Social & Community

Why it matters

Our ambition is to safeguard and improve the sense of belonging felt by those who live or work in Highgate by developing a strong community and contributing to a greater sense of social inclusion.

We believe that progress on this can be made by improving access to the homes, services and facilities people need to lead a full and comfortable life and through the development of a Highgate that encourages participation and integration.

What we’re doing

Highgate Festival

Held annually in June, local groups, organisations, schools, venues and churches come together for eight days of arts, culture and heritage to celebrate everything we love about Highgate.

Together with Highgate School, the HNF relaunch the Festival in 2017.

Coffee & Computers

Working with Highgate School and Channing in the future to create initiatives bringing students and other social groups together, following on from the successful Coffee and Computers project.

CIL Projects

  • Holly Lodge Community Centre
  • HIllcrest playground project
  • bike track next to Highgate Library
  • Parkland Walk

Community breakfast meetings

We attend the regular Community Breakfast Meetings organised by Katherine Ives at Lauderdale House, which is an opportunity for organisations and groups to share project information.

What the Plan says

Highgate's Housing Needs (Policy SC1)
The Neighbourhood Plan will help to facilitate delivery of a minimum of 300 net additional housing units in Highgate up to 2026. Planning applications for new residential development (including conversions) will be required to demonstrate how they are contributing towards a range of housing types and tenures to meet the identified needs of the Plan area and help us achieve a balanced, inclusive and sustainable community.

The ability of a new development to deliver an appropriate mix of homes that meet any of the following needs will be treated as a benefit of significant weight:

I. Affordable housing that meets the Boroughs’ targets and is delivered on-site;

II. Optimise the use of land and buildings on individual sites to create communities that are inclusive to everyone and appropriately mixed in terms of demographics,household types and tenures;

III. Inclusion of smaller units to provide for a mix of house sizes and to allow older residents to downsize from family housing to smaller units and supported housing, as well as to provide affordable housing products aimed at first time buyers;

IV. Where appropriate – and where it is not at the expense of quality or space standards – innovative and creative ways of providing residential accommodation to those not eligible for social housing, but also unable to afford housing at market prices. These may include licensed HMOs, studio apartments, and opportunities for a different range of housing types, such as self-build or custom-build where there is a demonstrable need.

Community facilities (Policy SC2)
The Highgate Neighbourhood Forum’s recommended priorities for Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) are listed as follows (in order of popularity in poll during Consultation):

  • Feasibility studies for hopper buses linking local communities
  • Enhancing Pond Square
  • Supporting Waterlow Park
  • Highgate Bowl Project
  • Community space at 271 terminus
  • Trees on North Hill/Archway Road
  • Facility for young people
  • Dedicated safe cycleways
  • Creating green pockets and corridors
  • Crossings on Archway Road/Wellington etc
  • Playgrounds at Hillcrest and Parkland Walk
  • Safe cycling learning space
  • Solar panel and wind turbine schemes
  • Enabling guerrilla gardeningGreen walkways
  • Support for Holly Lodge Community Centre
  • Signage from stations to Cemetery, Village etc
  • Make Highgate Station cycle/disabled/pedestrian friendly
  • Grants for improved shopfronts
  • Old Highgate overground station project

This CIL priority list may be subject to periodic review and updating over the life of the Plan.

Allotments and Communical Garden Land (Policy SC3)
I. The loss of allotments (Aylmer Road, Highgate and Shepherds Hill Railway Gardens sites in Haringey; Fitzroy Park in Camden) and communal garden land in Highgate will be resisted;

II. The provision of communal outdoor open space for residents, potentially including areas for self-managed allotments or garden land in new developments of 10 or more units – or where there is educational provision – will be actively encouraged, wherever possible and viable. Where such open space provision is delivered it should be positively managed.

Non-statutory actions
CA1: Encourage community participation, including volunteering.

CA2: Seek out opportunities for environmental improvements, such as projects encouraging renewable energy, energy efficiency and low carbon schemes.

CA3: Encourage all owners of premises or facilities that are accessed by the public to make them as friendly as possible for those with mobility issues and with children.

CA4: Where appropriate, establish venues for people to meet, for example a business/knowledge centre, as outlined in KS2: Former Highgate Railway Station.

CA5: Provide new playgrounds for under fives and a public all-weather pitch for sports.

CA6: Encourage community access to privately held sports facilities and add to the variety in existing public spaces.

CA7: Promote safety and the feeling of safety by, for example, actively supporting Neighbourhood Watch schemes.

CA8: Develop the Highgate online calendar, both as a community resource and as a way of attracting visitors.

CORE OBJECTIVE

“To help Highgate develop and maintain a strong and sustainable community which works to minimise social deprivation and exclusion.”

SOCIAL & COMMUNITY POSTS

Arts Council funding for Garden for the Gardenless

Arts Council funding for Garden for the Gardenless

Lauderdale House has received Arts Council funding to develop a new project. In due course, GARDEN FOR THE GARDENLESS will be a performance in and designed for Waterlow Park next September which will involve over 100 members of the community as performers and...

Proposed housing development at Wellington Gyratory

Proposed housing development at Wellington Gyratory

Haringey Council are currently consulting on a proposal for a small social housing scheme on the American Car Wash site within the Wellington Gyratory (where the A1 enters Highgate from the North). You can see the detail and comment on it here. The HNF have a number...

Highgate needs YOU

The Forum is made up of people like you who care about making Highgate a better place to live and work. Come join us!

FOLLOW US