{"id":677685,"date":"2026-09-08T00:33:57","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T00:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/677685\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T00:33:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T00:33:57","slug":"rejecting-the-new-town-in-enfield-isnt-nimbyism-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/677685\/","title":{"rendered":"Rejecting the new town in Enfield isn\u2019t nimbyism | Housing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Polly Toynbee\u2019s article about the proposed new town in Enfield mischaracterises local opposition and overlooks more practical options (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2026\/sep\/01\/new-towns-labour-legacy-nimbys-enfield-tories-greens-sadiq-khan\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nimbys can\u2019t stand in the way of Labour\u2019s legacy: a 21st-century new town boom, 1 September<\/a>). Objecting to the town is a rejection of poor planning, not nimbyism.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">There is no evidence the new town would alleviate Enfield\u2019s mainly affordability-based housing crisis. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cy4vj7yk0nyo\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Office for Budget Responsibility estimates<\/a> that the proposed planning reforms will reduce house prices by just 0.8% by 2029-30. And the risks of building on the green belt include increased flooding, loss of access to nature and high car-dependency. All three contradict the government and the mayor\u2019s objectives. Far from being built mainly on golfing greens and \u201ca cluster of glasshouses and garden centres, an unplanned sprawl\u201d, the town <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c232dmkjxrmo\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">threatens 884 hectares of Enfield\u2019s green belt<\/a>, including wooded land and farmland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Describing Enfield as \u201cthe perfect borough for a new town, with excellent rail connections\u201d ignores reality: the added traffic would cause major problems in the north of the borough. Crews Hill runs just two to four trains per hour, with few to no alternative connections available. The infrastructure will not cope with 40,000-plus additional residents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Enfield should focus on its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.london.gov.uk\/sites\/default\/files\/ad_114_state_of_brownfield_2019.pdf\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">capacity to build up to 37,000 brownfield homes<\/a>, far more than the new town proposal of 21,000 homes. Alternative sites include the 10,000-home Meridian Water development, which has been 10 years in the making but so far delivered just 300 homes. Such developments must take priority over covering the green belt in concrete.<br \/><strong>Kathrin Spinnler<\/strong><br \/>London <\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\"><strong> Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/2026\/sep\/06\/mailto:guardian.letters@theguardian.com?body=Please%20include%20your%20name,%20full%20postal%20address%20and%20phone%20number%20with%20your%20letter%20below.%20Letters%20are%20usually%20published%20with%20the%20author%27s%20name%20and%20city\/town\/village.%20The%20rest%20of%20the%20information%20is%20for%20verification%20only%20and%20to%20contact%20you%20where%20necessary.\" data-link-name=\"in body link \" https:=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>email<\/strong><\/a><strong> <\/strong><strong>us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tone\/letters\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>letters<\/strong><\/a><strong> section.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Polly Toynbee\u2019s article about the proposed new town in Enfield mischaracterises local opposition and overlooks more practical options&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[269],"tags":[18,440,19,17,133],"class_list":["post-677685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-eire","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117232616455241311","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}