmont Farm's bunnies and little chicks, and are sure to have plenty of questions for the Farm's two experienced handlers.

*Activities subject to change without notice and available on a first come, first served basis. Parents must stay with their children at all times. Please do not pet animals if you have an allergy or may be pregnant. Please ensure that if you pet the animals you use the hand santitisers provided.

The Guardian: "Why the government sees Letchworth as a model community"

Link to The Guardian

"... His experience at Milton Keynes reinforces a belief that large-scale development proposals can deliver community facilities such as roads, schools, libraries and community centres without significant government funding. The so-called Milton Keynes tariff – dubbed a roof tax – involved builders putting cash into a community pot, initially calculated on the basis of £18,000 for each house completed:

"We created a whole investment vehicle able to put in infrastructure. It's still alive and a fantastic model, a brilliant way to get cash flowing into development and carrying the burden of some of these large infrastructure costs. We could say 'we know exactly what is being built, we can cost it, charge for it and guarantee the money is going to come back'. Basically you're giving certainty of development to the private sector. It meant we could put public money in, knowing it would come back."

Blackpool light-rail system reopens (thanks to supportive local authorities, and Minister Norman Baker!)

Link to 'Blackpool Gazette' web site and video

"After four years of work, Blackpool’s £100m new tramway is finally open for business. The first passenger journey from Starr Gate to Fleetwood saw VIPs and competition winners board one of the new Bombardier Flexity trams for today’s historic journey. 

Blackpool Transport managing director Trevor Roberts said:

"We are bringing in a new era for the tramway, but that is what was needed.

Without this investment, we would have been restricted to a shortened tramway for use as a tourist attraction only, but we now have the chance to build the economy of the Fylde with a proper public transport system."

Link to
BBC News.

Daily Telegraph: "Hammerson chosen over Westfield to redevelop Whitgift shopping centre"

Link to Daily Telegraph

"The choice of a partner other than Westfield promises a major row over the future of Croydon's Whitgift shopping centre, which is seen as one of the most lucrative retail development prospects in London.

"... Hammerson is already a key stakeholder in Croydon through its ownership of the Centrale Shopping Centre, they said, promising its participation would prove 'game-changing'."

ConservativeHome: "Is Milton Keynes beyond redemption?"

Link to ConservativeHome web site
(pic: lastrefuge)

"The Tory philosopher Roger Scruton has written A Plea for Beauty regarding urban planning policy.

"Scruton offers the following critique regarding Milton Keynes:

"When the layout of a town is conceived from a master plan, the possibilities for disaster are legion.

A telling example is the English new town of Milton Keynes, established in 1967 under a plan influenced by the centrifugal concept of the city developed in California by Melvin M. Webber. The resulting sprawl houses a population only two-thirds the size of Florence (a city you can walk across) spread over eighty-eight square miles of aesthetic pollution, absorbing and extinguishing villages, towns, and farms in a tangle of thruways and roundabouts, with the population trapped in little globules between the streams of fast-flowing automobiles."

MEN IN TIGHTS: Sir Michael Bear, Hammerson's 'Director of Regeneration', apologies for Unacceptable Behaviour in Brent Cross Planning Consultation

1st April:

The Guardian
and
Daily Telegraph

Hammerson's 'Director of Regeneration' is very sorry!

Finchley's Sir Michael Bear, who recently retired as Lord Mayor of London, and who was Hammerson's Director of Regeneration since 2003, apologised for his company's "arrogant behaviour, and unacceptable lack of ethics".

Before the Brent Cross Cricklewood planning application was submitted, Hammerson insisted it would investigate residents' suggestions, only if they gave a written undertaking they would not oppose its £4.5-billion, 20-year planning application.

"We are very sorry," he said.

"As Lord Mayor, Bear served in an ambassadorial role
not just for the Square Mile, but for the whole of the
UK-wide financial and professional services industry"

In response, Barnet Council said it wasn't bothered at the time, and it isn't bothered now.

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As imagined, this Sunday morning, by the Brent Cross Coalition.

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Link to

"Michael Bear, Regeneration Director at Hammerson (and new Lord Mayor of London) shuns Brent Cross's temporary 'rapid transit bus' for the Lord Mayor's Show 2010 [updated]"

(noteable, if only for the length of the title of the post)

Link to HOME (see all posts).

The missing east-west railway of outer north London...

Link to bueker.net web site

And the times it nearly happened... 

Link to read a bit more

John Lewis Brent Cross: MOTHER AND BABY EVENT

"Saturday 31 March

10am - 4pm Nursery department, level 2

"From bonding to bathing, teething to travel, there's lots to learn when you're preparing for life with a new baby. Join us for expert advice and answers to your questions.

"There'll be:

• New products on show
• A chance to meet representatives from Dorel who will be demonstrating the latest car seats, and Manhattan Toys who will be demonstrating the latest educational toys
• Information and tips from our Nursery advisors, plus a complimentary goodie bag
• Advice from our lingerie advisors on the latest maternity and nursing underwear
• Clarins consultants will be offering skincare consultations and complimentary hand and arm massages.
• Plus a chance to win a Maxi-Cosi CabrioFix car seat worth £105!
• Pick up your copy of the new Baby catalogue."

Brent & Kilburn Times: "Wrecking ball will change South Kilburn’s skyline for good"

Link to Brent & Kilburn Times

"South Kilburn’s skyline is set to change after 40 years, if plans to demolish two tower blocks are given the green light.

The proposals would see 18-storey Bronte House and Fielding House, in Cambridge Road, replaced with two seven-floor alternatives.

"Cllr Ann John OBE, leader of Brent council said:

"We have already transformed nearly every estate in the borough, but this is an area which is in need of change."

Reaction to Planning Reforms

Daily Telegraph: "Campaigners hail a 'good day for anyone who cares about the countryside'"

Link to Daily Telegraph

"Campaigners said the rewritten version of the rules, which are now in force in England, contained 'important changes' to the draft document which attracted such criticism last summer, and allayed many of their concerns.

"The revised rule book was also welcomed by business groups and property developers, suggesting that attention will shift to how it is implemented by local planners."

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The Guardian: "Planning laws signal end of road for out-of-town shopping centres" 

Link to The Guardian

"In concessions to opponents of last year's draft document, the new framework stipulates that brownfield sites should usually be developed before greenfield sites, and town centres before out-of-town sites. It recognises the 'intrinsic value and beauty' of the wider countryside, specifically protects playing fields, and bars 'garden grabbing' for development.

"But answering MPs' questions after his statement, Clark went further in defining 'sustainable' when he said: 'It's not sustainable to have a shopping centre outside the town centre, it's not sustainable to build on green belt' – the protected land around urban centres intended to prevent suburban sprawl. Officials later said such developments should only go ahead in exceptional circumstances."

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From Monday:

Evening Standard: "It’s time to pull down the barriers to new housing" 

Link to Evening Standard

Rob Perrins, Berkeley Group: "It’s very hard to build new homes in Britain. So many people need them, but plenty of others mistrust the whole idea of development.

"New homes deliver the basic right of each person to shelter. They also create jobs: since 2009, in doubling the number of homes it built, Berkeley has also doubled its workforce, creating 6,000 jobs.

"Housing brings new investment and facilities to a neighbourhood. It also generates tax revenue and drives growth. Get the number of new homes up to 250,000 a year and that would add up to one per cent to GDP."

BBC: Interview with Planning Minister Greg Clark

Link to BBC web site and iPlayer

"The revised national planning policy framework was published on Tuesday - and will be implemented immediately by councils with no local plan. There will be some transitional arrangements for councils with existing local plans.

"Among the amendments, it promises to: 

• Help councils which 'wish to bring into being a new generation of garden cities' 
• Allow communities to specify where renewable energy sources such as wind farms should, and should not, be located 
• Allow councils to provide the parking in town centres to 'help them compete with out-of-town shopping centres and supermarkets'"

Daily Telegraph: Planning Minister Greg Clark's statement to Commons

The Independent: "Planning rules 'value countryside'"

Link to The Independent

"Ministers say changes to the planning system, which see more than 1,000 pages of guidance slimmed down to around 50 and focus on a 'presumption in favour of sustainable development', are necessary to boost growth.

"... [Changes] include an explicit return to 'brownfield first', which requires councils to favour previously used land for new development over green field sites and a clearer definition of 'sustainable development'.

"It will also favour town centres for development."

Dept. for Communities: "National Planning Policy Framework" published

(Planning Minister Greg Clark)

Click above for PDF file

“The purpose of planning is to help achieve sustainable development.”

“Sustainable means ensuring that better lives for ourselves don’t mean worse lives for future generations.

“Development means growth. We must accommodate the new ways by which we will earn our living in a competitive world. We must house a rising population, which is living longer and wants to make new choices. We must respond to the changes that new technologies offer us. Our lives, and the places in which we live them, can be better, but they will certainly be worse if things stagnate.

“Sustainable development is about change for the better, and not only in our built environment.

“Our natural environment is essential to our wellbeing, and it can be better looked after than it has been. Habitats that have been degraded can be restored. Species that have been isolated can be reconnected. Green Belt land that has been depleted of diversity can be refilled by nature – and opened to people to experience it, to the benefit of body and soul.

“Our historic environment – buildings, landscapes, towns and villages – can better be cherished if their spirit of place thrives, rather than withers.

“Our standards of design can be so much higher. We are a nation renowned worldwide for creative excellence, yet, at home, confidence in development itself has been eroded by the too frequent experience of mediocrity. [A special mention of Hammerson, the Brent Cross Cricklewood developers, we notice!]

“So sustainable development is about positive growth – making economic, environmental and social progress for this and future generations.

“The planning system is about helping to make this happen.

“Development that is sustainable should go ahead, without delay – a presumption in favour of sustainable development that is the basis for every plan, and every decision. This framework sets out clearly what could make a proposed plan or development unsustainable.

“In order to fulfil its purpose of helping achieve sustainable development, planning must not simply be about scrutiny. Planning must be a creative exercise in finding ways to enhance and improve the places in which we live our lives.

“This should be a collective enterprise. Yet, in recent years, planning has tended to exclude, rather than to include, people and communities. In part, this has been a result of targets being imposed, and decisions taken, by bodies remote from them. Dismantling the unaccountable regional apparatus and introducing neighbourhood planning addresses this.

“In part, people have been put off from getting involved because planning policy itself has become so elaborate and forbidding – the preserve of specialists, rather than people in communities.

“This National Planning Policy Framework changes that. By replacing over a thousand pages of national policy with around fifty, written simply and clearly, we are allowing people and communities back into planning.”

Sky News: "High Streets effectively defunct"

"High Streets 'Defunct' As Online Dominates"

"High streets are effectively defunct now as online retailing takes over, says the CBRE's Jonathan De Mello."

Boris 2012: Transport Manifesto

Link to PDF file

"My 9 point plan for a Greater London"

... ...

8. Reducing Tube delays 30% by 2015. Building Crossrail and orbital rail to link our suburbs. Extending the Bike Hire scheme.

9. Securing a better deal for London from No 10.

The Observer: "The uplifting power of ingenious design enhances our daily lives" (as opposed to Hammerson at Brent Cross)

Link to The Observer

"A tour from the new concourse station, past the renovated Great Northern hotel and German Gymnasium up to the Regent's Canal and the old Granary building, where the University of the Arts London is now housed, is exhilarating and makes you blink and ask yourself if this is really London.

"This sophistication seems so unlike the routine failure of town planners over the last 70 years – the cock-ups, lack of imagination and compromise. And that thought brings me to the most important triumph at King's Cross – the largely unrecognised victory of activism and creative resistance by local people.

"What now unfolds at King's Cross is not simply a frantic modernised transport hub, but a neighbourhood with a mix of arts, learning, business and social housing; a balance of interests, and an enlightened attempt to integrate the lives of the well off and not-so-flush." 

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Whereas what we have at 

Brent Cross Cricklewood

is Hammerson and Barnet Council!

Sunday Telegraph: "Radical planning powers are to be unveiled by ministers"

Link to Mill Hill East blog

"The planning framework will be published on Tuesday by ministers who want a new age of 'pro-growth' planning.

"It was described by one Whitehall source last night as 'the most radical business deregulation there has ever been'."

The Guardian: "Cheek by Jowl: A History of Neighbours – review"

Link to The Guardian

"The records of the London Assize of Nuisance tell us that in 1333 a terrible row broke out between Joan and Andrew de Aubrey and their neighbours. The De Aubreys were livid because the people next door had taken away some of the boarding round the shared privy, so that when anyone used it their 'extremities' (as they delicately put it) were clearly visible. This they felt was 'altogether intolerable'. 

"Today it would be parking spaces, hedges or bins, but the nub of it would be the same: how people get along, or don't, with those to whom their only connection is random proximity. 

"With no pre-existing ties of kinship or occupation, the balance of common to conflicting interests among neighbours shifts constantly. They may end up by murdering one another, or getting married."