Sites
Claude Road
Location
Map
Current land use
As part of Waltham Forest’s commitment to support community led-housing, in autumn 2020 the council released two small ‘pilot’ sites for community organisations to bid on.
The Claude Road site is currently being used as a car park at the end of a terrace in the Francis Road area of Leyton. It is a tight plot overlooked by nearby existing homes, so it requires a sensitive architectural approach that protects neighbours’ privacy and their amenities. The bidding process, often called a ‘tender’, is being organised through the Greater London Authority’s Small Sites, Small Builders portal.
At Forest CLT we are preparing a bid for a small number of genuinely affordable homes with a shared garden. We’re exploring the idea of further urban gardens on terraces and roofs, and are designing buildings with high standards of energy efficiency through the One Planet Living framework. If possible, we aim to include a micro community space, which might be self-built by volunteers, that could provide space for small community meetings and classes, deskspace for Forest CLT and local self-employed people, and a communal micro-laundry for residents of the project.
Claude Road is Forest CLT’s pilot development, which will showcase our approach to affordability, sustainability and community involvement. It will be a chance to implement our allocations policy, which prioritises local people in housing need, and refine our business plan as we progress to larger scale projects. Due to the limited size of the site and its constraints, we expect the homes to be modest one-beds and two-beds mostly for affordable ownership with some for low-cost rent.