Crews Hill is a village in the north most part of Greater London. It’s a paradise for green fingered folks who travel to the plethora of garden centres along Cattlegate road and Theobalds Park road.
I have many pleasant memories of the area, having gone there with my mum since I was a child when I lived in Potters Bar. We used to get dog food for our black and white cocker spaniel Chelsea from Jollies. Nowadays, Chelsea is still around, we journey to Crews Hill to get stones and top soil from Thompsons of Crews Hill. I was recently out leafletting in West Cheshunt and came across a woman's house who had a plethora of small budgies, parakeets, cockatiels and a single grey canary. She acquired them from the Enfield Bird Centre, who has been in business since 1985. Around the same time the Housing Secretary went to study in the Steel City of Sheffield. More on him later... 
Many other come from near and far to come to Crews Hill for horticultural or architectural purposes. Or as I have often done while down there, gone for a nice bacon soft roll at the Crews Hill Grill by Jollies. In terms of local infrastructure, there is a Great Northern Line train station at the top of Crews Hill. By the time it reaches there it's already packed with passengers who have got on from Hertford North and Cuffley, including my mrs, to go to Finsbury Park or Moorgate. Not many get on the train on from Crews Hill, the main Enfield train stations are on the overground and Greater Anglia New River lines in the more populated Enfield Town or Enfield Wash. Crews Hill itself is situated near the Ridgeway and Enfield Chase. Many in Hertfordshire will know Enfield Chase if you've ever needed to go for any major medical appointments or operations which my mum has for a gall bladder operation. Enfield Chase Hospital is part of the Royal Free NHS Trust. According to a BBC report in 2024, for the Royal Free Trust, 40% of ambulances per 826 arrivals are kept waiting 30 mins or longer to hand over their patients to A&E staff this is compared to national average of 26%, 33% of patients are waiting 4 hours or longer to be seen at A&E compared to the national average of 29%. Keep this in mind.
Now the crux of this article comes with the recent news that around 3,000 homes are planned to be built on Crews Hill, I will include the picture of the masterplan of where the homes are being placed. You will be horrified to learn that the local businesses I have mentioned will be compulsory purchased to make way for what Housing Secretary Steve Reed terms a "new town." We can look to such examples of "new towns" such as nearby Harlow in Essex to see how inspiring these new developments have been for the human lexicon. Not only is the forceable bulldozing of local businesses happening, but also the local golf course is also targeted for development. As a man in my 20s, I am no golf lover. However, I can empathise for those who have put money towards the upkeep of those local courses which provide green spaces for those wishing to play the sport and for mental wellbeing.
Looking back on infrastructure, with the Greater Northern line to Moorgate already resembling a tin of sardines, it's perplexing how 3000 or so more commuters will also fit. Recent news on this is that TFL are looking to take over running to the line, however no news regarding how they seek to deal with capacity requirements. Speaking of capacity, revisiting those numbers I asked you to keep in mind. How in all that is holy is anyone supposed to be able to cope with such a development, in the NHS, with the influx of patients already above national average in the Royal Free Trust. There seems to be little specification of any GP surgeries in the plan thus far which is a foolish lack of consideration as to how these thousands of new people will access healthcare, let alone the existing residents.
But finally, the final travesty which I began with, the ripping up of businesses who have been there for generations. These businesses have given local people in Enfield, Barnet and South Hertfordshire the ability to create better private green spaces for themselves. Whether that be in your back or front garden or in an allotment. It truly is alarming how much of an attack this is on not just those local businesses and their livelihoods but also what this does to the ability to be creative in one's own area. If Ed Miliband and other's were serious about Net Zero and environmental conservation, destroying businesses who give people the ability to appreciate nature in their own worlds is a horrific way to go about it. Crews Hill represents a dangerous precedent for what government can do to communities. Crews Hill is a thriving local community, which employs many from surrounding areas, with a history of entrepreneurship and environmental conservation. It should terrify us all that this is how the Department of Housing and Urban Development wish to go about increasing the supply of housing.
I encourage you all to write to your local MP's to call out the disastrous effect this will have on local business and to show it is unacceptable to destroy people's livelihoods on masse while destroying local communities at the behest of implementing modern soulless New Towns.
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