1.1 Enfield has much to offer - our cultural diversity, heritage, proximity to Central London and to open countryside make it a good place to live, work, study and do business. Enfield is growing and changing, our population and diversity is increasing but so too is the gap between the prosperous and deprived neighbourhoods of the Borough. This represents a major challenge for the Borough and one which will guide the strategies and plans of the Council and its partners in planning for Enfield's future.
Figure 1.1 Enfield's Sustainable Community Strategy, 2009
1.2 Enfield's Sustainable Community Strategy was revised by the Enfield Strategic Partnership in 2009. The Partnership is made up of a wide spectrum of local public, private, voluntary and community organisations including the Council, police and health providers. The Partnership is committed to making Enfield a healthy, prosperous and cohesive community living in a borough that is safe, clean and green, through social progress that recognises everyone’s needs, effective protection of the environment, prudent use of natural resources, and promoting economic growth and employment opportunities for Enfield residents.
1.3 The Partnership has adopted a proactive place shaping approach to deliver this commitment. Place shaping is about making the whole of Enfield a place of choice where people choose to live, work, learn and do business now and in the future. The Council is preparing a Local Development Framework (LDF) which will provide the long-term spatial vision, policies and implementation programmes to deliver this commitment over the next 20 years. This means planning now for good quality new homes, shops and businesses, improved transport systems, and better employment opportunities. It means planning to conserve the Borough’s attractive built heritage areas, including its archaeology,parkland and open landscapes whilst enhancing the environment elsewhere to bring it up to the standard of the best. The LDF, together with the London Plan, will comprise the development plan for the Borough and will replace the Council’s Unitary Development Plan (UDP).
1.4 The Council is required to prepare the LDF by the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. Enfield's LDF will contain the following documents, the most important of which is the Core Strategy which sets out the Council's strategy for planning in Enfield and provides the context for more detailed documents:
1.5 The relationship between these documents is set out in Appendix 1. Further details on the content, role and production timetable for each of them is set out in the Council's Local Development Scheme. 1 Under the terms of the Act, most of the UDP’s policies have been retained and will remain valid until they are superseded by the relevant parts of new LDF documents. The relationship between existing UDP policies and new LDF documents, and the UDP policies which are superseded by this Core Strategy are set out in Appendix 2.
1.6 This Core Strategy sets out a spatial planning framework for the long term development of the Borough for the next 15 to 20 years. It is a strategic document providing the broad strategy for the scale and distribution of development and the provision of supporting infrastructure, ensuring that investment decisions are not made in isolation but are properly coordinated to ensure development is sustainable. It contains core policies for delivering the spatial vision, guiding patterns of development and is supported by other development plan documents within the LDF such as area action plans and a waste plan.
1.7 The Council has been working in partnership with other infrastructure providers such as the Primary Care Trust and Transport for London in order to identify the range of physical, social, and green infrastructure required to facilitate the development set out in this Core Strategy, particularly in the strategic growth areas. Alongside the Core Strategy, the Council has prepared an Infrastructure Delivery Plan, which sets out the infrastructure required to support future housing provision and predicted population growth in the Borough, with details of when, where and by whom the infrastructure will be delivered. A summary of the core infrastructure phasing is provided in Chapter 10.
1.8 The Core Strategy has evolved following earlier consultations on the key issues and options for the Borough in 2007 and the Council's preferred options in 2008. The Issues and Options Report looked at the problems, challenges, opportunities, issues and the potential options to deal with them. The Preferred Options Report took this further and set out the Council's suggested strategic spatial planning policies. Further consultation on the preferred options for strategic growth areas in the Borough in 2009 helped to refine the Strategy. Pre-submission consultation took place in December 2009 and the Council formally submitted the Core Strategy in March 2010. Public hearings sessions were held in June and July and the Inspector’s binding report was received on the 20th September 2010. The Council adopted the Core Strategy at Full Council on the 10th November 2010. The adopted Core Strategy reflects a continuous 5 year process and has taken account of the extensive responses received during consultation on previous stages and sets out the Council’s spatial strategy for the Borough for the next 15 to 20 years.
Figure 1.2 Enfield town centre
1.9 Each stage has been informed by an independent sustainability appraisal to evaluate the social, economic and environmental effects of the suggested options and final preferred strategy. An Equalities Impact Assessment (EqIA) has been undertaken to ensure that the policies and proposals within the Report do not discriminate against specific groups within Enfield's communities. The report has also been subject to an Appropriate Assessment (also known as a Habitats Regulations Assessment) to ensure that the Core Strategy does not adversely impact upon nature conservation sites of European Importance (the Natura 2000 network and Ramsar sites). The LDF is also informed by a number of technical studies which contribute to the evidence underpinning the Core Strategy and other documents. Further information on the evidence base is set out in Appendix 4.
1.10 The Core Strategy is accompanied by an interactive, on-line Proposals Map in addition to a paper format illustrating the boundaries of the various designations set out in the main body of this report.
The Structure of this Report
1.11 Chapter 2 contains a brief description of the national, regional and local policy and guidance which inform the Core Strategy. It then summarises the context for this report, giving a spatial overview of Enfield highlighting the key strategic planning issues.
1.12 Chapter 3 “Enfield Spatial Strategy”, puts forward the Council’s spatial vision, strategic objectives and a spatial strategy for Enfield.
1.13 Chapters 5 to 8 set out policies for specific themes such as housing, economic development, the physical environment and travel. Chapter 9 sets out more detailed policies for strategic growth areas in the Borough and the Council's place shaping priority areas.
1.14 Chapter 10 looks at how the Core Strategy will be delivered and monitored.
1 Enfield's most up to date Local Development Scheme is available online at www.enfield.gov.uk"