Enfield moves ahead with major Meridian Water scheme

Enfield Council has submitted plans for a 2,300 home riverside community as part of its £6bn Meridian Water scheme.

The application, the largest ever application submitted by the authority, has been supported by a second application outlining the infrastructure needed to construct the homes.

The application outlines the second phase of the Meridian Water regeneration project after the council named the developer of its 725-home first phase earlier this year.

Enfield Council’s leader, Cllr Nesil Caliskan, said: ‘Our proposals for Phase Two of Meridian Water will, if granted planning permission, provide thousands of homes and first-class infrastructure.

‘It will play a significant part in the Council’s plans to provide thousands of new homes and jobs on the site which local residents will be the primary beneficiary of.’

As part of the application, at least 40% of the 2,300 homes will be affordable, while there is also the option for purpose-built student accommodation or large-scale shared living accommodation and a hotel.

Commercial, retail and social infrastructure will also be built along the riverfront, as well as a new primary school.

Part of the eastern bank of Pymmes Brook will be naturalised to create an ecological river landscape and provide public parkland.

The news follows Enfield Council’s announcement that Galliford Try will deliver the first 725 homes at Meridian One, part of Phase One.

The new homes will centre around the new Meridian Water train station, which opened in June and will serve up to four million rail passengers a year.

Enfield Council is currently looking for a developer for Meridian Two, phase of the Phase 2 site, which aims to deliver around 250 affordable homes with accompanying work space.

The council has made a bid for £156m from the government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund, which it hopes will help fund Meridian Water’s strategic infrastructure works as well as a more frequent rail service for the train station.

The council’s planning committee will soon decide whether to give the Phase 2 application planning permission.

Enfield Council says the Meridian Water project is now ‘back on track’ after it took back control of the ambitious regeneration scheme in July last year.

The project’s original developer Barratt London pulled out the previous October after the council refused to sign up to a ‘poor deal for residents’.

Once finished, it is expected that the 20-year Meridian Water scheme will create a total of 10,000 new homes next to the Lee Valley Regional Park.