Land at Spruce Hills Road - Summary Guidance
Planning:
The site is not allocated for any particular type of development and is surplus to the vendor’s
educational requirements. For planning purposes the site could be classified as a ‘windfall’.
On behalf of Waltham Forest College Nathanial Litchfield and Partners proposed an 18 unit scheme
drawn up by the Richard Hopkinson Architects. This was not well received by the planning officer due
to excessive scale and height (see planning officers letter dated 28th July 2015).
A 14 unit scheme was then proposed and received a more positive response (see planning officers
email dated 28th October 2015)
Plans and views of the 14 unit scheme and corresponding planning officer’s letter and email are
available in the data room.
Flooding
According to the Environment Agency’s Flood Map, the site is in Flood Zone 1, which means that the
risk of flooding from rivers and seas is less than 1 in 1000 in any year and is the lowest level of flood
risk. Therefore, this does not pose a constraint to development.
Trees
From the Arboricultural Solutions tree survey dated 5th June 2014, the site contains a mixture of tree
species – London Plane, Silver Birch, Downy Birch, Rowan, Sycamore, Common beach and Wild
Cherry. The survey found that all of these were in fair condition other than the wild cherry, which was
in poor condition. The London Plane is subject to a Tree Preservation Order.
Title
Please see all Title documents in the data room.
Core Strategy
In accordance with the London Plan 2011, Waltham Forest is to accommodate 760 new homes
annually. One of its strategic objectives (SO2) is to ensure a continuous supply of land and new
homes to meet a range of housing needs including affordable housing, family housing and
accommodation needs of specific groups within the community, whilst offering a range of housing
choices which are of high quality and in the right places.
The Core Strategy shows Waltham Forest College and surrounding area as ‘Other Site Opportunity
Locations’.
13th November 2015