What: Local plan inspector considers Pinkham Way
When: 1.30pm on Wednesday 31 August
Where: Haringey Civic Centre, N22 8ZW
The Pinkham Way Alliance (PWA) is urging local residents us to show we don’t want a waste site on Pinkham Way by turning up at an important session of the local plan inspector next week.
Inspector Christine Thorby started her examination of the Haringey Local Plan this week.
In a bid to convince her to retain the ‘employment designation’ for Pinkham Way, the North West London Waste Authority (NWLA) (http://www.nlwa.gov.uk/) has ressurected plans to develop a residual waste plant on the site.
- We need as many people as possible to attend the session that really matters to the PWA, starting at 1.30pm on Wednesday 31 August.
- We need to show the inspector, Haringey Council and the NWLA that Pinkham Way is totally unsuitable for development, other than small scale local community uses.
- Any waste use is wholly unacceptable on what is a high value Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC). It is the only SINC in Greater London that is also has an employment designation. The employment designation must be dropped.
Please try to come, if only for part of the session.
Replies
Update from Stephen Brice, PWA Chair:
A sincere thank you to those of you filled the gallery last week. It made such a difference for us to have you there.
The session was to test the soundness of Pinkham Way’s inclusion in the Site Allocations. The inspector said that she couldn’t see what it was doing there, since it did nothing to implement Haringey’s employment strategy.
To our astonishment, the Haringey planning officer agreed that the allocation was, in their words, ‘redundant’!! And anyway, it all happened before he arrived!
The inspector Christine Thorby then told us that the site’s removal from the Site Allocations Plan did not however remove the employment designation, which was a separate issue. We asked where else other than the hearing was the designation to be considered. She said she took the point and that she would deal with it under the strategic alterations. So we wait.
The North London Waste Authority (NLWA) argued that it definitely still needs the land – but when, or what for, the officer wasn’t sure. The Inspector said the following day, in relation to a different site, that intentions of an applicant or developer were irrelevant to the decisions she would make.
We made our case well on the day, especially with regard to the ecological issues, and it’s our impression that the Planning Inspector took them on board. Did we advance our case? Definitely yes.
But for now we have to wait. We may perhaps be asked to make a further written submission. Rest assured that we’ll pass any news straight to you.
Wednesday afternoon will be a pretty important few hours in the life of the PWA. The last time we attended a Haringey hearing, in the dim and distant of 2012, we knocked out the Council's specious attempt to redesignate the Pinkham Way site as Industrial land. (Mind you, the Council did give us a headstart by maintaining that a site unused for 50 years was a 'well-established industrial area'!)
This time we will be arguing that the employment designation which remains, and for which the Council not only has no supporting evidence but is ignoring strong evidence against, should also be removed, and that the site should be left as a Grade 1 Site for Nature Conservation (SINC).
Haringey's own ecological consultant called Pinkham Way '... a rare resource for Haringey of high ecological value'
Naturally that's the last we've heard of that from the Council!
It could be a very interesting afternoon on 31st. We'll be delighted to see you there (1.30pm start at the Civic Centre).
Without the amazing support of local residents - over the whole five years - we simply wouldn't have made a fraction of the progress that we have.
Thank you.
I'll be there - and with any luck despite it being deepest holiday period the turnout will be decent.