Wood Green development approved despite 'land ownership issues'

There are further plans to replace the African Caribbean Cultural Centre as part of the development in future, reports Local Democracy Reporter Simon Allin

Plans to build blocks of flats up to eleven storeys high near an important Wood Green cultural centre have been approved by councillors.

Developer Paul Simon Magic Homes won permission to demolish a 1970s factory building in Clarendon Road and build 51 new homes during a meeting of Haringey Council’s planning subcommittee on Tuesday.

The scheme will provide 16 flats classed as “affordable” housing – nine for affordable rent, three for London Living Rent and four shared-ownership units.

The site is situated to the north of the African Caribbean Cultural Centre – formerly known as the West Indian Cultural Centre – which was built in the 1980s. A wider development plan for the area includes the cultural centre, but a council report says “land ownership issues” have stopped this from going ahead.

Robbie McNaugher, the council’s head of development management, told the committee that the authority was looking at different proposals to replace the cultural centre and “provide further development there”. The council owns the freehold of the centre, which is leased out to the African Caribbean Leadership Company.

Because of the land ownership issues, the site has been split into three “parcels” that will be developed separately. The first parcel is the site occupied by the ‘Jessica Buttons factory’, where the ground floor is being used as a temporary nursery and the upper floor houses office and storage space.

Planning officer Valerie Okeiyi told the committee that the 51-home development proposed for the site would also provide 560sq m of commercial floorspace, which would “almost replace” the current employment space. She added that the units had been designed to attract “small local businesses”.

The development will be classed as “car free”, with only two off-street bays provided for Blue Badge holders. After councillors raised concerns over the level of Blue Badge provision, planning chiefs said a further two spaces could be provided if needed.

Responding to concerns over the appearance of the building, Richard Truscott, the council’s design officer, said it was the first site in the Clarendon Road area to come forward for development and planning chiefs hoped others would follow a similar design approach to create “consistency”.

The council received eight objections to the proposals, including warnings that neighbours would lose sunlight and daylight, but no-one spoke against the application during the meeting.

Under questioning from councillors, Richard said the nearby windows that would be affected “start with poor daylight levels and are in almost impossible positions to avoid losing daylight from development”.

He added that there would be “considerably larger development” in the area, meaning the windows had been getting “unusually good levels of daylight up until now” and would be “going back to more expectable levels of daylight, rather than poor levels”.

John Woolstencroft, from Stockwool Architects, told the committee his firm would look into providing separate kitchens within some of the four larger family units but admitted it would be “difficult” to do so. His comments came in response to concerns from the committee that combined kitchen and dining areas would not meet the needs of some ethnic groups and larger families.

Following the debate, the plans were unanimously agreed by the committee.

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