Action for Enfield's Future comprises Enfield Road Watch, Enfield Climate Action Forum (EnCaf), the Enfield Society, Friends of Whitewebbs and Better Homes Enfield, plus more than 30 volunteers from across the political divide.
As a result of their success in collecting signatures supporting a petition calling for a debate on the draft local plan in full council, Action for Enfield's Future, the coalition of local groups behind the campaign, have been invited to make their case at the next meeting of Enfield Council, on Wednesday 21st September. They will be given five minutes to present the petition at the meeting, which will be followed by a discussion among councillors lasting up to 15 minutes. After the debate, councillors will decide whether or not to take the action the petition request.
The campaigners have pointed out that the meeting, which starts at 7pm at the Civic Centre, will be open to the public. The debate will not be about the draft local plan itself, but about the request made by the petition for a twelve-week period between publication of the revised plan and the full council debate to give people enough time to consider the proposals and provide feedback to their ward councillors.
Commenting on the news, Carol Fisk from Enfield Road Watch, one of the five groups making up the coalition, emphasized the fact a good proportion of the signatures had been collected in person rather than online:"
Loss of green belt land to new housing is one of the local plan issues that campaigners, and members of the public, are concerned about
"The target needed to trigger a debate in full council was 3,124 and we exceeded that by more than 1,000. We are very pleased by the response, especially given the technical glitches that plagued the site for the first weeks and the fact that the extension took us into August when so many people were away. The majority of the signatures were online [2,333] but the 1,900+ signatures on paper may be even more significant, because each one represents a discussion with someone about the issues that led to the petition. We look forward to making our case on September 21 and hope people will attend the council meeting to support us."
Another Action for Enfield's Future representative expressed pleasure at the council's quick response:
"We're very pleased that the Council has responded so promptly with a date for our deputation to a full council meeting and grateful to the officers of the council for facilitating our petition. The thousands of people we spoke to were optimistic that the council would hold a comprehensive debate, and vote, about their revised local plan because of its importance to their lives. They said they looked forward to hearing from their ward councillors at ward forums and community meetings so that they could discuss the implications of the plan for their neighbourhoods and communities prior to the debate and vote. So that's why we've also asked that the local plan be published twelve weeks before the debate to give councillors and residents time to digest its contents."
Links
Local plan petitioners hit signatures target (Palmers Green Community 31st August 2022)
Petition calling for fresh Local Plan debate signed by 4,000 people (Enfield Dispatch 6th September 2022)
