Last night I voted along with the majority of the planning and environment committee to support the overall outline planning application for the regeneration of the existing Stonegrove estate and to give full approval for the first zone of the application.
It has taken along time for this application to reach this stage and I would like to thank and congratulate my two colleagues Cllr Joan Scannell and Cllr Helena Hart for fighting so hard to get the previous planning permission scrapped and replaced with this much better application.
As a resident of Edgware all my life, I will be extremely pleased to see the existing estate fully demolished and rebuilt in what will be a much better design. I hope this will become a pleasant landmark for all the residents of Edgware and everyone who enters London via Edgware.
For many years now the estate has become completely run-down and a horrible place for it’s residents and a no-go area for the residents of the surrounding neighbourhood. This regeneration is therefore badly needed.
The regeneration will see the demolishment of sub-standard blocks of flats, including 6 blocks of 11 storey flats, with high quality flats and hundreds of houses with gardens (there are currently no houses on the estate) and only 3 blocks of 10 storey flats with the remaining blocks at lower levels.
The estate will also be designed and landscaped to merge in with the surrounding neighbourhood, so that it is no longer seen as a separate estate and a no-go area. However, for this to be effectively achieved, it will of course be important for the architects, planners and the council’s planning committee to ensure the landscaping and designs to be of a very high quality and for the public areas to be properly managed in the future. As Edgware councillors I and my colleagues will continue to ensure this happens together with ensuring proper traffic measures are put in place.
I am also pleased that the developers of this estate will also be providing approximately in £1 million to Barnet to help fund extra resources for the local area, which will include funding for health services and to improve the local Edgwarebury and Stonegrove parks.
Last night’s decision was an important landmark decision for Edgware, which will see a much better development than the previous agreement. While, this is not a perfect solution for suburban Edgware, it will mark a drastic improvement on what is there currently for everyone concerned.
