Agenda and minutes

Cllr Smith opened the meeting with introductions.

Cllr Smith apologised that due to an error the Police had not been invited.

(including closure of Enfield Town and Southgate Police Stations)

Cllr Smith confirmed the Sadiq Khan, Labour Mayor of London had announced that both Enfield Town and Southgate Police stations would be closed in order to meet the latest round of savings.  The sites will be sold off. The previous mayor had had to make considerably more savings, but had achieved these by cutting back office costs.

Safer Neighbourhood teams will move into shops or other suitable locations. Or they will be based in the one remaining police station in Edmonton.  Moving safer neighbourhood teams into converted shops had been tried previously and then abandoned. Members of the public had not visited the shops and they had proved to be a waste of tax payers’ money.

Cllr. Smith also advised the Forum that the Mayor had plans to amalgamate the police forces in Enfield and Haringey under one commander.

a.  Council Budget 2018/19

b.  Cycle lanes on the A105

c.  Grovelands Estate Community Project

d.  Traffic restrictions in Wynchgate And Queen Elizabeth Drive

e. Quieter Neighbourhoods schemes.

f.  Future of Enfield Southgate Constituency

Council Budget 2018/19. Apologies had been received from the Director or Finance and his staff who had declined to attend the forum as Council officers would only attend meetings of more than one ward.

Cllr Smith drew attention to the budget consultation process that was underway and the website URL where the public could view the consultation. Visit www.Enfield.gov.uk/consultations

Enfield spent £1.16bn on services in 2017/18. All Councils are under pressure to reduce spending. Government had decided to re-phase out Revenue Support Grant that had previously provided 50% of the Council’s income. This grant was being replaced by retained business rates, which had previously been returned to the Treasury, and increased miscellaneous grants.  In the future the council would keep more of the money it takes in income. This would be adjusted through a mechanism sharing formula with other London authorities. The picture is not as bad as painted although the council’s income had not increased in line with costs over the past few years.

The consultation process was criticized as being impossible in some cases to navigate. Councillors explained that the transformation in customer and resident engagement is designed the segregate residents from officers who have less resources and make most transactions electronic. 

Cycle lanes on the A105. – The cycle lanes are almost completed along the A105.  There have been delays and some sections have had to be replaced. Other areas of the project elsewhere in Enfield have been suspended or slowed down.

Grovelands Community Project – Unfortunately Alison Mason could not be present this evening. The area running up to the Priory private hospital that was currently neglected very neglected and it was essential that it was brought back into community use. The current proposal was to provide a community building shared with the Prior.  Frank Farmer spoke about progress and the discussion taking place with the commercial director of the Priory. The Priory has some ambitious plans for the area. Historic England will not comment until they see for plans.

Michael Cleary commented that some of Friends of Grovelands Park were not entirely in favour of any development in this area.  More engagement with all interested parties is required.

The proposal for a primary School was still active, but there was not a clear update on this matter.

Traffic restrictions in Wynchgate and Queen Elizabeth Drive. – A consultation has taken place. There has been a large response from residents. A proposal will be put forward to Cllr Daniel Anderson, the Cabinet member for the Environment, for consideration in due course.

It was understood from the traffic engineer dealing with consultation that nearly all residents located at the The Bourne end of Wynchgate have asked for double yellow lines throughout.  In Queen Elizabeth Drive, residents have not generally objected to the proposals. The proposals for Ralegh Rd were generally considered to be unacceptable.

Quieter Neighbourhood Schemes – The Council would start Consultations shortly in the Fernleigh Rd and the Fox Lane areas on proposals designed to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

This is an opportunity for residents to raise environmental and other matters with their local councillors.  Please email us before the meeting about any particular issues so that we can look into them beforehand.

Meridian Water Station was raised by John Burrage. The site for future train station (formally Angel Road) had been agreed and the Council had entered into a contract with Network Rail who would build it.  Barratts who had won the competition to become the master developer have walked away from this project, which was of great concern on many fronts but particularly in this respect because they were expected to help fund the construction of the new station.  Enfield Council will now have to find another master developer or some alternative in order to begin construction of the planned 10,000 new homes.  Hundreds of millions of pounds have already been spent by the Council acquiring land at Meridian Water and carrying out detailed design and remediation works.

Mr Frank Farmer again has asked for signage that lights up on Queen Elizabeth Drive to control speeding. The council did previously measure the traffic but nothing was done.  Cllr Smith will raise the matter again.

The next meeting of the Southgate Ward Forum will be convened after the local elections on 3rd May 2018.