Demolition – Garages in The Greenway on the Outwood Common estate. Pic: Google Maps
A LONDON borough is preparing to build 18 homes in Billericay on land purchased after the Second World War.
Residents fear the plans will have dire consequences for car parking in the neighbourhood and have lobbied their councillors to issue an urgent plea to Waltham Forest Council.
The east London borough is preparing to submit planning applications for the homes on the Outwood Common Estate.
Waltham Forest purchased the land after the Second World War, building more than 600 homes to rehouse residents left homeless by The Blitz.
Now, the London council is seeking to build 18 two-bedroom homes across Upper Salesbury Drive, Lower Salesbury Drive and the Greenway.
The proposals, if approved, would almost 120 garages bulldozed to make way for the new homes, many of which are used by residents, although a number have also fallen into disrepair.
“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 Waltham Forest announced their plans,” councillor Andrew Schrader said.
The Billericay East councillor and his colleagues David Dadds and Stuart Sullivan have written to Waltham Forest pleading for the council to “open a dialogue” and explore ways to ensure parking provision for existing residents.
Mr Schrader added: “Unfortunately, the need for parking provision was a complete afterthought back when the estate was built and nobody in the 1950s could have imagined the sheer scale of mass car ownership we see today.
“The Outwood Common Estate 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.”
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/east-london-borough-plans-bulldoze-040000687.html
