Intimate Theatre and Fox Lane quieter neighbourhood on ward forum agenda

The future of the Intimate Theatre and the proposals for the Fox Lane quieter neighbourhood will be the subject of presentations by campaigning groups at the next meeting of the Winchmore Hill ward forum.

The meeting will be held in the Winchmore Hill Friends Meeting House, Church Hill, at 7.30pm on Friday 2nd November.

The ward councillors have invited representatives from Save the Intimate Theatre and Better Streets for Enfield to speak about their ideas.

Alternative proposals for St Monica's buildings

Warren McWilliams of the theatrical group St Monica's Players will be describing the group's alternative proposals for the future of two buildings belonging to St Monica's Catholic Church - the Church Hall/Intimate Theatre in Green Lanes, and the Parish Centre/Cannon House on Cannon Hill.  St Monica's Players are just one of several theatrical companies that perform at the Intimate, which also hosts charity concerts.  The Parish Centre is the venue for the weekly St Harmonica's Blues Club and is also used for rehearsals by St Monica's Players.  The church is proposing demolishing the Intimate and selling Cannon House to fund the construction of a new parish centre in Green Lanes with more modern facilities.  St Monica's Players/Save the Intimate Theatre's alternative proposals would retain both buildings while adapting them to better suit the church's needs.

A Quieter Neighbourhood or a Low Traffic Neighbourhood?

Clare Rogers of Better Streets for Enfield will be speaking about the planned Fox Lane traffic calming scheme.  A couple of weeks ago deputy council leader Daniel Anderson gave the go-ahead for a slightly modified version of the original proposals for creating an extensive "quieter neighbourhood".  Better Streets for Enfield have in mind a somewhat more ambitious scheme for the area - a "low-traffic neighbourhood" - and Clare will be explaining the difference between the two concepts.

In view of some of the comments that have appeared on the PGC forums about what people regard as shortcomings of the council-approved scheme, and the interest that the Fox Lane & District Residents Association is taking in the matter, there's likely to be a lively discussion at the forum.  Hopefully, there will be a council officer along to provide some specialist input.

What are the definitive Fox Lane proposals?

The map below has been extracted from the documentation published by the council when the Fox Lane scheme was approved.  However, it is now known that it does not in fact show the definitive proposals - it does not show planters planned for the Fox Lane end of Grovelands Road and Lakeside Road and there may be other changes that I haven't heard about.  I understand that the council will be issuing a definitive map shortly (on Monday?).

Click on the map to enlarge