We are pleased that the decision to refuse the car wash has been upheld and what’s more on grounds which uphold the legal protections for Metropolitan Open Land (MOL). However, running contrary to the Planning Inspectorate’s decision to safeguard MOL, the very next day we discovered that the Lee Valley Park Authority had written to local residents informing them it was pressing ahead with plans to replace the current ice centre with a new double-pad facility through disposal of treasured local space.
A letter sent to Essex Wharf and Riverside Close residents stated that they are ‘planning a new centre, which will cater for increased public demand and provide a regional centre of excellence’ on the site of the current facility. This, they claim, will be funded by ‘looking to redevelop 3.5 acres of under-utilised land that has previously been built on at the nearby WaterWorks Centre’. The idea that the 3.5 acres of land is ‘previously built on’ is misleading, since the majority of it is still green space, even if car parking and a community centre have been been built there. Furthermore when the WaterWorks Centre was constructed, in order to obtain consent under the restrictions in force for developing MOL, this would have been on the understanding this development would provide community facilities to maintain and serve the public green space. Not facilities that would later be ‘disposed’ of for private residential purposes.
Letter sent to local residents
If these facilities have since become ‘under-utilised’ as the LVRPA claim, then they are solely responsible as the sole managers of this venue and surrounding area. The Park Authority should be looking to supplement the revenue they have, around £15m, with funding bids if the new Ice Centre will indeed be commercially successful as they claim. Public protected land should not be disposed of to subsidise the building of any new commercial facility.
However this is far from being a foregone conclusion for several reasons. Firstly, an admirable group of local residents had the foresight to register the WaterWorks Centre as an Asset of Community Value. This means it will be harder for the LVRPA to sell the Centre, as the community will first be offered the opportunity to bid for it. The sale has to be delayed for a period of time to give one or more local groups time to put a bid together. We do believe that having an ACV status is a material planning consideration so it should be taken into account at the planning stage, whatever the nature of the ‘disposal’ process.
Secondly, in response to many local objections to the plans for the Waterworks and our petition of over 5000 signatures, the Council have amended the provisional wording of the Lea Bridge Eastside Vision document regrading the Waterworks from ‘Residential’ to ‘Possible Regeneration Opportunity’. This is in contrast to the definite and concrete plans for other parts of the Lea Bridge area.
The LVRPA have acted swiftly and it could be said secretively to ensure that there is minimal accountability for the plans. If you visit the website you are directed to in their letter to residents, you will discover that a private company has been contracted to deal with public communications. After several Lower Lee Valley Commitee meetings have been postponed, rescheduled, moved or cancelled, the Lower and Upper Lea Valley Committees have been rolled into one body called the “regeneration and planning” committee which means that there will no longer be specific local meetings dealing with local matters even when there are so many current issues and proposed developments in this area. The assumption that the only issues of interest are to do with regeneration and planning is ridiculous and maybe an attempt to deliberately shut down opposition from the Lower Lee Valley Committee members who are regularly lobbied by local residents and groups.
This means the likelihood of acrimonious relationships between the LVRPA and local people and local groups will be far greater, since there are no intervening democratic bodies to lobby or to represent our views to the Executive, who are now solely responsible for the disposal of assets, rather than all Authority Members as was previously the case. The LVRPA know that their plans to sell off public land are the most controversial and legally tenuous of all their undertakings and it would appear that they have undertaken bureaucratic measures to officially distance themselves from those they are meant to serve.
The cordoned off car wash at Leyton Marshes car park, on Lea Bridge Road.
The appeal lodged by the car wash business that operated on Leyton Marshes car park, in front of the Lee Valley Ice Centre, has been refused by the Planning Inspectorate. Waltham Forest Council refused planning permission for the Morina Car Wash business back in November 2016 and it appealed the decision in April this year.
The grounds given for dismissing the appeal related to the status of the land and the impact on local residents. The two main reasons cited were as follows:
These were two of the main reasons that Save Lea Marshes presented in our long-running opposition to the facility on protected open land. The Planning Inspector’s report cited the need to protect the appearance of the land as the ‘lack of built structures on the land immediately surrounding the appeal site allows clear views of the canopy from across the car park, the road, and the surrounding buildings.’ It is good to know that the relevant authorities are concerned with safeguarding the MOL status of this land, including its appearance and integrity.
The key passage regarding the impact of the car wash is as follows: ‘The core of the designation of the land as MOL is to prevent harm to openness.The appellant states that the land is already developed. However, the appeal development results in new structures being erected on an otherwise flat area currently used as a car park. Despite the presence of lighting poles with advertising affixed throughout the car park, and the nearby Ice Centre building, the site, the car park and the bordering green land, does currently have an
open character. Development, by its very nature, reduces openness. The development would result in new structures being erected, which although lightweight in nature and appearance, would reduce this openness.’
Whilst the structures are referred to in the future tense, they have in fact already been erected and we will do our best to make sure that they are removed as soon as possible by Council enforcement so that the views of the green land are as fully restored as possible, despite the presence of the Ice Centre itself.
Another notable aspect of the refusal to grant permission is also found in the grounds for dismissal, namely the impact on nearby residents. The report states: ‘Due to the open nature of the land, it is likely that any loud activities emanating from the car wash would be heard by residents. Such activities normally associated with hand car wash businesses could include pressure washers, pumps, vehicle movements and noise from workers.’
The fact the planning authorities have cited the impact of the business on Essex Wharf residents and seen fit to prevent development to maintain the openness of MOL will be useful in opposing future developments on adjacent or nearby MOL. The two free schools that are proposed for the former Thames Water Depot site opposite and the plans for high rise residential buildings for the Waterworks will both have far reaching detrimental impacts both on the openness and integrity of the MOL and on local residents.
We hope that consistency is maintained in regards to both small and large inappropriate developments alike.
We would like to thank everyone that originally objected to the car wash being located in such an inappropriate area. We hope that the business will be able to find a more suitable location which does not compromise the local environment.
The Cabinet at the London Borough of Waltham Forest have waved through the amended Lea Valley Eastside Vision.
Although there are some things to celebrate about the amended plan, there are still serious problems with it.
Waltham Forest should be congratulated on changing the designation of the Waterworks Centre and surrounding land from ‘Residential led’ to ‘Possible regeneration opportunity’. And they should be congratulated for limiting the land under threat. This is a laudable direction of travel and is a strong indication that the Council knows, in its heart, that it is wrong to build on the marshes.
But of course it’s disappointing to see that the Council wasn’t brave enough to go further, to listen to the overwhelming opposition to the LVRPA’s plans to build on the marshes and to keep the area as green open space. Because that’s exactly what it is. The site in question is 1.62 hectares. 1.13 hectares is green space; that’s a whopping 70% of the site. Only 0.09 hectares, a tiny 5.5% of the site, is covered by a building (see Google image below). Given that the GLA says that, ‘Development on Metropolitan Open Land should be resisted with only appropriate uses or redevelopment of existing built footprints allowed’, it seems strange that the Council hasn’t recognised that developing just 0.09 hectares for housing is unfeasible.
In my opinion, it would be far better if the Council responded to the wishes of local people than pandered to the wishes of the LVRPA, which seems far more interested in feathering its own nest with elephantine sporting venues than it does with protecting London’s green lung – the very task it was created to do.
While it may be true to argue that we need housing, we do not need housing here. There is plenty of room in the borough for housing to be built without the loss of Metropolitan Open Land. This development is being proposed by the LVRPA because they argue they need the money to develop the Lee Valley Ice Rink, but it is fallacious to think that the borough will lose its ice rink if this land isn’t sacrificed for development. There are other ways the LVRPA could raise money and, perhaps more to the point, could we not site an ice rink on nearby industrial land and protect even more Metropolitan Open Land?
The marshes are intrinsically precious. They are also a valuable resource. Not only do they help combat air pollution, but countless studies have demonstrated how access to good quality green open space has a significant positive impact on health and wellbeing. And local people will continue to oppose, in the strongest possible way, all development on Metropolitan Open Land. This is only the beginning…
A planning application has finally been submitted for two ‘free’ schools run by an Academy chain on Lea Bridge Road. If the application is approved, the primary and secondary school will be constructed on Metropolitan Open Land which is historically part of Leyton Marshes.
Central government’s Education Funding Agency purchased the site at 150A Lea Bridge Road from Thames Water in 2015 for the purpose of building these schools for close to £40m .
There has been local opposition to the proposed schools on both educational and environmental grounds. Construction will increase in the amount of traffic congestion and air pollution on the already busy road. Traffic and travel plans contradict and undermine the Mini Holland plans to improve and extend the use of sustainable transport on the road.
Metropolitan Open Land should be protected by law and has the same planning status as Green Belt. Loss of MOL to development is also proposed on other parts of Leyton Marshes, both sides of the road; for the new ‘double-pad’ ice centre and for the construction of private housing to fund this development, at the Waterworks. If all this development is approved, there will be irrevocable loss of public land and public access across the marshes.
A number of mature trees, including wild cherry and hornbeam, are proposed to be felled. Lea Bridge Road has recently lost a huge number of its trees, to the cycle lane outside the ice rink; to Aldi’s new car park; mature street trees have been felled along the stretch leading to Orient Way from the Hare & Hounds pub and trees were also lost to traffic improvements on the junction with Hoe Street.
Waltham Forest Council rejected the proposals at the pre-planning stage as inadequate in meeting the educational needs of the borough. There are schools in more central locations in Waltham Forest that the Council would like to see extended and improved instead. Consequently, the intended opening of the schools (in temporary buildings) was moved from September 2017 to September 2018.
The planning application has now been submitted to Waltham Forest Council. Comments can be submitted to Waltham Forest Council online. You can just enter 171408 on the Application ID box to get to the list of documents accompanying the application.
Below are some key arguments you may wish to use/ amend for your comments/ objection.
Please do so by 7th June 2017 if you can.
The car wash at Leyton Marshes car park, on Lea Bridge Road.
The car wash, erected on Metropolitan Open Land, opened in the summer of 2016 without planning permission and without permission from Thames Water to discharge trade effluent into the sewer.
The late great Katy Andrews leading the Beating of the Bounds ceremony.
Save Lea Marshes (SLM) is organising a walk following the ancient tradition of “Beating the Bounds”. Revived in the 1990s by the New Lammas Lands Defence Committee, “Beating the Bounds” involves blessing the boundaries of the area following pagan and Christian rites and more recent traditions.
Once each year, sometimes on a legally designated or customary date, people still walk around local areas of land to re-establish rights of common or mark significant
boundaries, such as of a Parish, Manor or an area of Common Land or public open space. This often takes place during Rogationtide, in springtime, when prayers were once offered asking for the fertility of the land. Willow sticks decorated with flowers and ribbons are traditionally carried and important boundary markers hit with them. Younger children are turned upside-down to have their heads bumped three times at significant points ‘to imprint the location on their minds!’ – boys might also be hung over bridges, and girls were “pricked” with pins. This year Rogation Sunday falls on 21st May!
To find out more about this part of our history, come along and enjoy the fun!
We suspected the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA) was lying when Shaun Dawson, the Chief Executive, and Paul Osborne, the Chairman, told us, on 19 January 2017, that there has been no decision to sell of the land around the Waterworks Centre for development to fund the building of the ice centre. Now we have the proof. They have been discussing it for over a year…
We have obtained the correspondence between Waltham Forest Council and the LVRPA regarding the Council’s Lea Valley East Side Vision via a Freedom of Information Act request.
References to the salient points are set out below.
The documents are available from our website: http://www.saveleamarshes.org.uk/
On Hackney Marsh the poplars stand forlorn –
The dingy old pavilion built of bricks
Dilapidated – pot-holed carpark. Mourn
With us! They’ve come to fell T Forty-six,
A blameless poplar standing in the way
Of progress, victim of the shady tricks
Of those who seek to justify their pay
By filling up the open space with cars
And noise and fumes, converting green to grey.
The trees, the birds, these spaces all are ours!
We want to keep them green and free for all,
And not enclosed by roads and gates with bars.
The few remaining poplars still stand tall,
Confined behind the new pavilion’s wall.
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