The StQW/St Helens RA response to the Council’s Draft Local Plan

The Council has been consulting in recent weeks on a near final version of a new version of the Local Plan for the Borough. This key planning document sets the policies on which planning applications are decided and forms the main part of the ‘development plan’ for the Borough.

Our own StQW Neighbourhood Plan also forms part of the development plan. Its policies apply in our neighbourhood, where they vary from Borough-wide policies. The new Draft Local Plan confirms full support for the StQW Neighbourhood Plan and its site allocations and policies will remain in force after the new Local Plan is adopted.

The consultation on the new Local Plan runs until December 22nd 2022. The main points that we are making in our response were outlined at our last open meeting in St Helens Church Hall on November 29th. These are:

  • support for retaining the Local Green Spaces on three of the ‘backland’ open spaces at the Bowling Club, Nursery Lane, and beside Kelfield Gardens.
  • welcoming a bespoke Employment Zone policy for Latimer Road, which should make it easier for any redevelopments of Units 1.14 to be financially viable at a lower height than would otherwise be needed.
  • objections to the unrealistic target of 3,500 new homes at the Kensal Canalside Opportunity Area. If maintained in the new Local Plan, this will lead to very high density housing in towers up to 31 storeys in an area with poor access to public transport and limited vehicle access (this target would have been plausible were an Elizabeth Line station to be built st the site. The new Local Plan accepts that this is not going to happen).
  • support for a continued campaign to ensure that Imperial College and LBHF honour the commitment to build a cycle/pedestrian underpass between Latimer Road and Wood Lane.
  • support for what could be a temporary 10 year Overground station at ‘Westway Circus’ (beneath the elevated Westway roundabout) given that the opening of the HS2/Elizabeth Line station at Old Oak Common (north of Wormwood Scrubs) is now delayed to 2030-32 (originally 2026).

The draft of our response to RBKC can be read or downloaded below (warning – a long document on a RBKC template). If you have views or comments on what we intend saying to the Council please email to sthelensassn@aol.com by the morning of the 22nd December.

22-10-NLPR-Response-Form-Reg-19-b-StQW-V2Download