Waltham Forest asked to re-think garage schemes

Billericay Councillors ask London Borough to reconsider their plans

Andrew has written a letter, co-signed by colleagues, asking LBWF to reconsider their plans for the Outwood Common Estate

 

Residents will recall that I wrote a blog back in June 2021 and another in January of this year, advising that Waltham Forest London Borough Council had consulted on redeveloping five garage sites located on the Outwood Common Estate, which is located in Billericay East but owned by the London Borough of Waltham Forest (LBWF).

As I explained in my January blog, LBWF concluded their legal consultation and issued a Decision Report and a newsletter, notifying residents on the Estate of their intention to submit planning applications. These will be considered by Basildon Borough Council, which is the Local Planning Authority for this area. I am the Vice-Chairman of the Planning Committee at Basildon and I serve in a quasi-judicial capacity, meaning I will need to reserve judgement and keep an open mind about any application LBWF may submit and consider it, fairly and dispassionately on its planning merits and in accordance with the guidance laid down in the National Planning Policy Framework. It is, however, not lost on me that a great many of my constituents have very profound concerns about the dire parking problems that already exist on the Estate and I have been contacted by many worried residents since LBWF announced their plans.

This is something I have discussed at length with my two Billericay East ward colleagues, Cllr. Stuart Sullivan and Mayor David Dadds, as well as our Essex County Council counterpart, Cllr. Tony Hedley. To that end, I drafted a letter to Cllr. Grace Williams and Mr. Martin Esom, Leader and Chief Executive respectively of Waltham Forest Council and this has been co-signed by my three colleagues. A copy of the letter has also been sent to Cllr. Andrew Baggott, Leader of Basildon Council, and Cllr. Lee Scott, Cabinet Member for Highways Maintenance & Sustainable Transport at Essex County Council.

The letter reads as follows:

Dear Cllr. Williams & Mr. Esom,

My colleagues and I are writing to formally request that Waltham Forest London Borough Council reconsider the disposal and redevelopment of the garage sites on the Outwood Common Estate in Billericay, Essex.

As you may or may not be aware, the Outwood Common Estate was built after World War II, when many London boroughs bought up land in the Home Counties to build homes for those families that were bombed out during the ‘Blitz’. Unfortunately, the need for parking provision was a complete afterthought back then and nobody in the 1950s could have imagined the sheer scale of mass car ownership we see today. In 1960, there were just under 5 million private cars registered. Today, the figure stands at nearly 32 million.

The Outwood Common Estate is a microcosm of this national trend and has suffered increasingly over many years from the growing problem of lack of available parking, exacerbated by the dilapidation and fall into disuse of the garage sites that were provided when the Estate was built, and which was originally intended to satisfy the parking requirements for the entire estate.

I have been contacted by many estate residents expressing not only their daily frustrations at the lack of parking but also their increasing concern about access for emergency services and residents requiring urgent medical attention being ‘blocked in’ by parked cars, which is fast becoming a regular occurrence. As I am sure you are aware, due to the age of the Estate, most properties do not benefit from driveways and not all the properties would be able to accommodate one in any case.

Many residents are looking to the example of another New Town, Harlow, where a much-needed residential parking improvement program was put in place, which saw many of their ‘50s and ‘60s garage blocks converted into modern fit-for-purpose parking facilities.

In total, Harlow District Council’s scheme provided 80 new unallocated parking bays in areas where parking had become a real problem. Basildon Borough Council is looking into a similar scheme but, as you know, the Outwood Common Estate is owned by Waltham Forest Council. We would, therefore, urge you to follow the good example of colleagues in Harlow and reconsider your plans for the Outwood Common Estate.

I and my co-signatories would also be grateful if we could open a three-way dialogue between Basildon Council, Essex County Council and Waltham Forest Council around any pieces of redundant land (grass verges, etc) that parties might be willing to contribute to enable the provision of additional parking spaces for residents.

I hope that we can all come together to address the parking problems that now plague this estate and that are blighting the lives of those that live there. They are looking to us for solutions and I hope that we can all come together in a spirit of co-operation to see what practical steps may be available to alleviate their difficulties.  

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Cllrs. ANDREW SCHRADER           DAVID DADDS, J.P.          STUART SULLIVAN

Basildon Borough Councillors for Billericay East Ward

Cllr. ANTHONY HEDLEY

Essex County Councillor for the Billericay & Burstead Division

 

As we say in our letter, my Billericay East colleagues and I would like to open up a three-way dialogue between Basildon Council, Councillor Scott and Essex Highways, and with Councillor Williams and her colleagues at Waltham Forest to try and find a way forward to tackle these growing parking problems on the Outwood Common Estate. I shall do my best to keep residents informed of any progress and any residents with any issues can, as ever, contact me at andrew.schrader@members.basildon.gov.uk.

***UPDATE***

The following response has been received from LBWF:

 

Dear Cllr Schrader,

Thank you for your letter of the 5th February 2022 regarding the parking difficulties being experienced by residents on the Outwood Common Estate.

Please be assured that we are sympathetic to the concerns that residents have raised and that we are happy to work with you and local residents to consider solutions.

The funds from the disposal of the garages are already committed for reinvestment in Council housing programmes, however, we are happy to work with you and Essex County Council to consider other options for the provision of additional parking on the estate.

We will come back to you when we have had an opportunity to consider this further.

I hope this is helpful and we look forward to working with you on this to find a solution for the benefit of residents.

Yours sincerely

Darren Welsh (he/him) BA (Hons) CIHCM | Deputy Strategic Director, Resident Services

Resident Services Directorate | Waltham Forest Council
Cedar Wood House | 2d Fulbourne Road | London E17 4GG

 

Clearly, this is a very disappointing response from Mr. Welsh, Deputy Strategic Director of Resident Services at LBWF (not even the Strategic Director themselves, only their deputy!). It is pretty much the same response I have seen posted on Facebook by residents of the OCE, who made similar enquiries of LBWF.

I am currently in discussions with my colleagues about how best to progress this matter. I think we will need to try to arrange a meeting between relevant officers of all three councils to discuss possible solutions but what I am hearing loud and clear from Mr. Welsh's email is that LBWF are set upon the redevelopment of the garage sites and there is no immediate prospect of them changing course.

I will post further updates as the matter moves forward.

Train timetable needs re-think

Andrew seconded a motion calling on Greater Anglia to review recent timetable changes

Andrew and colleagues have seen for themselves overcrowding on the platform at Billericay

 

Last month, I and my colleagues started receiving complaints from numerous residents about problems at Billericay Rail Station caused by timetable changes introduced by Greater Anglia.

One morning, I and two of my colleagues, Cllr. Anthony Hedey and Mayor David Dadds, went down to the Station early one morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, to see for ourselves. The sight that greeted us was worrying.

Cllrs. Schrader and Hedley at Billericay Rail Station

The platform was horribly overcrowded and there was a terrific scrum to get onto the train when it arrived. We had the opportunity to speak to residents, as well as staff, outside the station and down on the platform and the message from them was pretty clear – not enough trains, not enough space.

It is appreciated, of course, that less people are now commuting. I myself haven't been into my London office in months and I had previously only been going in one day a week before the Government introduced the Plan B restrictions. Clearly, the pandemic has changed a lot of things but the scenes we saw at Billericay that morning were, sadly, all to familiar and they are not acceptable. We are back to the bad old days of crammed carriages, too full for everyone to board (including children trying to get to school - and two of those children were Councillor Hedley's grandchildren!), and utterly impossible to social distance.

There is not much point in wearing a face mask, if your face is buried in somebody’s armpit.

Consequently, at the meeting of Full Council held on January 27th, I was pleased to second a motion moved by Councillor Hedley. The motion said:

This Council notes recent timetable changes introduced by Greater Anglia, affecting both Billericay and Wickford.

 

Recognises the challenges caused by pandemic-related staff shortages and fall in passenger numbers and that pragmatic adjustments may be needed to improve reliability and avoid cancellations at short notice. 

Nevertheless stresses that rail providers still need to cater to those who must travel, especially key workers and school children.

Asks the Leader of the Council to write to Greater Anglia and request that they:  

• review the timetable;
• engage constructively with service users and act upon their feedback;
• ensure they are providing sufficient capacity to enable passengers to maintain proper social distancing;
• provide a new timetable that is reliable and accurate for travellers.

 

We recognise that there is a legitimate need by the train company to reduce the timetable to make it more reliable and to avoid last-minute cancellations, but they still need to provide a useable service for our residents. I am pleased to say that the motion was passed unanimously by Full Council and the Leader of Basildon Council will be writing to both Greater Anglia and c2c Rail to ask them to listen to their customers and respond to their needs.

As Plan B has now been lifted, hopefully we will start to see changes to the timetable in any event but, as it seems unlikely that services will go back immediately to how they were before, I hope that we can open a constructive dialogue with the train companies so that when they next review their services, we can ensure that passengers who need to travel are well-informed of any changes and that services remain responsive to their needs.
 

***UPDATE***

Councillor Baggott has since written to Greater Anglia, in line with the motion.