News October 2018
Guilt kicks in! I had not realised how long it had been since I had updated the website! So here goes...
The School
The council is no longer proceeding with the project to build a primary school on the Bourneside site within the Grovelands estate. There has been no formal announcement of this but after I enquired earlier in the summer I was told this. Subsequently the project has been removed from the council's School Expansion website. The situation was also confirmed by our ward councillors at the recent Southgate Ward Forum.
The GRA had opposed the school proposal vigorously. It would be naive to think that our opposition, rather than the steadfast attitude taken by Historic England, was responsible for the project being dropped. But who knows? Our opposition may have reassured Historic England that they were not flying in the face of universal support by residents for the new school. The opening of the Ashmole primary school and the establishment of a primary school on the Broomfield site obviously also helped weaken the case. The latter (Bowes Southgate Green) is very close to the large scale new development along the North Circular Road. Earlier this year it looked possible that the primary would be "kicked off" the site, as Broomfield wanted the space back to accommodate the bulge in secondary school demand but it seems that peace has been declared and that provision for one form entry will be maintained for the foreseeable future.
In their responses to me, the council stressed that it was always possible that a free school group might get approval for a primary school in the Southgate area and that the government agency responsible for finding sites for free schools might alight on the Bourneside site. To some extent we have been there already. The Lime Trust applied for permission to open a free primary school in Southgate and we know that Grovelands was one of the sites they favoured. However, DfE refused their application. It is an opaque process so we do not know why but it may be that the council's most recent primary school demand projections offered insufficient support, in which case any further such application would face the same barrier (*). It is also open to question whether a government agency would want to get involved with a site where development had been vigorously opposed by Historic England.
None of this is to deny that some parents on the Lakes Estate still have problems finding a primary school within reasonable distance for their children. The question, purely on the basis of educational need, was whether building a new two form entry school remote from new development was the best solution.
(*) The council's projections actually contained an error which suggested that reception age demand in SW Enfield would increase from about 750 to 60 between 2023 and 2024. This was queried under FOI and the corrected figures show no such increase.
So what next for the site?
Our understanding is that the council is still trying to determine what should happen with the site. In working up the school proposals, the council was obliged to develop a Conservation Management Plan for the whole Grovelands estate (the public park, the Priory land, the Thames Water land and the proposed school site) but implementing it would be costly and would probably require external funding. Historic England's attitude should rule out any attempt to use any part of the land for substantial development, though perhaps something of similar size to the demolished rugby club pavilion might be acceptable to them. Hopefully there will be an opportunity for the council and local groups to cooperate on what happens next.
Planning applications
There is a link on our home page to a list of current and recent planning applications affecting our area. This includes direct links to the application details on the council website and is intended to make it easier for individuals to comment.
Generally speaking, GRA has not got involved in the usual run of applications for extensions, dormers, Juliette balconies and so on. There was one recent exception however, an application to replace a garage adjacent to a back garden with a pre-school nursery building to accommodate about 20 children. This seemed unacceptable in a road such as Queen Elizabeth's Drive for a whole range of reasons, so we opposed it. The application was rejected by the council.
Parking and the CPZ
More than a year on, no outcome to report on the proposed changes in our area, though I have seen correspondence that implies that the council is not inclined to alter its proposals. Our ward councillors are well aware of the issues.
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