LOCAL PLAN 2022

LBWF REVISED LOCAL PLAN - approved by the Cabinet on 

Thursday 29 February 2024, a meeting of Waltham Forest's Full Council voted to adopt the Local Plan (Part 1). The document outlines the council's vision for the inclusive, sustainable growth that is needed to help the borough thrive up until 2035 

LBWF LOCAL PLAN  2024 to 2035 

Dear Members, 

You may be aware that the Council’s proposed Local Plan has a target of 1,800 new dwellings a year for 15 years, which in our view would place an intolerable burden on our infrastructure and services. Lots of these proposed developments are high rise and many of them are on the edge of the marshes and the forest, blighting our green spaces. 

The London Plan  has set our Borough a target of 1,264 new dwellings a year for ten years, much lower than the target  the Council wants to set itself.  The Civic Society supports the provision of more housing, especially for those struggling to find an affordable place to live, and wants to see high quality accommodation being built that genuinely meets the needs of families and individuals, not a target that would inevitably involve building small flats in high rise blocks which would not be good-quality accommodation and would cause lasting damage to our borough.

The proposed Local Plan as it stands  has been rejected by the Planning Inspectorate. This is at least partly due to the efforts of one of our members, Robert Gay, who attended the hearings. One option that would be acceptable to the Inspectorate would be to reduce the target to the London Plan figure of 1,264 dwellings a year, but the Council has already rejected that option and decided to stick to its self-imposed target of 1,800 dwellings a year, and try to produce a better justification to satisfy the Inspectorate.

We attach

• the Inspectorate's report on the Local Plan, if you want to examine it in more detail – the options for the Council are set out on pages 10-11

• the Council’s response to the Inspectorate’s letter, in which the Council has chosen the Inspectorate’s second option

• a copy of a plan produced by the Council in March, showing the areas in which planning applications for “tall buildings” (10 storeys and over) would be “supported”  

We want the Council to accept the London Plan figure, and we need your help. And we need to move fast.

 We are asking you to email your local ward councillors to demand the targets be lowered.  An email template is provided below, for you to add to or change. Your councillor's email addresses are on the London Borough of Waltham Forest's website  here .

Could you also confirm in an email to us which ward you live in, and also whether you would be willing to help to hold  a meeting in your ward (either face to face or virtual)  about this in the near future?  We would organise the meeting, but would ask you to work with us to send out the invitations and to arrange for a local person to take the chair.

  Robert Gay, Madeleine Munday, and  Jane Sterland  

 Waltham Forest Civic Society Committee members. 

Email template

Dear Councillor, 

I, as a member of Waltham Forest Civic Society,  ask you to reduce the housing target set by Waltham Forest Council in the Local Plan of 1800 new dwellings a year for 15 years, which in our view would place an intolerable burden on our infrastructure and services. Lots of these proposed developments are high rise and many of them are on the edge of the marshes and the forest, blighting our green spaces. 

The Planning Inspectorate has rejected Waltham Forest’s Local Plan as it stands, and has put forward options for changes the Council will need to make to the Plan.  

We are asking you to adopt  Option 3  as set out in the Planning Inspectorate's letter of 5 May following their Examination of Part 1 of the Waltham Forest Local Plan. This would reduce the Council’s housing target to 1264 dwellings a year, in line with the London Plan.  

We urge you to  reconsider the  targets that Waltham Forest Council have set.

Your name