Building new homes for Marks Gate

Come and see the latest designs for Padnall Lake phase 2, where we will be providing up to 219 affordable new homes on the eastern edge of Marks Gate next to the A12.
Chat to our architects and landscape designers about how you think these current plans for new homes and outdoor community space could be improved.

Artwork inspired by the environment and wildlife is now being displayed on hoardings surrounding a new housing development in Marks Gate.

The paintings and drawings by students from Rose Lane Primary school were created as part of a competition run by the council’s regeneration organisation, Be First, with help from Studio 3 Arts.

This week local councillors, Cllr Sade Bright and Cllr Simon Perry, visited the site where the work is now displayed to meet the young artists, Assistant Deputy Headteacher, Lara Marsh, and Elaine Tribley.

Cllr Perry said: “The children’s work is awesome and inspirational. It’s great to see young people getting involved and expressing their love of nature and their local environment through art.”

Beth Cross, Community Engagement Coordinator at Be First, said: “It’s so important to involve the local community and young people with what we’re trying to build here – a great place for all, with quality new homes for local people and an improved and more bio-diverse environment.”

Lara Marsh, said: “The history of Marks Gate has been long and varied. It started with a moated manor house surrounded by three small hamlets at the entrance to Hainault Forest and then blossomed and grew in the 1950s. Since then, the school has been at the heart of the community and this is still our role today.

“At Rose Lane we pride ourselves on the breadth and depth of our curriculum ensuring that our pupils leave us engaged with the society they live in. The creative arts are a hugely important aspect and this project not only encouraged the children to express themselves through art but also developed their knowledge of the community they live in and added something beautiful for them, their families and their neighbours to look at.”

Rosie Ross, Senior Creative Producer at Studio 3 Arts, said: “Studio 3 Arts is delighted to have collaborated with the children from Rose Lane Primary. Their work celebrates the history and natural landscape of Padnall Lake which they developed in responses to artpacks compiled by artist Elaine Tribley during lockdown.

“It’s fantastic that the children can now see their ideas realised within this informative and colourful design and share it with their families and the wider Marks Gate community.”

The artwork is displayed on the hoardings which surround the new development at Marks Gate which will feature 81 quality new affordable homes for local people.

Come along to the Jobs Fair being held at the Marks Gate Community Hub On Tuesday 20th July from 10am - 1pm to learn more about employment opportunities with Murphy Group, Care City, and the Met Police.

You will also be able to chat to Barking and Dagenham Job Shop and meet PPCR Associates, who are looking to speak to residents about their views on Marks Gate now and in the future.

Click the image for further details.

Students from Rose Lane Primary School were presented prizes by local councillors for their winning entries in an art competition run by Be First, Barking and Dagenham Council’s regeneration organisation.

Councillors Sade Bright and Simon Perry handed out the prizes to 11 children who took part in the Your Marks Gate competition inspired by the plants and wildlife that inhabits Padnall Lake and the Marks Gate area and also the wider history and heritage of the estate, homes and its close proximity to Hainault Forest.

The competition ran for a month and included all year groups across the school.

Assistant Deputy Headteacher Lara Marsh said: “Participating in the ‘Your Marks Gate’ art competition has been a fantastic opportunity for our school. We launched the competition by dedicating a whole day to the study of the history of our local area and doing art workshops in connection with this. We were delighted with the take up from our students and as a result of the enthusiasm about the launch day we have introduced extra local history and geography study into our curriculum.

“At Rose Lane we are passionate about the creative arts and teach much of our wider curriculum through this medium so the competition sat beautifully within this. It’s wonderful that our pupils have been able to use the creative arts to get in touch with their local cultural identity and be proud of their community.”

Sadia Ur-Rehman, Community Engagement Coordinator at Be First said: “It’s been wonderful working with Rose Lane Primary School and its community on this competition. We had such fantastic entries to the competition, our judges had a challenging time whittling it down to the winners! Well done to everyone involved.”

Up to three winners were chosen from each Key Stage, including Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS): Nursery and Reception, Key Stage 1 (KS1): Year 1 and 2, Key Stage 2 (KS2): Year 3-6. There were also two 'Special Mention' awards given to two students.

Be First is working with local arts organisation Studio 3 Arts and artist Elaine Tribley to incorporate all of the children’s entries into a final digital artwork that will be displayed on the hoardings for the Padnall Lake development site. This will ensure that there is a legacy to the competition and give the children and school a sense of pride and achievement for the wonderful artworks produced for the competition.

You can see all the winning entries here.

EYFS Winners

Animals at Padnall Lake by Aaliyah Khan Rubber Band Rainbow by Benjamin Tanner Marks Gate Houses by Noah Lyan-Rana

KS1 Winners

Windmill by Akeem OsinakeHeritage of our Marks Gate by Muhammad Mohid Saleem

Windmill and Lake by Loki Bailey

KS2 Winners

The Apple Tree by Ianis Abel PatrascuFeatures of Padnall Lake by Lola Dauti

Special Mention Awards

Mayor gives green light to new homes

The Mayor of London has now given the green light to our plans to build new homes alongside Padnall Lake.

This means that we have cleared the final hurdle in our bid to build much-needed affordable housing for the local community. We will now appoint a contractor so that the first phase of building work can start, which we hope will be towards the summer.

Our aim is to build the homes as fast as possible with the minimum inconvenience to local residents.

We plan to build the housing in phases, and we will use modern construction methods. Many parts of the new ‘modular’ homes will be built off-site in factories and assembled and finished on site. This can be up to 40 per cent faster than building using conventional methods. It also reduces disturbance and is much more environment friendly.

The first phase of 81 homes will be built at the western end of the site, nearest the Lake. You can see a detailed map on our website and our planned timetable is below.

From now We will appoint a building contractor.

Spring 2021 Ground preparation works could start for the first phase

Autumn 2021 The first modular elements could be delivered to site and assembled

Late 2021 We will submit what is known as a 'reserved matters planning application' for the second phase of new homes

Early 2023 The first phase could be completed and tenants could move in

By 2024 The second phase tenants could move in

Be First is calling on local residents who want to know more about the archaeological excavations in progress at Marks Gate, to pose their questions in a special online interview with the archaeologists.

The council’s regeneration organisation has been carrying out a number of surveys and archaeological excavations since November when the council granted planning permission for new affordable homes on the land adjacent to the A12. The digging got underway while the plans are being considered by the Mayor of London.

The aim is to help progress the design of the new homes and ensure that any archaeological remains are salvaged.

The only find so far is a small fragment of what might be Saxon pottery on the site (pictured above). This is being examined by a pottery specialist and the archaeologists hope to have a better idea of how old it is and how it was used in the past. The initial view is that it might have been part of a cup or bowl.

However, there have been no other significant finds so far and the archaeologists have said they want to do more investigations in the week commencing 18 January. They will dig four more deep pits to look for anything of interest.

The Be First team will be interviewing the archaeologists in a short You Tube video next week and are calling on local residents to ask the questions.

If you have a question you would like to pose to them, please send your questions to communications@befirst.london

The interview will be available from 25 January at https://yourcall.befirst.london/marks-gate

Progress report

Our contractor, Murphy, wrote to residents in December to explain that there would be a number of surveys carried out during December 2020 and January 2021. The latest update is below.

• The project is on schedule in spite of very poor weather conditions, and we have completed most of the excavation works.
• We will be digging four more archaeological trenches from 18 January 2021 onwards. They will take approximately seven working days to complete, weather permitting.
• We have tried to minimise the amount of green space we have had to dig up as much as possible and we intend to reopen the fenced-off areas as soon as the survey and site investigation work is completed.
• The wet weather has meant that it has been more difficult to reopen these areas than we expected because the surfaces are waterlogged and very muddy. This has meant that we have experienced more damage to the grass areas than we hoped. We sincerely apologise for this. Please rest assured that we intend to relay the grass as soon as we have a dry spell.
• We have experienced some vandalism of the site and fly-tipping locally. We have cleared this up, but if you do see any further anti-social behaviour please do report it immediately. You can call anonymously on 020 8724 8898, emailgrimecrime@lbbd.gov.uk or speak to or speak to our on-site contractor, Murphy. They will do everything they can to minimise disruption to you and to keep noise and mess on site to an absolute minimum. If you have any concerns, please contact Paul Hart, Murphy Contracts Manager, phone 020 7267 4366 or email paulhart@murphygroup.co.uk

Our contractor, Murphy, will be carrying out a number of site surveys in the Padnall Lake area over the next few weeks.

The council granted planning permission for new affordable homes to be built alongside Padnall Lake on Monday 30 November. While the Mayor of London considers the application further, we have invited Murphy to survey the lake, carry out an archaeological survey and do ground investigations which will involve them having to dig several trenches.

If the Mayor agrees the application, our technical teams will need this information to progress the designs and they are critical to ensure we protect and salvage any archaeological remains that may be present on site.

The surveys will start from Monday 7 December and are due to be completed in January 2021. We apologise if the work causes any inconvenience but please be assured Murphy will manage these works closely to ensure disruption is kept to an absolute minimum.

Further information here.

The council approved plans from Be First to build affordable new homes at Marks Gate on 30 November.

The members of the planning committee voted to support the application for permission to build the first phase of 81 high quality, affordable homes for the council, and approved the construction of up to 219 more in principle.

They also agreed to a number of conditions which would see added benefits coming to the community including a contribution towards improving local bus services and a commitment that a minimum of 25 per cent of labour and suppliers required for the construction are from within the borough to maximise opportunities for local residents and businesses.

Councillor Cameron Geddes, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Social Housing, said: “This is great news for the thousands of people on the council’s housing list. It will provide desperately needed homes for local people at rents they can afford.

“In addition to the new homes the development will provide a brand new park, orchards and improved access to a lake which will provide a green open space residents can enjoy.”

The other main features of the plan are:

• 100 per cent of the new homes will be affordable homes with rents starting at £159 a week
• top environmental standards – with solar panels and lots of insulation to keep fuel bills low, and
• use of modern construction methods to speed up the building process and minimise inconvenience to existing residents.
• creation of an attractive linear park with a range of uses – from adventure play areas to orchards
• upgrade the lake and the area around the lake to increase biodiversity and to make it more accessible for everyone, especially elderly and disabled people.

The plans will now be submitted to the Mayor of London, and his team will scrutinise the application and give a final decision early next year.

Further details here.

It appears that due to ongoing upgrade works to our database software since Monday 21^st September it appears that the link for customers to make representations on the Padnall Lake planning application is not available to all customers. The Planning Team very much welcome all views and representations from neighbours and apologise for this issue which is being urgently looked into. The system in all other respects is functioning fully and all documents on the application file are available for public viewing through the website.

To ensure we are able to receive your comments, we have extended the public consultation period on this application by 14 days until the 11^th October 2020 and would be happy to receive comments by email to planning@befirst.london.