Agenda item

To consider the attached report (AMED-012-2013/14).

The Director of Housing was invited to present a report to the Cabinet Committee regarding the progress of developments at The Broadway, Loughton. He explained that The Broadway developments were split into two categories, sites under and not under Council control.

Sites not under Council control

(a)        Site 1 – Sir Winston Churchill Public House

At the Cabinet meeting on 9 September 2013 the proposed Heads of Terms were agreed for a Development Agreement between the District Council as the freeholder and the developer for the site.

On 11 December 2013 at the District Development Control Committee, planning permission was granted subject to S106 agreements being completed by the 31 March 2014. The legal documents, drafted by EFDC Legal Department have now been sent to the Solicitors, Sharpe Pritchard who were appointed as the Council’s external solicitors and the Council’s Legal Department were awaiting their comments.

(b)       Site 2 – Sainsbury Supermarket, Shopping Precinct and BP Petrol Station

The Sainsbury’s store was now closed as works were currently underway to make improvements to the store, which would include the demolition of the parade of vacant shops to the front of the store, to make way for additional parking. The store is due to re-open Spring 2014.

BP, who own the petrol station, indicated that they would like to renew their lease and the terms of a new lease were currently being negotiated by the Council’s agents.

The Director of Housing advised that Alison Mitchell, Assistant Director, Legal put in a lot of work in a short period of time, into this legal agreement and it was completed before Christmas. The Committee expressed its appreciation to Ms Mitchell for her work.

(c)        Sites 3 and 8 – Debden Station and Station Car Park

This site was owned by Transport for London (TFL). The adopted Design Brief for The Broadway included proposals for re-developing the area around Debden Station. TFL’s initial proposals for the re-development of Debden Station and the Car Park had been presented to the Council in March 2012. Since that meeting, further contact with TFL had been hard to establish; it was understood that their Project Manager had left the organisation. The Director of Planning and Economic Development had recently written to TFL to try and establish what the current position was.

Sites under Council control

(a)        Site 4 – Vere Road (North)

This site comprises 36 council garages that were difficult-to-let with high void rates and no waiting list. This site would seek to fulfil two functions:

(i)         that it would provide additional parking as part of the Sir Winston Churchill development; and

(ii)        that it would provide some affordable housing and discussions were on-going with Moat Housing about what could be provided and what payment could be made to the Council for the site. These discussions were at an early stage; the Director of Housing advised that he had a meeting scheduled with Moat Housing on the 14 February 2014 to discuss the options further.

(b)       Site 4 – Vere Road (South)

This site comprised of surface car parking and 42 garages in two separate blocks. In September 2012 a Design Brief was proposed for a mews style development.

The Design Brief had proposed a mews style development. However, since the Design Brief the proposal for mews houses with underground parking, that would not be associated with the housing above, was no longer thought to be appropriate. The Committee had previously considered this issue and had agreed in principle to considering a scheme whereby one area of land for parking would provide parking and a separate area would provide housing; the size of the two areas had yet to be determined.

(c)        Site 6 and 7 – Burton Road (South) and Burton Road (East)

Sites 6 and 7 were comprised of a former Council depot plus two large garage blocks and a large grassed area. As set out in the Design Brief, it was proposed that these sites become mainly residential accommodation. The Director of Housing had been having lengthy discussions with a representative for the Bishop of Barking exploring the possibility of some land in Burton Road being conveyed to the Church, to provide a small Church with a community facility in return for Church land elsewhere in Loughton which the Council could develop as affordable housing.

The Director of Housing advised, however, that following further discussions between the Anglican Parish of Loughton and the Methodist Church in Loughton (which had a Local Ecumenical Partnership), the Partnership had been unable to agree amongst its membership to such a proposal.  Therefore, this option was no longer being pursued by the Council or the Church.

At the Council Housebuilding Cabinet Committee (CHBCC) on 4 February 2014 it had originally been proposed that 25 affordable rented homes could be provided on part of the site, which could become Year 2 of the Council Housebuilding Programme. It was established at the meeting that 6 more homes could be provided on the land that would have been transferred to the Church and it had also identified that there was another area of land in the Councils ownership where 2 more homes could be provided.

The view of the CHBCC was that this was an appropriate site for affordable housing. The Cabinet Committee agreed that Officers should go forward and submit a planning application for residential accommodation on the land, although the combined land should now be looked at further to seek to increase the number of homes on the land. The Director reported that he was currently in discussions with the Council’s Development Agent, East Thames, to see how the number of properties could be increased. A further report would be submitted to the CHBCC in the near future.

(d)       Site 5 – Burton Road (North), Rear of shops

At its meeting in September 2012, the North Weald Airfield and Asset Management Cabinet Committee agreed that the land should be retained in the Council’s ownership pending an upturn in the commercial market for consideration of its future use at a later date.

RESOLVED:

That this report was for noting.