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5 INFRASTRUCTURE PRIORITIES AND DELIVERY MECHANISMS

5.1 INTRODUCTION

View towards Bowes Primary School along Bowes Road

The North Circular Regeneration Priority Area is in the south west of the Borough. It is an area that is predominantly residential in character and one that has suffered from lack of investment, resulting in blight and a poor environment.

The Core Strategy envisaged that approximately 2,000 new homes will be delivered across the NCAAP area within the plan period of up to 2026. This Action Plan has reviewed the level of housing growth and has identified a number of sites that, combined would deliver in the region of 1,400 new homes. The delivery and phasing of this housing growth will need to be coordinated alongside the delivery of all necessary supporting infrastructure.

5.2 PHASING PLAN

The NCAAP has identified 20 opportunity sites. An indicative phasing plan for the AAP is set out below which illustrates the delivery time scales of each opportunity site.

Fig 31. Site phasing

5.3 KEY INFRASTRUCTURE REQUIREMENTS

Education

NC Policy 4 outlines the most current local education needs for the area. The Council will secure financial contributions from development in line with the Council’s adopted s106 SPD to fund the local need for more school places.

Provision of Flexible Community Infrastucture Space

Through private sector development the Council will secure financial contributions to deliver improvements in community infrastructure provision to fulfil a range of social infrastructure requirements. With detailed requirements yet to be determined in liaison with community service providers, the AAP needs to deliver a flexible planning and development framework.

In the NCAAP area, there are pockets of high deprivation affecting children and families. There are also significant numbers of teenage pregnancies and mobile families, not in permanent accommodation. Community facilities should prioritise the provision of specific support to young parents, children in the early years and vulnerable children in mobile families. In particular, there is a need for safe local, accessible and good quality community and play areas through improvements to existing and the provision of new facilities to encourage active physical and social development.

A number of opportunity sites are identified as having the capacity and suitable location to fulfil a variety of local needs, some of which are identified below.

Childcare facilities

The North Circular AAP falls within the authority’s major areas of deprivation. Sufficient childcare facilities for three and four year old preschool children, and infrastructure catering for deprived younger children should be provided.

The situation remains dynamic but as a minimum the North Circular AAP area should seek to secure provision of 60 part time nursery places. The Council will keep the situation under continual review. The private sector may respond to fulfil this additional demand resulting from the planned housing growth and the AAP identifies a number of potentially suitable locations where such community facilities could be located. However, the Council is aware of the range of factors that may influence delivery by the private sector such as the availability of suitable sites and premises and the viability of delivery.

Play Development

The Play Development Team (Community Access, Childcare & Early Years) has identified a need for an adventure playground within the area. The success of the Florence Hayes Adventure Playground in Edmonton provides a useful reference point. The centre could also be used as a community hub. It could lend itself to community meetings, training and development classes, coffee mornings, a crèche and also has the potential to become a social enterprise for the children and young people.

Elderly Care

The NCAAP area also has a higher proportion of older residents. New development opportunities must take into account the needs of older residents in terms of security and mobility. In particular, new development should contribute towards the provision of appropriate community centres locally in the three neighbourhood places and the need for links to supportive community organisations to help older residents overcome social isolation.

Fig 32. Sites with proposed flexible community infrastructure

Provision of Health Infrastructure Space and Programmes

The regeneration of the NCAAP area provides a unique and very important opportunity to make better use of existing facilities and services. Steps will be taken to strengthen existing local health networks and infrastructure, including pharmacies, dentists, health centres and children’s centres – improving promotion, signposting and ease of access locally.

Through new development opportunities, the Council will secure financial contributions to improvements in local health provision to support planned housing growth and improve existing deficiencies in health provision. Research undertaken by the Council using the Healthy Urban Development Unit (HUDU) model reveals that approximately £7 million is estimated to be needed to support the Plan’s proposed level of housing growth.

Primary healthcare services for the area arising from the planned housing growth will be delivered through new floorspace (expansion of existing facilities and/or new facilities) as well as investment in and delivery of existing and new healthcare programmes. One of the key aims is to ensure the long term sustainability of healthcare services in the area, and address key issues such as population growth and meeting the particular healthcare needs of a diverse local ethnic population.

Enfield Community Services have established a need to improve access to family and sexual health services in the Bowes Road area. This is supported by a public health needs assessment. Together with the commissioning strategy for Musculo Skeletal (MSK) services, this underpins the need to identify a suitable location at the Haringey/Enfield/ Barnet border, which will be strategically placed to deliver more local services.

Fig 33. Sites with proposed health infrastructure

Open Space, Blue Ribbon Network and Biodiversity Improvements

Recognising that NCAAP area provides limited opportunities to provide new open spaces, it is more appropriate to consider other options for improving the quality of and access to existing public open spaces. Existing areas of open space could be diversified to incorporate elements of natural / semi natural greenspace.

In addition, green linkages and the area’s blue ribbon network, centred around the New River and Pymmes Brook, should be improved. This is particularly the case between areas of open space deficiency. Existing natural green spaces located within the area have the potential to create linear habitat spaces incorporating linear routes and back gardens.

Proposals for new development will need to address the additional open space needs generated as a result of the development. Any improvement to open space provision required would be funded by the developer and secured through planning conditions and / or section 106 agreements.

Fig 34. Proposed open space, blue ribbon network and biodiversity improvements

Transport and Sustainable Travel

Although the NCAAP area is dominated in large parts by the A406 corridor and associated, vehicular traffic, it contains New Southgate and Arnos Grove stations and a number of opportunities for sustainable travel. The development proposed through the AAP would provide a number of improvements to the transport network.

Fig 35. Proposed transport improvements

The New River

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