The council is currently developing and consulting on a planning document (the “SPD”) which is to set the planning framework for our area for 10 years. It makes proposals for

development sites (including identifying buildings which may be demolished as well as those to be protected)
overall building heights and mix of types
transport – parking levels, walking and cycling routes
need for facilities such as schools, student accommodation, and other services
green areas to be developed or protected
shopping areas

It divides the Elephant into “character areas” (neighbourhoods) and makes some detailed plans – but it is critical that people who live and/or work in the area are involved – this is a real opportunity to influence the future!

The event starts at 10:30 sharp, and the morning will have detailed workshops on each character area – you are free to choose the one most relevant to you. The morning events runs to 13:00 when refreshments will be served.

In the afternoon (from about 13:45) we will start three area-wide workshops on housing/sustainability, green links and shopping/employment. The event ends at about 16:00.

There will be speakers from the council, and from other neighbourhood forums in SE London.

The report report of the event is available for download (6.5Mb) here (please click on the image)
:

It goes to cabinet on the 22nd November, and the formal consultation period stretches between 27th December 2011 and 7th February 2012. An officer from Southwark Council will attend the next EAN meeting on 13th December to present the draft document and listen to initial feedback, all welcome to attend.

The documents can be downloaded here:
E&C-SPD

Heygate-Concept-Masterplan-2011

Lend Lease’s display boards

And some photos from the exhibition courtesy of the People’s Republic of Southwark are here.

But commenting in a meaningful way is very difficult – not least because the council is developing their wider policies, to be set out in an “Special Planning Document” for the area, in parallel with this masterplan. That means there are no parameters for evaluating the concepts being displayed, which is how developers like it. Why is this? Because after 15 years of stalling and nothing, there is now a desperate rush to get something built.

Car parking is one reason why this is important. A key public, wider, benefit of the original masterplan was going to be provision of surface crossings of the Northern Roundabout. The Mayor has now vetoed this because of impacts on traffic – and if even a small percentage of the thousands of flats here are going to have car parking, that will put many wider benefits of the regeneration at risk. Recent policy has been for this to be a car free development – reflecting the fact that Elephant has two underground routes, is on Thameslink, and has a huge number of bus routes, not to mention that it is within easy walking and cycling distance of the City and the West End.

But there are many other strategic issues that also need to be addressed – for example, is this to be public space, or will it be private, where public gatherings are prohibited, and arbitrary decisions made and enforced by private police (as Southwark allowed at MORE London?)

That there are any trees on the concept masterplan is a huge step forward – the previous masterplan developed by MAKE showed none at all. On Phase it is still not clear which trees are to remain and how many more are to be removed, though the recent hugely patronising “consultation” there allows us to “prioritise” existing trees without saying what the plan is or why any have to be removed at all.

And what are the private courtyard spaces going to be like? Will they be on the level, allowing trees to be planted, and to be passively enjoyed by the millions who will walk through the development? Or will they be elevated, as proposed on Phase 1, and therefore only for benefit or residents – raised above inefficient ranks of car parking spaces? And did Southwark Council approve Lend Lease’s “design brief” to their architects, which specifies 25% parking provision (and which is thus behind all the raised courtyards?

These seem to to be entirely basic questions that a concept masterplan should be addressing – when will we be allowed to engage properly, with the benefit of a properly-consulted-on local planning policy guiding the developer and setting the parameters?

The letter (downloadable here), contains a detailed appraisal and critique of the E&C regeneration plans and consultation process to date.

The aim of the event was to identify about what benefits people want to see from the regeneration and to imagine together what could be achieved – to help influence the regeneration which is due to take place over the next 15 years. The event was based around a series of workshops led by local people with intimate knowledge of the topics. Each workshop lasted 90 minutes, with detailed notes taken and noting areas of agreement for things that must be done and things that mustn’t be done, as well as noting where further debate was needed.

The summary report of the event is available for download (5Mb) here (please click on the image):

This runs counter to a wide range of schemes currently underway elsewhere in London to remove gyratory systems implemented in London in the 1960s and 1970s and replace them with two-way roads to make conditions safer for all road users, not just those in cars. TfL themselves are helping to promote some of these schemes (including Mansion House – see here http://www.transporttimesevents.co.uk/uploads/101110%20Mansion%20House%20LT%20Award.pdf) - but for some reason not at Elephant & Castle.

In addition, this announcement also means a range of Southwark’s promised community benefits of the regeneration are in jeopardy:

• the proposal for a new public space (see here http://www.lewminesce.co.uk/londonmoving/blog/?p=5159) – this can no longer be achieved if the gyratory remains.
• major capacity improvements to the northern line tube station – escalators are the only way that the tube at Elephant & Castle can accommodate the enormous increase in usage that will follow the redevelopment of the Heygate Estate. These either need space currently occupied by the shopping centre (not possible as this is now being retained) or space in what is now a roadway.

It would be interesting to know how the volumes of pedestrians, cyclists bus, tube and rail passengers crossing this roundabout compare to the highway users whose needs are being prioritised by TfL. Evidence from Blackfriars Bridge (http://cyclelondoncity.blogspot.com/2011/02/london-bridge-and-blackfriars-bridge.html) show that even where cyclists alone outnumber car users, TfL Network Assurance continues to prioritise car traffic over other road users.

Furthermore, as stated here (http://cyclelondoncity.blogspot.com/2011/06/elephant-castle-is-latest-tfl.html) TfL’s Network Assurance stance appears to be at odds with that of TfL’s Tube department, who recognise the need for increased capacity at the interchange.

Southwark is not the only authority who is trying to grapple with TfL’s contradictory stance – Lambeth council and residents are also unable to get TfL to communicate its objectives properly about the future of the Vauxhall gyratory scheme (http://tradescant.blogspot.com/2011/06/val-shawcross-on-vauxhall-gyratory.html).

It is time for TfL Network Assurance department and the Mayor to come clean that “smoothing traffic flow” actually means prioritising car users above all other people, even when they are in the minority, and for Councils to come together to fight them by demonstrating cleary the actual and potential benefits of a more integrated approach.

Today most of this mature forest is a sheltered and verdant semi-wilderness thriving in between the remains of the almost empty Heyate Estate. In clearings guerrilla gardeners have established new allotments and in the old playgrounds people still congregate. This forest has entered an exciting new phase of its life.

The website, with links to the blog, is here: http://elephantandcastleurbanforest.posterous.com

A range of events are planned to celebrate the forest:

Full Moon Feast in the Forest Saturday 13 August 2011 at 7pm
Bring food and friends, rugs, trestles… we’ll be feasting in the forest. Entrance via Heygate Street then follow the signs to the glade we’re in. Find out more at the Facebook event here or contact Richardfor more details.

Guided Forest Strolls Every Saturday at 11am for about an hour.
Meet at The Coronet on New Kent Road – Contact Guy for more details

Allotment Gardening – Contact Adrian for more details

More coming soon.

Within the forest (Photo © Reem Akl)

Public Event meeting on 4th June a massive success, over 80 residents and traders attending. A report setting out the conclusions of the event will be issued shortly, please check back here.

Lend Lease, the council’s developer for the Heygate Estate area, will soon be releasing its Masterplan for the area. It is now over 5 years since any public consultation has taken place on how the area might look in the future, and the Elephant Amenity Network stepped into the breach with a public event on Saturday 4th June.

The aim of the event was to think about what benefits people want to see from the regeneration and to imagine together what could be achieved, to help us influence the regeneration which is due to take place over the next 15 years.

The event was based around a series of workshops led by experts on the following subjects:

• Morning sessions: Transport, Shopping, Trees and Biodiversity, Housing, and “Planning for Real” (interactive planning).
• Afternoon sessions: Jobs, Services/amenities, Design and massing, Interim uses (performance, gardening, sport etc.), and Making the most out of the existing buildings.

Venue was Crossways Church, 100 New Kent Road SE17 1SL and ran from 10:30 to 16:00.

DOWNLOAD English version of our Visioning Event flyer here!

DOWNLOAD Espanol Imaginar The Elephant flyer here!

FULL PROGRAMME SCHEDULE HERE:

VISIONING EVENT – SUMMARY OF WORKSHOPS

MORNING WORKSHOPS

1. How do we provide an integrated transport system at the Elephant and Castle?

• The quality of the bus and train services
• The provision for motor vehicles – movement, delivery, residents parking
• The routes that are most needed for walking and cycling, including green links/green grids and key routes within the Heygate area

2. What is the future for the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre and for existing traders and small businesses throughout the area?

• How can the regeneration master plan guarantee a place for all existing small businesses and market traders at an affordable rent?
• Is it desirable to keep the shopping centre?
• What is to prevent Walworth Road becoming a cloned high street?

3. We have lost 1200 homes on the Heygate, 250 of which were 3 or 4 bedroom family homes.  What should the replacement housing look like?

• What should be the provision for family homes and the internal and external space standards we expect from the new homes?
• How much of the replacement housing should be affordable and what do we mean by affordable housing?
• What input can local people expect to give regarding the choice of housing providers, RSL’s and architects?  (we will be looking at the early housing sites as examples of what is likely to be provided)

4. Did Someone Say Trees?

• How much do you know about the existing Heygate Forest at the heart of the Regeneration, with its woodland of 500 trees and links to local parks, tree lined streets and other green features?

• What do biodiversity and green links mean to people and why are they important?  How can we measure biodiversity, and where are the local important sites?

• What do you feel/think about the future of the Trees etc? We have some ideas and strategies to protect and enhance/make the most of them -valuation, preservation and replacement- and would love to hear yours.

5. The Elephant and Castle development is due to create 5,000 new jobs, but how many will be local jobs?

• How will the development provide interim jobs?
• How will the development boost employment in the area in the long term, and employment for whom?
• Should there be an Official ‘Local Jobs Target’ for the development and how will this be implemented?

AFTERNOON WORKSHOPS

6. What types of community interim use would you like to see on the Heygate Estate as it is gradually developed over the next 20 years ?

• What would local people like to see happen on the Heygate estate?
• How interim community uses, including food growing, be worked into the phasing of the Heygate redevelopment for the benefit of all?
• How would the ‘worst case scenario’ (i.e. no interim use or community access/entire estate hoarded off for forseeable future) impact on the local communities quality of life/movement through the area/access to amenity?

7. Is there any interim use to be made of the Heygate buildings?

• Can the community make any use of the Heygate blocks that would complement interim use of the green space?
• What kind of uses could these be?  Shops? Studios? Education, training?
• How could these uses avoid isolation and be integrated into the wider community?  What experiences can we draw upon

8. Questions of density and massing on the Heygate site

• What types of building will replace the Heygate estate?
• The Lend Lease building outline implies an increase in the building mass from 16% to 60% and therefore a major reduction in public space.  Will low rise buildings take away even more green space?
• What are the implications for street frontages adjacent to the Heygate and what can be done about this?

9. As the population of the Elephant and Castle increases, how do we deal with the pressure on local services? 

• What is being proposed and what are the key quality of life issues?
• What needs to be done to provide easy access to services and facilities?
• Could these objectives be the starting point for a neighbourhood plan?

10. ‘Hopes for Elephant Land’ – a master-planning workshop using Planning for Real

Using a large map of the opportunity area, and post-it notes, people are invited to work together to identify opportunities and challenges and to come up with some idea of where the houses and flats, shops, trees, different transport routes, open spaces, community facilities, leisure – sports and culture – should go.

The walkabout was organised to look at the quality of current walking and cycling routes into the Heygate and Elephant & Castle from the surrounding area and to assess the potential for new routes to be created. The focus was principally on the routes south of the E&C Shopping Centre.

Elephant Amenity Network and Southwark Living Streets have produced a great PDF version of the resulting findings, suggestions and recommendations. You can download it here:

Heygate Walkabout-Report