Seven Kings consultation comments

Representatives from TASK, the Seven Kings & Newbury Park Resident's Association and the Seven Kings Fellowship of Churches attended a meeting last week arranged for local community groups to give our views on how we think the Roman Road Area (which includes the Seven Kings High Road) should be developed. We met with an architect from Meadowcroft Griffin (http://www.meadowcroftgriffin.co.uk/) who have been commissioned by Redbridge Council to carry out a community consultation exercise related to the Roman Road Area Action Plan Urban Design Study.


At the meeting we made, among others, the following points:

• although we are committed to consultation and action for change, the creation of Action Plans that don't result in action does over time lead to the building up of cynicism amongst local people; local people strongly associate with the High Road but think it has been run down over generations;
• currently it has a limited and inadequate shopping base dominated by too many takeaways;
• a mixed economy is needed along the High Road; both a greater variety of retail outlets and community facilities/organisations (with a local library as the major priority);
• introducing this mixed economy may involve changing usage in some instances to enable community services to be delivered from what are currently retail outlets and/or using existing community building (such as schools and faith community buildings) for the delivery of local community services;
• new developments should be high quality which includes environmentally friendly and aesthetically pleasing;
• equivalent parking to that which is currently available should be delivered in new developments in order to sustain business levels for local traders;
• encouraging walking and use of bikes will be best achieved by locating community facilities locally. When libraries and post offices are more than one mile away most people will use cars to get to them; locate these and other community facilities locally and many more people will walk/cycle;
• attention should be paid to enhancing local heritage, where it exists, and enhancing awareness of that heritage. Public art could play a part in doing so;
• the area looks generally run down and needs: better street cleaning; trees/flower displays; enhancing of shop frontages; aesthetic new developments; and public art;
• the area in front of Seven Kings station is dangerous because it is used as a cut through; pedestriansing the area would be an option; and
• although the railway is a major barrier, there would be little benefit to building more pedestrian crossings over the railway. Attention should be paid to traffic congestion caused by limited road crossings over the railway.
  

Since circulating these points by email other members of these groups have also made the following points:

• need for a sporting facility (maybe small gym or other quality facility specially built for classes like aerobics, spin, martial arts);
• noise from foxes and danger to pets;
• the Council to look at proposals similar to Waltham Forest where there is a Cumulative Impact Zone initiative to restrict the issue of new takeaway licences;
• use the Council's own scoring system on takeaways to exert pressure for action against the worst offenders in terms of public health (cleanliness and waste management), public order and any other relevant criteria;
• the problem of waste in the area with fly-tipping and inappropriately discarded food waste which leads to problems with foxes and rats.

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