On London Extra: Edgware rising

Reviving the Tory doughnut. Plus an event nudge, Susan Hall's uneven week and more

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For its older residents, Edgware is a pleasant suburban town that should be kept that way. For Transport for London and its developer partner Ballymore, its centre is ripe for an improving redevelopment. And for London politicians it is an emerging, emblematic battleground.

The core site of the conflict, not for the first time in outer London of late, includes a transport interchange, and the plans for it envisage tall blocks of flats. Dissenting local voices complain that the scheme is "monstrous", would create car parking and other infrastructure problems and destroy the atmosphere of their "village". Ballymore prefers to speak of a virtuous "renewal" and of "unlocking" full potential.

Let's sketch some backstory. The bulk of the site is filled by the Broadwalk shopping centre, the car parks around it, Edgware London Underground station, an adjoining bus station and, on a separate part of the site, a bus garage. 

Ballymore bought the Broadwalk in July 2020, and last September tied up with TfL - in the form of its commercial property company, now called Places for London - to draw up plans for rebuilding the shopping centre, creating a new "town square", and constructing around 3,400 homes plus 460 student accommodation units. They are "targeting up to 35 per cent affordable housing subject to GLA grant". The bus garage will be moved below ground and other transport facilities - for bicycles, dial-a-ride, a car club - added. There will still be 769 car parking spaces "in response to local feedback", much of it in a multi-storey. 

Labour-run Barnet Council will determine the application. In June 2021, Barnet and next door Harrow joined forces to produce a supplementary planning document for what they called the Edgware Growth Area, which, in its words, "supports comprehensive redevelopment of key sites to reflect Edgware's status as a major town centre". The Broadwalk and the bus station were within the SPD's boundary.

At that time, prior to the the May 2022 borough elections, the political complexions of Harrow and Barnet, were the reverse of what they are now - Harrow was Labour and Barnet Tory. Any cross-border, cross-party consensus of that time has now been shattered, as opposing positions on the plans form along party lines.