Issue - meetings

Vere Road, Loughton - Car Parking and Affordable Housing Plan

Meeting: 22/08/2016 - Asset Management and Economic Development Cabinet Committee (Item 15)

15 Vere Road, Loughton - Car Parking & Affordable Housing Plan pdf icon PDF 200 KB

(Director of Communities) To consider the attached report AMED-005-2016/17.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee was reminded that it had previously considered and adopted a Broadway Regeneration Action Plan, setting out the Council’s planned approach to the development of various sites in the Broadway area of Loughton.

 

The Director of Communities presented a report relating to five separate areas of Council-owned land at Vere Road, Loughton, to the north of The Broadway, which were currently used to provide either Council garages or public car parking spaces. Members were advised that, in accordance with the development agreement for the site of the former Sir Winston Churchill Public House, the Council was required to provide sufficient land for 58 car parking spaces to be constructed by the developer of that site (Higgins Homes) on one or two of the specific sites at Vere Road, at the developer’s expense. The report provided various options for future car parking arrangements and the development of affordable housing schemes on the sites at Vere Road, which were considered by the Committee.

 

The approach recommended by the report of the Director of Communities offered a balanced approach to car parking and the provision of new affordable homes in the area, providing around 96 public parking spaces (compared to the current 63 spaces) and 10 new affordable rented properties. Members were advised that Higgins Homes had offered to meet the cost of the re-construction of some of the public car parking spaces, and that it was proposed that the costs of re-constructing the remaining public car parking spaces be assessed, with a view to appropriate budget provision being made to undertake the works within the Capital Programme for 2017/18. The Director of Communities advised the Committee that the Council would receive an annual income from each of the 58 car parking spaces to be constructed by Higgins Homes at Vere Road, even in the event that any of the spaces were not actually utilised by residents of the new residential development on the former Sir Winston Churchill Public House site.

 

The Committee noted that the ward members in attendance at the meeting were generally in favour of the option proposed in the report, subject to the completion of scheme designs to ensure the continued provision of access to the rear of the shops along The Broadway by local traders and the grant of planning permission where necessary. One of the ward members in attendance raised concern with regard to parking on the footpath at front of the shops along The Broadway by traders and those making deliveries to the shops. The Director of Neighbourhoods advised the Committee that the ongoing Debden Parking Review would address a range of parking-related issues for the area and that he would draw the issues of pavement parking at The Broadway to the attention of relevant officers for investigation.

 

Recommended:

 

That Option 3 set out within the report be pursued, in order to provide a cohesive Car Parking and Affordable Housing Plan for Vere Road, Loughton and that:

 

(a)         the previous decision of the Cabinet  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15