News (2008)

For more recent news, click here: News in 2009
For news archive, click here: News archive
You can also find more news by reading the latest minutes here: Minutes
 

5th December 2008
Tesco proposal - Initial opinion of the GLA and the Mayor of London

Two documents have appeared on the GLA website: a report and a letter to LBWF. These give the initial ("Stage 1") views of the Mayor of London (Boris Johnson) before he makes a formal decision.

The documents note that the proposed development does not currently conform to the London Plan, but this appears to be details rather than an objection to the scale or design issues that the Forum is concerned about. This suggests that the Mayor may be inclined to approve the proposal if the details are attended to.

Click here to see the report: Report
Click here to see the letter from the GLA to LBWF: Letter

 

7th November 2008
Tesco proposal -
Public Meeting held chaired by Iain Duncan-Smith

Last night (6th November) a well attended Public Meeting was held in Highams Park School to allow residents to air their views in front of Iain Duncan Smith MP. The Highams Park Forum and the Highams Park Society introduced the subject by giving presentations on the history of the proposal, its key features, and problems identified to-date. IDS expressed his personal concerns about the inappropriate large scale of the development and then took the chair to invite attendees to express their views. IDS's assistant took copious notes of the residents' views and IDS undertook to present these both to the council and to Boris Johnson, Mayor of London.

Although a some of the attendees welcomed the idea of a new supermarket in principle, the meeting was unanimous (based on a show of hands) in rejecting the current proposal as being far too large, both in terms of its floor space (and consequent draw of customers from outside the area), its height, and the amount of housing proposed. The main concerns aired were traffic congestion (particularly because of our small roads and the affect of level crossing closures) and strain on services (schools, healthcare and transport). Attendees also regretted the missed opportunity for creating additional community facilities on the site (such as a sports centre).

Tesco representatives were invited to attend the meeting but were unable to do so.

The Forum have submitted a statement on the current Tesco proposal to the various decision makers. This statement can be read here: Statement

 

28th October 2008 (updated 03Nov08)
Tesco proposal -
Public Meeting with Iain Duncan-Smith scheduled for 6th November

The Forum understands that a public meeting is being organised, chaired by MP Iain Duncan Smith, to debate the Tesco proposal. It is intended that Tesco representatives will be invited to attend. The meeting is being scheduled for Thursday 6th November at 8pm at Highams Park School in Handsworth Avenue.

 

17th October 2008
20 MPH speed limit being considered for NE Highams Park

The Forum understands that council officers are considering the possibility of introducing a 20 MPH speed limit in the roads in the North East corner of Highams Park. This work is in the very early stages and consultation is just beginning.

The area currently proposed for the 20MPH limit is shown in the map which is accessible from the link which follows. Apologies for the poor quality of the map, it was compressed to fit the website. Hopefully, you should still be able to make out the pattern of the roads.
Click here: 20MPH Boundary

Please email us any thoughts you may have on this.

 

4th October 2008
Tesco proposal - Result of Public Meeting

The public meeting referred to in the news item below took place as planned yesterday (3rd October). For details of the results of that meeting please click here: Public Meeting Result

 

25th September 2008
Tesco proposal - Public Meeting - You are invited !

Date: Friday 3rd October
Time: 8:30pm
Venue: The Church Hall, All Saints Church, Church Ave, E4 9QZ

Organised By:
The Highams Park Forum
The Highams Park Society
The Highams Park Residents' Association

The three residents' organisations listed above are meeting to debate a combined response to the council regarding the latest Tesco Proposal for a major retail and residential development on the old C&A site in Larkshall Road.

All Highams Park residents are invited to attend to participate in the debate and to listen to the views of other residents.

 

23rd September 2008
Tesco proposal - Formal application submitted to council.
Deadline for comments/objections is 13th October 2008.

Planning applications 2008/1490 and 2008/1491 have been received by the council from Spenhill Regeneration - the development arm of Tesco. These cover proposals for a Tesco store and 261 residential units on the site of the former C&A warehouse and industrial units fronting Larkshall Road and Jubilee Avenue.

Comments or objections need to be submitted in writing to the planning department by
13th October 2008.

The plans can be seen at Hale End Library (The Avenue E4) during library opening hours or (by appointment) at Sycamore House in the Town Hall Complex, Forest Road E17. Tesco are also setting up a website where some (but not all) documents are available online. You can visit it here: www.highamsgreen.co.uk

For some of the background to this proposal, see news items below dated 31st July 2008 and
25th June 2008.

 

2nd September 2008
Controlled Parking Zone for Highams Park - Ballot Result = Rejected

The item below dated 20th June 2008 explains how residents in the proposed Controlled Parking Zone would be balloted to see if they wanted it to go ahead. We have today (2nd Sept 2008) been informed (by Council officers) of the result of that ballot and an extract from their communication is set out below:

"I can now inform you that within the consultation area more residents were against the proposed CPZ than were for it, so in accordance with Council policy the CPZ will not proceed at this time."

"I could not make the above information available until recommendations contained within the scheme report had been approved and signed-off. This happened yesterday and the residents will be written to within the next week."

 

1st August 2008
Major development planned for Larkshall Rd Car Park ?

At the Cabinet meeting of 22^nd July a decision "in principle" was given to the disposal of the Larkshall Road car park and the initiation of a significant development on the site. This development, if it goes ahead, would be subject to the normal planning process. The proposal document makes interesting reading, and mentions a much expanded plot including the LM Foods site and the council hostel on Larkshall Rd. The proposal includes 60 new affordable homes ("mainly family sized"), a smaller car park, and a Health Centre (possibly to replace that in Handsworth Avenue).
 
Details of the proposal can be found here: Proposal
Details of the decision can be found here: Decision  [Update: Sorry, this link is now dead]
 
Forum members are keen to promote a "car park swap" whereby the station car park (in The Avenue) becomes a shoppers' car park and the Larkshall Rd car park becomes an official commuter car park.

 

31st July 2008
Tesco proposal - Groups join to lobby decision makers

A meeting was held 17^th July between representatives of The Highams Park Forum, The Highams Park Society, and The Highams Park Residents Association to discuss a combined response to the Tesco development proposals showcased in the Library during the period 3^rd - 5^th July.
 
See the following link for details of what was discussed and next steps: Tesco Meeting

 

26th July 2008
Roadworks in The Avenue

It takes digging up the road to encourage orderly parking in the Avenue.... ;-)

 

25th June 2008
Tesco Plans for Highams Park - Public exhibition

Tesco have arranged a public exhibition of their new proposals for the site in Larkshall Road. This takes place on 3rd, 4th, 5th July and all residents are welcome and encouraged to attend. Members of the design team will be present to answer any questions.
 
See the following link for details: Tesco Exhibition

 

20th June 2008
Controlled Parking Zone for Highams Park?

LBWF has just commenced consultation of Highams Park residents to see if they want the introduction of a Controlled Parking Zone. If introduced this would restrict parking at certain times to residents who have purchased parking permits.
 
See the following link for details: CPZ Page

 

6th June 2008
National newspaper gives Highams Park the thumbs up

We stumbled across an article about Highams Park in "The Independent" (the national newspaper) and thought readers of this website might be interested. It doesn't really count as "news" since it was written at the beginning of last year, but we thought the unbiased views of an "outsider" were interesting and couldn't think of where else to put it in the site.
 
To see the article, follow this link: Article about Highams Park
[Update: Unfortunately the article is no longer available on The Independent's website]

 

17th May 2008
Ordnance Survey moves Highams Park !
Error spotted by Forum corrected after 40+ years.

Our "Useful info" page explains that for over 40 years Ordnance Survey maps have been showing Highams Park in the wrong place. Since many government agencies and other bodies use these base maps to construct their own special purpose maps (and make decisions based on them) this was of great concern to the Forum. The Forum reported the error to the Ordnance Survey in 2004 and they promised to look into it when the maps were next revised. We can now report that the latest maps have been corrected. After 40+ years, Highams Park is now shown in the correct place !
For more on this story, follow this link to the "Odds & Ends" page: (OS Map is wrong).

 

29th April 2008
Not missing anymore !

After the missed section (described below) was pointed out it was quickly remedied.
Speedy response.

 

26th April 2008
Missed a bit?

The road repairs described below are now complete and seem to be an excellent job. However, a member noted that a section of road was missed out in Falmouth Avenue towards The Charter Road (see photo). This has been pointed out and the authorities are investigating.

 

2nd April 2008
Work has started in resurfacing the dangerous stretch of road at the Falmouth Avenue end of The Charter Road

The road surface was in poor repair and appeared to become more dangerous after heavy rainfall which caused water to overflow from the forest side of the road. HPF were impressed by the speed of response. Additional calming measures have been urged to slow traffic at this dangerous bend in the road.

 

21st February 2008
Post Office Closures

Our Post Offices (Hale End Road and Hatch Lane) are NOT due for closure.
 

For news archive, click here: News archive
 

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