Connectivity
The New Towns Taskforce states that the new generation of new towns must give a priority to public transport solutions.
“It simply cannot be the carborne examples that you find on many recent larger developments, partly because of the pressures on the existing road networks, but partly because of the environmental cost and the health costs of continued growth in carborne transport.”
Sir Michael Lyons, Chair New Towns Taskforce
Statements about the connectivity of the area were much exaggerated. The target area lies a long way from all of Enfield’s stations, except for Crews Hill and that sits on the edge of the area. Crews Hill currently has a 30-minute service each way off peak. And one bus service which doesn’t go to the station.
Statements about the connectivity of the area were much exaggerated. The target area lies a long way from all of Enfield’s stations, except for Crews Hill and that sits on the edge of the area. Crews Hill currently has a 30-minute service each way off peak. And one bus service which doesn’t go to the station.
Proposed new town and its nearest stations: Crews Hill, Gordon Hill, Oakwood and Cockfosters, showing 800m radii from the stations. 800m is considered the maximum distance that most people will walk to a transport hub.
Crews Hill does have a station, but only a minority of residents’ journeys are likely to be on the already heavily-used Stevenage to Moorgate line into Central London. Most journeys will be local and by car.
Photograph: Enfield Dispatch
Meanwhile, the local main roads [M25, A10, the Ridgeway, Enfield Town High Street, and Enfield Road] are already operating at capacity and the rural road network often seizes up.
Whatever grand ambitions are held for the new town to be car-free or car-lite, it won’t be.
At the 13/1/2026 Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee update from the Housing Minister and Chair of the New Towns Taskforce, Broxbourne MP Lewis Cocking (Conservative) raised the significant infrastructure problems with the shortlisted Crews Hill & Chase Park New Town site, which is adjacent to his constituency,
“if you think you’re going to create a new town in a particular rural setting, and no-one is going to use a car … you’re just on a different planet”.
Mr Cocking argued that the existing road infrastructure around the M25 and the A10 corridor is already at maximum capacity. He said:
“It’s a bit like turning up to a transport meeting and the person comes in a car and says ‘everyone’s got to walk and cycle everywhere’. It just doesn’t happen in reality,”
When Enfield Council’s draft local plan proposed around 9,250 homes on Vicarage Farm [Chase Park] and Crews Hill, Transport for London (TfL) and the Greater London Authority [GLA] raised serious objections. They said development, even on this smaller scale, would inevitably be car-dependent and would overwhelm already strained roads. Families would be taking children to schools and nurseries, often before they start work; tradesmen would require vehicles to run their businesses; trips would need to be made in all directions. Frequent bus services are only viable in areas with a high population density so would not be in place immediately – if ever.
If the 9000 new homes proposed in the Local Plan are problematic for connectivity,
how can 21,000 be possible?
What about the area’s narrow country lanes, banked by hundreds of mature trees and ancient hedgerows? These local roads would require extensive and disruptive [and very destructive] road widening simply to function.
Radical and expensive changes are necessary at Crews Hill to achieve the public transport connectivity that the Taskforce considers “critical” to the success of any New Town. The Taskforce do concede that “some” upgrades to “some” public transport infrastructure “would be required” to support a new town, but that: “those needs would be met over the life of a new town, 20 or 30 years, not all having to be satisfied at day one”. In the meantime?
The New Town will bring congestion, more delays and gridlock