WOODFORD GRN: Protestors will invoke covenant to protect house

4:33pm Thursday 24th July 2008

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CAMPAIGNERS fighting to save an historic Woodford Green house have vowed to use a long forgotten covenant to stop its demolition.

Residents in Broomhill Walk unearthed the 70 year-old document after developers resubmitted a planning application to knock down the four bedroom, art deco property at number 6, and replace it with flats.

The covenant was created by the company which built the Cronk Estate – which includes Broomhill Walk - during the 1930s, and forbids residents from building more than one property on each plot of land, or dividing existing properties into flats.

Ken Ferguson, of the Cronk Estate Action Group (CEAG), said campaigners were particularly angered by the timing of the developer’s new submission – which came just two weeks after the building was gutted by fire.

He added: “I was pleased the planning authority turned the application down, although imagine my shock when the property was badly damaged by fire and now a fresh application has been made to demolish it, and build a block of flats.

“This application leaves us with no alternative but to rely upon the legal restrictions relating to the Cronk Estate.”

CEAG’s decision comes just weeks after members of the Counties Estate Residents’ Association (CERA), in Wanstead, considered using a similar covenant to protect another art deco house, Chepstow, in Leicester Road.

Their move fell flat when it became apparent that it could cost them thousands of pounds in legal fees to have the covenant enforced.

Mr Ferguson said: “We have not taken this decision lightly, we know what we’re doing.”