News

We have been advised that Enfield Council will be holding a consultation meeting on proposals for a school on the land adjacent to Grovelands Park. The meeting will be held on Wednesday 25th September at the Southgate Methodist Church, Bourne Hill at 7.00 pm.

The Council are planning to ‘invest in’ and ‘redevelop’ the ancient park. The intention is to conduct an historic parks survey and develop a management plan – both of which are standard good practice in parks management – but also to explore the options for introducing a new two form entry primary school and improve sports facilities. The intention is also to ‘open up’ the park, including lands owned by Thames Water.

The Minchenden Oak Garden is currently closed to the public.
This is due to the findings of a tree survey implemented by Enfield Council which has identified safety issues with the Minchenden Oak tree.
The Friends Group have requested a copy of the tree report which recommends removal of a substantial number of the Minchenden Oaks branches. Once we have the report we will be able to obtain an independent second opinion.
We will be organising a meeting once the tree report has been received and studied.

Dear SGA members,

I’m very grateful to your Committee for allowing the Pinkham Way Alliance to contact you directly.

I’m writing to ask you to sign our petition to halt the30-year NLWA waste contract for North London (please click on the link below). An important factor in a petition’s success nowadays is the spreading of the message. If you do sign, I urge you to pass this letter on to family, friends and neighbours, and to any networks you have in any of the seven N London councils – Enfield, Barnet, Haringey, Camden, Islington, Waltham Forest and Hackney.

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/halt-the-3-billion-waste-contract-for-north-london

If you feel strongly enough to collect signatures locally, please download our petition kit from the PWA website – click on http://www.pinkhamwayalliance.org/ and you will find the link on the home page.

In our opinion, and in the opinion of waste professionals we have met, the contract is, at 30 years, far too long to be realistically based, and carries high financial risk for the councils, and for 1.7 million N London residents, at a time when there is continuing pressure on local expenditure. (You may recall the recent spending review cut the central government grant to local councils by 10% in 2015/16)

Rather than explain the background more fully, only for you to click on the link and have it explained all over again, may I direct you to the www.change.org site, which is hosting the petition, by clicking on the link above.

Thank you for your time taken in reading this. Please sign the petition – and please pass it on.

With kind regards,

Stephen Brice

Chair – Pinkham Way Alliance.

4^th July 2013.

The proposal involves a substantial number of densely populated residential units adjacent to the North Circular on land previously designated for widening the A406. Public consultation is open until Wednesday 29th May, details can be accessed on www.enfield.gov.uk/ncaap .

SGA have supported The Pinkham Way Alliance in their on going representations to The North London Waste Authority, The Planning Inspectorate, and Local Councils against the use of the site for Waste Transfer and processing . The first plan has been shelved however the preparation of a new North London Waste Plan is now underway. Have your say by responding to the ‘have your say’ section of the NLWP website.

Once again, we ask that if you have an email address and you haven’t given it to us, please do so. We won’t pass it on to anyone, and it is a quicker, cheaper and more environmentally friendly way for us to contact you.

Walker School Expansion- Statutory Notice for increasing Pupil numbers has now been posted on the school gates and in the Enfield Gazette on November 14th.

SGA are still considering comments but here’s what you need to know and can do:

Here is the FULL statutory notice with information about the immediate local context. There is also the report of the Walker School Consultation meetings and comments – November 2012. Please read both. Consultation is underway as to whether or not the school should expand.

If you decide to comment, please consider including:

Whether or not you attended any meetings about the expansion of Walker, or pre-planning meetings and in what capacity, i.e. resident, parent, waiting list parent, former parent

Whether or not the demand for LOCAL (as opposed to Enfield as a whole) places were addressed sufficiently for you to make an informed comment.

Whether or not the two separate processes of the principle of expansion and how that might be achieved on a confined site were clear to you.

Please send copies of comments to your local cllrs and MP.

• Walker School statutory notice – November 2012
• the report of the Walker School Consultation meetings and comments – November 2012.

Ground Force Day

This year’s Ground Force day will take place on Saturday September 22nd between 10.30am and 12.30pm.  Please join us if you can for our annual clean up of the Conservation Area.  Offers of help to Denise Gandhi (8886 3632) or just come along and pick up bags, brooms etc from a table which will be placed by the stocks (near the roundabout).  This year we plan to focus on tidying up Minchenden Oak Garden, as well as a general litter pick of the area.  Sadly, SGA has been banned from tending the roundabout on Health and Safety grounds.

Update on Proposed Waste Processing Plant at Pinkham Way

At the hearing of the North London Waste Plan a few weeks ago the Inspector found that the Plan was legally unsound.  The North London Waste Authority had failed to cooperate with adjacent boroughs outside the capital which receive a significant proportion of the Authority’s waste.  The Authority now has to withdraw the existing plan and start again or try to fix the problem.

At a hearing in February the Inspector refused to allow LB Haringey to redesignate the Pinkham Way site as industrial land.  Haringey’s Core Strategy (renamed Strategic Policies) is now open for consultation on the Inspector’s changes to the proposed Policies.  We will keep members informed of developments.

Minchenden Oak Garden

A plan has been submitted to LB Enfield for Community Funding for the proposed refurbishment of Minchenden Oak Garden.  The plan can be seen on the SGA website (www.southgategreen.org.uk).

The intention is to make the garden more accessible and attractive without destroying its present character, and it is hoped that SGA members and other community groups will wish to be involved in the preparatory work.  For further information or to offer help, contact SGA Chair Chris Horner on 8886 7833

Subscriptions

Subs are now due for 2012/13.  Your subs keep the Association going and contribute to improvements within the Conservation Area.  So if you’re not up-to-date with your subscription please would you drop a cheque for £10 to the Secretary at the address below.