Crews Hill is one of the UK’s most important horticultural centres, often described as “Britain’s Horticultural Mile”
The Taskforce and Minister of Housing believe the new town will boost economic growth and productivity. Yet no weight has been given to the vibrant economy that already exists in Crews Hill horticultural centre. It is a key commercial centre for the borough, providing about a thousand jobs in horticulture, retail, catering and more.
It is unclear what, if any, assessment the Taskforce made of existing employment at Crews Hill. It has painted the horticultural centre as underutilised land waiting to be transformed into thousands of homes.
There is no acknowledgement that this transformation will come at the cost of hundreds of jobs, decades of entrepreneurship, and the quiet resilience of family businesses that have weathered economic downturns, supply chain shocks, and the rise of online retail. These businesses are not “in the way”.
Crews Hill attracts visitors from across the region and functions as a local economy in its own right.
Destroying successful businesses makes no sense!
Under the new town proposals these businesses would be compulsory purchased, destroying a unique commercial destination and leading to the loss of hundreds of skilled jobs across horticulture, retail, distribution, and associated industries. Most of the businesses do not want to be compulsory purchased. The announcement of the new town proposals is already damaging their trading.
We’re in limbo’: the garden centre ‘golden mile’ that may be lost to a new town
“Why am I going to willingly sell up a successful business? asks Nina Barnes, who owns the Culver garden centre, first bought by her late father in 1973.
Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian Read the Guardian article
Crews Hill is a valuable asset to Enfield. Enfield Council should be supporting it,
rather than planning to wipe it off the map
Crews Hill has a lot of viable rural businesses. Provisional revisions to the National Planning Policy Framework [NPPF] would give enhanced protection for horticulture, in order to boost food security, protect rural businesses and protect high-quality agricultural land from speculative development. The revisions are primarily intended to protect farms, but Crews Hill’s many businesses are currently classified as horticulture and operate as appropriate use of land within the Green Belt? Surely the new provisions should also protect them? They provide decorative plants but also food plants for gardens and allotments, which are important for food security.
Outside Crews Hill’s horticultural centre, the surrounding countryside supports several arable and livestock farms, which provide jobs and add to food security.
“London’s gardens offer more natural habitat than any other major city” …..”the desire to bring the natural world back into our city is gaining momentum”.
Sir David Attenborough, Wild London
The Crews Hill businesses also play an important role in helping to stem the UK’s alarming rate of nature depletion. Garden plants are crucial for biodiversity. It is vital that the residents continue to buy a diverse range of plants for their gardens, providing essential food and shelter for pollinators, bees and insects.
Crews Hill sustains a vibrant and important GREEN economy. Is the loss of this valuable and much- loved horticultural, retail and social hub acceptable to the residents of Enfield and beyond?