A DECISION is due on a planning application for 119 homes on green belt land which could help the district council cut its huge waiting list for council homes.
Ninety-five homes on the proposed site by Sewardstone Road in Waltham Abbey would be classified as ‘affordable’, helping Epping Forest District Council which, at current rates, will take 200 years to clear its housing waiting list.
Figures released to the Guardian show that only 78 affordable homes have been built in the district over the past three years, despite the council facing a backlog of 4,602 people waiting for a council house.
The Sewardstone scheme, on the site of what was the White Lodge, has been worked on for more than three years by developer Sue Silver.
She won outline permission for the scheme in 2007, and as the Guardian went to press, was due to hear whether she had got the go-ahead for her detailed plans.
A Freedom of Information Act request by the Guardian revealed that the council has consistently missed its targets for building affordable homes.
Last year a target of 45 was set but only 34 were built, and the previous year just 19 homes went up against a target of 59.
Patricia Walters of Madells, Epping, had to take in her daughter together with her partner and four children last year when they became homeless.
She said: “She had to wait three months before she could actually bid on something. Personally I don’t think Epping is very good. They make you wait knowing you’re homeless. It was an absolute nightmare in a one-bedroom bungalow.
“I know there is homelessness everywhere, but you look around and there are several houses empty.
“You talk to the council and they say ‘No it doesn’t work like that.’ If there’s a house sitting empty there for months why not put a family in?”
Ms Silver’s scheme has faced strong objections from Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, and Waltham Forest Council, who are upset at construction in the Green Belt separating Chingford from Waltham Abbey.
But district councillors have previously spoken in favour of the plans, citing the high level of affordable housing and the environmentally friendly design of the buildings as sufficient reason to overrule green belt concerns.
A decision on the application is expected on Wednesday.
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