The former Hyleford School site Redbridge councillors have allowed the council’s own building company to build on a former school despite residents’ concerns about parking. On October 15, the planning committee deferred making a decision on plans to build 159 homes on the former Hyleford School on Loxford Lane after arguing late into the night. Some councillors felt offering 35 per cent affordable homes, the minimum target in the council’s local plan and below the London-wide target, on a council-led development was unacceptable. Despite the application still only offering 35 per cent affordable, all but two councillors voted for it in accordance with officers’ recommendation.
“I do not think your traffic review has been done fairly. Redbridge are the developers here and the traffic review was done by Redbridge.
“You’re putting more than 600 people on this site but you’re telling me that’s only going to cause one extra car on the road? That’s unbelievable.
“If this was an external developer, this would have been kicked out ages ago.”
There were 53 written objections to the plans, including from neighbouring Loxford School.
Cllr Shamshia Ali (Lab, Cranbrook) responded: “The difficulty is, we do have a (housing) shortage and where do you put developments? It does not matter where you put them, there’s always going to be issues.”