Agenda and minutes

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest received at this point in the meeting.

The minutes of the meeting of the Economic Development, Environment and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel held on 24 March 2021 were taken as read and approved as a correct record.

The Programme Manager, Enjoy Waltham Forest, will be in attendance to give a presentation in relation to Waltham Forest Council’s Liveable Neighbourhoods Programme.

Recommendation: for Panel to determine whether further information is required.

Chris Proctor, Programme Manager, Enjoy Waltham Forest, gave a presentation in relation to Waltham Forest Council’s Mini Holland and Liveable Neighbourhoods Programmes.

Waltham Forest was an outer London Borough in north east London.  It was a diverse Borough from land use and geography, through to demographics.  South of the Borough, towards inner London it was more dense, with a predominantly Victorian road network.  To the north the Borough was a lot more suburban with less density of properties and increased green infrastructure. 

In 2014, Waltham Forest had polluted residential streets, traffic congestions, lack of cycling facilities and green spaces, a poor walking environment and few places to sit and enjoy.

Waltham Forest Council set out its objectives to address the issues as follows:

•           Join up cycle routes into a network.

•           Rebalance streets to be safer for everyone.

•           Reach 10% of journeys by bike by 2020.

•           Create better public space and environment for everyone.

•           Make Waltham Forest better connected for everyone.

•           Demonstrate best practice – nationally and internationally if possible, by             looking at what had worked on the continent and how that could be applied.

•           Attract growth into the area by enabling growth and regeneration and             ensuring policies were car free and supported with the necessary transport             infrastructure. 

•           Support other Council objectives.

The Mayor of London introduced the Mini Holland funding programme in 2014.  The programme included the introduction of cycle superhighways in London and the quiet network.  A number of outer London boroughs that were traditionally car dependent areas, were awarded funding to transform infrastructure and encourage behaviour change.  Waltham Forest Council was successful in obtaining funding from the Mini Holland programme, originally for 3 years but eventually for 5 years.

The vision for Waltham Forest Council’s Mini Holland included:

•           Lea Bridge Road – a street for everyone.

•           Four Walthamstow Village schemes.

•           Four Town Centre Schemes.

•           A network of high quality cycle routes.

•           Complementary measures.

•           Secure cycle parking.

The north circular road cut the Borough in half and provided quite a neat boundary to separate the higher and lower density housing.  There needed to be an integrated and holistic set of improvements, rather than just a route or an area based scheme.  The scheme tried to invoke a step change in terms of how people would travel around the Borough.

A core grid of high quality cycle routes was implemented on the primary or main road network and given the nature of traffic they were separated from vehicles and pedestrians.  There were also some quieter routes, using lower volume residential streets and green spaces, to build a skeletal network so that people had a real choice.

Around the town centre there were some local area based schemes designed to make roads in these areas better for walking and cycling without putting in dedicated infrastructure.  So not necessarily having formal segregated cycle lanes, or crossings but looking at traffic reduction measures and making areas more suitable for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20/58

The Head of Capital Projects, Regeneration and Culture, will be in attendance to provide an overview of the Middlehaven Masterplan.

Recommendation: for Panel to determine whether further information is required.

Following investment from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and Middlesbrough Council, clearance work had taken place at Middlehaven to provide a blank canvass for development.  There had been several masterplans for the area but none had come to fruition due to several factors including; the global recession, lack of funding, development values and much of the land being in different ownerships.  

There had been some successes including Middlesbrough College campus, Boho 1 and Boho 5 and My Place.  However a large area of Middlehaven was still undeveloped.  Circumstances had changed over time but accelerated in a positive direction over the last couple of years.  The Council now had control over the area although there was still some land from which the proceeds of any sale had to be shared with the HCA. 

The Council had been successful in bringing funding into Middlehaven and it was easier to sell to Developers now because it was a blank canvass.  Almost £30 million had been secured through the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) for various projects and the Towns Fund project was focussed on Middlehaven.  The Council had also recently secured £7.9 million from the Brownfield Housing Fund to spend on site preparation.

Market opportunities had changed with a shift to more urban living as well as a lot more interest in commercial development through the growth of the digital sector and others.  As the College had expanded there was more interested in educational opportunities and a new secondary school would be built there.

BCEGI, one of the world’s biggest building companies, as well as being a Funder and Developer, had been brought on board to provide expertise that was not available in-house or locally.    

One of the key issues about developing a masterplan for Middlehaven was that it had to be planned in a coherent way, so that different schemes would not be competing against each other.  As different schemes came forward they were all working within their own boundaries and the spaces in between: public realm, transport infrastructure, open space, all needed to be planned properly.  It was also vital that new developments were phased properly.  Bringing lots of property to the market at once could depress values and dampen some of the enthusiasm for Middlehaven.  However, due to various funding streams, the Council did need to bring developments to market at a slightly faster pace than would have been the ideal.   

The masterplan needed to tell a clear story so that anyone who was thinking about investing in Middlehaven could see what was happening and when.  The masterplan would give the area an identity and guide investment decisions as well as helping prioritise project delivery and secure further external funding.  It would also assist in convincing investors who were currently interested in MIddlehaven, as well as those who were not currently interested, that there was big development happening and there was potential to deliver it all. 

The Council wanted to be proactive about the spaces in between developments so  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20/59

The Chair will provide a verbal update on matters considered at the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Board held on 8 April 2021.

The Chair provided a verbal update on items considered at the Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting held on 8 April 2021.

The Chair thanked Members and Officers for their contributions to the Panel over the last two years.