Ten tower blocks planned for Blackhorse Rd
Do you want the future of Blackhorse Rd to be tonnes of high-rise concrete and more congestion?
The 23-STOREY, 230 FEET HIGH BLOCK is part of a planned ‘super-density’ housing development near the station, with OVER 400 FLATS for up to 1,000 people in 10 TOWER BLOCKS, squeezed into only 1.7 hectares (thats less than two football pitches).
The huge buildings are far higher than any other in the area (mostly two storey Victorian terraces) and will create a precedent for more tower blocks in Walthamstow. It will also add hundreds more people to the rush hour crushes in cars, buses, tubes and trains. There’s also a much larger development planned for the area north of Forest Road, adding even more people and cars to the Blackhorse Rd bottleneck.
TO STOP A 23 STOREY TOWER BLOCK BEING BUILT AT BLACKHORSE ROAD WE NEED LOCAL PEOPLE TO SUBMIT THEIR VIEWS, ALONG WITH THEIR NAME AND EITHER AN EMAIL OR HOUSE ADDRESS. WE CAN THEN PROVE TO COUNCIL PLANNERS THAT THE LOCAL COMMUNITY WANTS MORE THAN JUST HUGE TOWER BLOCKS.
WE WILL NOT CLOG UP YOUR EMAIL OR DOOR MAT WITH JUNK! ALTERNATIVELY BECOME A MEMBER OF BAG HERE.
BAG WANTS THE DEVELOPMENT TO BE….
…on a smaller scale; less dense; better designed; sustainable; sympathetic to the area; with community spaces, facilities and services; meeting the needs of residents.
WHERE WILL IT BE?
WHY IS IT PLANNED?
The council wants to build 2,000 flats in the Blackhorse Lane area. Over 400 of these are earmarked for the site next to the tube station. Many more flats are planned on the north side of Forest Road.
WHEN IS THE BUILDING DUE?
After an inadequate public ‘consultation’, planning permission may be applied for in summer 08 and building could start as early as autumn 08.
THE OWNER & DEVELOPER
Government agency English Partnerships owns the land. The developer is the Key London Alliance, which is private house-builders Barratt Homes and Inspace, and housing associations Circle Anglia and Notting Hill Housing Group.
JOIN THE CAMPAIGN TO SAY NO TO THE ‘CONCRETE AND CONGESTION’ PLAN AT BLACKHORSE RD
1. TOO HIGH
Developers haven’t learnt from the anti-social, alienating high-rises of the 1960s and 70s. If this 23-storey block gets consent, it creates a precedent for more in the area.
The tower block contradicts what the council has said about taller buildings being: “out of keeping with the character of the area” and “particularly inappropriate”* when they’re close to greenbelt land like the Lea Valley Special Protection Area right next to it!
2. TOO DENSE
Over 2,000 new flats are planned for the Blackhorse Lane area. Over 400 of these are proposed for a small area of 1.7 hectares next to the tube station. This is much denser than other local housing, and has no significant open spaces.
The proposal is…
3. TOO RESTRICTED
The proposal only includes housing. There are no shops, businesses, communal facilities or usable open spaces for people. This is a recipe for social alienation and anti-social behaviour.
The development will add more traffic to the jams at the Blackhorse Road cross-roads, and swell the crowds on our pressured tube, buses and trains.
4. ADDS TO OVERCROWDED TRANSPORT
The development will add more traffic to the jams at the Blackhorse Road cross-roads, and swell the crowds on our pressured tube, buses and trains.
5. POORLY DESIGNED
The height and bulk of the buildings will tower over the area and local housing. At ground level it will be walled in and used mainly by vehicles rather than as landscaped open space. There are no shop fronts, communal and work spaces, services or other facilities to bring the place alive for local people.
6. SPOILING THE AREA
This is a super-dense bunker. It will dominate the existing two-storey homes nearby and damage the character of the nearby streets.
7. UNSUSTAINABLE
The design is to a minimal level of sustainability for energy efficiency, water/ waste management and countering climate change. This level of sustainability is well below what owner English Partnerships champions on other sites.
*Waltham Forest council’s Unitary Development Plan, March 2006
The Blackhorse Action Group (BAG) is the residents association for the Blackhorse Rd area. We are not a party political group.
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I moved from a 23 floor tower block and I have to say towerblocks encourage anti social behavior and are bleak and hard to manage. We had a pirate radio station on the roof which was too dangerous for the police or the housing association to tackle. The soil stacks frequently had radio masts shoved down them which caused the drains to backlog waste ( featured on a life of grime!) Tower Blocks are boiling in the summer and freezing in the winter. I moved here to get away from highrise living .It looks glamourous in the brochure but not when the lifts aren’t working and there are people hanging about on the stairs menacingly because there’s no where to go . We have a Victorian heritage here lets preserve it with inkeeping planning choices. Please don’t build another round of social problems.
S.Allen – “Please dont build another round of social problems” – perfectly put! Walthamstow planners should get rare praise for keeping the character of walthamstow’s victorian housing and keeping high rises at a minimum. However it seems that of late they have embarked on a late and misguided attempt to build them high and pack them in.
As their own advisors said “the only people who like tower blocks are developers”, not existing residents, not the community and not even the people who live in them.
I agree completely with the above comments. The council has only recently demolished several tower blocks in Walthamstow so why build more ? They know that they do not work.
I founded the Friends of Stoneydown Park several years ago to better facilities in this already densely populated area. Putting so many more people into the area without uprgrading schools, transport and open spaces will undo all of that work. Yes we need more homes but only so many as can be facilitated.
I have now been living in the Blackhorse area for 4 years and really enjoy the peace an d quite. My husband and me are renting but have given thought to buy the property that we are living in. Considering these plans I do not think that we will stay in Walthamstow. We have to commute everyday to Marylebone to get to work, already there is no seat available on the Vitoria Line when pulling into Blackhorse Road station at 7am. How full will the trains and buses be when another 1000 people move into the TEN TOWER BLOCKS?????? Please we really do not need this plan to sucseed.
Rosemary – Thanks for posting, dont forget to submit your views through the form if you havent already. That way we can put your opinions direct to the council/the developers and have the power to stop this idiotic plan
Fantastic! We can get 15 Romanians to a room, and charge them all council tax!, plus think of the car parking charges!
As usual this is WF council is trying to generate as much revenue as possible and bugger the consequences. feathering their own nests in the process, because by the time the crap hits the fan they will be retired and sunning themselves n Marbella.
Now maybe if they were to build a road from the A406 down the side of the reservoirs and up to Leyton Orient Way, thus cutting North/South traffic in a swoop, we might see these morons in a different light…
How very typically thoughtless of this council.
Waltham Forest cannot cope with waste disposal and basic street cleaning.
Yes the area needs regenaration but what will 10 high rises bring to the area apart from congestion and an increased burden on already overstretched public services.
Nice work Waltham Forest – the smuggest, most pathetic council in Britain.
more of the same!
the kids are ruined before they’re born!
Waltham Forest used to be able with basic street cleaning but then they saved 600,000 with new contractors. Great success for council tax payers the only downside being rubbish on every street, bin bags left out for the foxes and the borough looking like a land fill site