Southgate Office Village redevelopment: Sounding out the wider community viewpoint

Proposed Southgate Office Village - Community View

Southgate Office Village, 286 Chase Road, London, N14 6HF

The Community Planning event on Saturday 22nd June was an opportunity for the local community to find out more about the proposal, share local knowledge and contribute to a discussion, giving the Southgate community a voice. Civic Voice facilitated the day and used a mixture of presentations, workshops and hands-on activities to stimulate discussion.

Participation was on a drop-in basis and we requested that people pre-register for the event. It was made clear that people could stay for a short while, a few hours or the whole event if they were able to. Civic Voice team members and Southgate District Civic Trust were on hand to answer questions.

Following the event, the Civic Voice team spent the Sunday analysing and summarising the outcomes. We analysed the online survey and workshop feedback to get a more comprehensive response. This was presented back to the local community on Monday 24^th June.

Following the Community Planning event and feedback session, the Southgate District Civic Trust will develop the proposals and prepare a full community response to the planning application for submission before 10^th July 2019. It is recommended that this is shared wider.

What is Civic Voice?

It is a national charity that was established in 2010 to give a voice to communities in the planning system. We believe that the planning process can be sped up through earlier and more effective community engagement. We want to rebalance the power of the planning system to put people at the heart of the planning process, unearthing the real needs of a community, empowering stakeholders, creating goodwill, inspiring community spirit and building consensus.

We do not want confrontation to dominate the planning system, but want to see more collaboration between developers, councils and communities in creating great places to live.

We do not have any opinion on the need for the regeneration of Southgate Office Village.

What has happened?

Civic Voice was approached by Southgate District Civic Trust on 30^th April 2019 to help facilitate the event. We issued a survey on 15th June 2019 to support the workshop discussion.

Over 130 people attended the event and 240 completed the online survey, contributing to the Community Planning Event held at St Andrew’s Church, Southgate to discuss the proposed Southgate Office Village proposal.

Residents, community groups and political representatives - including MP for Southgate Bambos Charalambous; Deputy Mayor, Joanne McCartney and Cllrs Derek Levy, Cllr Edward Smith and Cllr Claire Stewart attended the event, which was advertised locally and through social media and open to all members of the community. Hosted by Southgate District Civic Trust, the day enabled visitors to take part in facilitated workshops and hands-on activities, view an exhibition of the proposed Southgate Office Village site, meet members of the local community and share local knowledge.

The developer, Viewpoint Estates, was not present, nor representatives from the Planning department. The council acknowledges that it was unable to resource officers to attend the event this occasion but wished to acknowledge just how engaged the community is in the scheme and the wider town centre issues. The council states that it is happy to arrange a session for Southgate District Civic Trust to feedback directly to the council and it hoped the event went well.

Summary of feedback

The Community Feedback session highlighted several key themes from the discussions at the event and responses to the on-line survey:

1. The consultation by Viewpoint Estates is regarded by the attendees and survey respondents as ineffective and much too late in the process for the community to genuinely feel as though they could meaningfully influence the proposal. Most respondents had not received a leaflet regarding the consultation and, therefore, had not been able to attend the developer’s consultation event. People want meaningful engagement and participation in the process.
2. Although accepting some redevelopment of the site, there is concern that the proposed scheme is overdevelopment of the site and the highest part of the proposal at 17 storeys high is unacceptable to the majority of participants.
3. Respondents queried the traffic impact assessment in the planning application, this was regarded as unrealistic by the community and did not truly represent the challenges that traffic already has on the area. The provision of car parking was also considered to be insufficient. Respondents considered a new development of this size will exacerbate existing traffic and car parking problems in the area.
4. There is concern that the density and scale of development will have an adverse impact on local infrastructure and services g. school places, GP surgeries etc.
5. People felt it was important that future ambitions for the site were planned in keeping with the distinctive village feel that Southgate has managed to retain. The majority were supportive of redevelopment on the site with a development in the region of 6-8 storeys. Some online respondents also welcomed development of up to 10 storeys. However, it is noted that there were a minority of attendees and respondents who were against any development of the site.
6. Members of the community have questions as they want to understand the proposal and the detail behind it as much as possible. The council should be proactive in sharing the answers and detailed information.

Update from Enfield Council re: planning application (22 June 2019):

• That the community event has been noted and the council have agreed to extend notification letters to some 400 surrounding properties.
• The council is looking to programme a special Planning Panel to be convened which will be open to the community and where the applicant would be invited to present the proposed scheme.
• The proposed application will go before Conservation Area Advisory Group Further details on the above will be available shortly on Southgate District Civic Trust website.

This event was only made possible through the donations from St Andrews Church, Barnet & Southgate College, Southgate District Civic Trust and the voluntary time given by the Civic Voice team.

Southgate District Civic Trust commented:

“It was pleasing to see such high levels of passion and interest during the workshop and exhibition. It is important for the redevelopment of Southgate that Viewpoint and Enfield Council hear what the community are saying. We want people to continue to debate and discuss these issues as it is important that any future regeneration of Southgate Village Office, involves the local community to shape it into a place that works for everybody.”

Online survey findings

• 79.4 per cent of respondents to the survey had not attended the consultation event in February organised by Viewpoint. 15.02 per cent had attended the consultation event.
• 66 per cent of respondents believe the site needs to be redeveloped, but not with the current proposals; 23 per cent are against development outright with 10 per cent supportive of the current scheme.
• 66.5 per cent of respondents to the survey said they had not received one of the 5,000 leaflets that had been circulated to the community. 25 per cent said they had a leaflet and the rest were unsure as to whether they received one.
• 43.9 per cent of respondents were not aware of the development before Southgate District Civic Trust organised the community weekend. 47.70 per cent were aware of the proposed development. 
• 94.5 per cent felt the Southgate District Civic Trust event was worthwhile and 83.7 per cent stated that they had had a chance to contribute to the overall discussions and felt it was meaningful.