Langston Road Retail park

A developer has submitted a planning application for a small retail park in Langston Road in Debden, to bring in some of the larger retailers we don’t have locally at present.  
Key points are

• reducing traffic congestion in Chigwell Lane/ Rectory Lane,
• protecting the green spaces on Chigwell Lane/Rectory Lane,
• a direct route from the retail site towards The Broadway itself.
• avoiding competition with the shops in The Broadway and the High Road (we are concerned that the clothing chain stores now envisaged may compete with High Road shops).

The Council Parks dept. depot will move to Oakwood Hill, together with the office for the Langston Road waste team (new proposed site opposite the flats next to the railway line), and plants would be bought in rather than produced by the Council.

The proposals were discussed at the District Council meeting on December 14th 2010. More.

The next step will be for the planning application to be discussed at a meeting of the District Council’s District Development Control Committee. The hold-up appears to have been caused by discussions about significant changes to the local road network, on which the development depends – see “Consultation on Highways changes, Chigwell Lane/ Rectory Lane:”

In a recent reply to a question from LRA Cllr Jennie Hart, the Leader of the District Council has given an absolute undertaking that the council, as joint landlord with Polofind, will not allow a supermarket or food hall to be opened as part of the proposed Langston Road development. She was less committed about the possibility of restaurant or coffee shop outlets but said that the council would not permit a "destination restaurant" (that is, any restaurant use would be an eatery to serve those using the retail park, not a place you'd visit specially).

LRA’s concerns

If permission is granted, the LRA Plans Group has concerns over

• whether in the longer-term it will be possible in practice to prevent traders on the retail park competing with The Broadway traders;
• whether it would be possible to prevent other sites in the Industrial Area successfully applying for changes to use to retail, in competition with The Broadway traders.

The planning application for the redevelopment of this site is still being considered by the planning officers and will be considered by councillors at a District Development Committee meeting on September 5th (7.30pm at the Council Offices in Epping). Details should be available a week before the meeting on the District Council website.

Discussions are continuing on the proposals for retail “fashion” shops on land currently zoned for light industrial use – we think that there are still some key issues, and a lot of details, to be sorted out. There are two main areas of concern – what shops will/will not be allowed on the site itself, and what effect the change would have on the use of the rest of the Langston Road trading estate; both areas might adversely affect Loughton traders.

On the first point, there are about the possibility of a 1,000 sq. metre restaurant as part of the retail park. Also “fashion” has a wide definition - it may be easier to state what type of retail wouldn’t be allowed on the site. One possibility would be for the company proposing the development, Polofind, to run it through a joint company with the District Council, with both sides having the right of veto over what type of outlet could trade there.

Council officers are adamant that a supermarket wouldn’t be allowed as part of the site now proposed but, even if this can be assured, concerns remain that a supermarket would try to set up elsewhere on the industrial estate (when the Sainsbury’s store by Loughton station was built, LRA negotiated a 10-year guarantee (rather than the 5 years offered) preventing the closure of the Broadway Sainsbury’s; Sainsbury’s now appear anxious to stay on the Broadway, which needs a small “anchor” supermarket alongside the individual traders, although the landowners do not appear keen to enhance that area). The loss of the supermarket at the Broadway, or one too small, might increase the grounds for a large supermarket on the Langston Road site, because of what is called the "sequential test" for approving supermarket locations.