As Haringey’s round 2 Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy (NCIL) arrived, the Forum were able to summarize our recent consultation events and submit funding priorities for our patch.

For an explanation of CIL click here.

Haringey Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy (NCIL) Spending Round 2 consultation, Dec 2025–Jan 2026

Representation by the Crouch End Neighbourhood Forum

As people will know the Community Infrastructure Levy is a charge local authorities place upon developers, raising funds to support infrastructure needs arising from new developments. Whilst 85% of the amount is redirected to Haringey centrally (and inevitably goes toward large projects in Wood Green and Tottenham), some 15% becomes ‘Neighbourhood CIL’, a pot reserved for projects in the area where the development takes place – spent according to the wishes of local people.

The NCIL amount available for the Crouch End neighbourhood is £525,164, a collection running to end 2022-23 (we note that our district was not included in Round 1). It is worth mentioning that the total CIL accrued through development in Crouch End has therefore reached £3.5 million, a useful sum for Haringey projects across the Borough. Clearly the largest contribution has emerged from the Hornsey Town Hall development on the Broadway, so it seems appropriate that suggested projects focus upon the needs of the town centre.

CENF’s priorities derive from the various consultation events the Forum has run in recent years, and what follows is a summary of those findings (notably we ran a direct online consultation exercise ). Further information can be found here.

Ideas and themes also relate directly to the recently submitted CENF Neighbourhood Priorities Statement

Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy (NCIL) Priorities List:

Priority 1.  Town Centre Urban Realm and Highways Improvements

A clear local community consensus has emerged from CENF consultation events:

    To alleviate town centre traffic dominance and address shortcomings of a poor pedestrian environment of narrow, congested footways. By re-allocating street space to people and delivering enhancements to the quality, safety, accessibility and usability of public space, our objective is to enhance the visitor experience and uplift local economic activity.

We understand that there are limits to what can be achieved with half-a-million, and would encourage Haringey to re-visit earlier incomplete projects, and invite consideration of other sources of matched funding. We note that highways improvements were the focus of the seemingly abandoned Liveable Crouch End project (TfL 2018-21), and as a consequence significant analysis and scoping work is already available to the council.

In the interim we would support temporary schemes, trials or pilot projects (for example parklets) that could establish the principle of increased pedestrian space and achieve public buy-in.

Crouch End town centre has so often missed out on the kind of road improvements seen elsewhere in London and we fear the reported reduction in footfall will not be reversed unless this opportunity is taken. We are happy to facilitate discussion or a Crouch End walkaround.

• Tottenham Lane pavement widening

Our surveys suggest broad support for simple interventions such as widening a section of pavement along the most traffic-affected corridor in Crouch End, Tottenham Lane (sometimes referred to as Topsfield Parade and Broadway Parade). This would address the woefully inadequate current pavement width allowing space for pavement trading, greening, bus-stop queues, seating, better cycle parking, de-cluttering and improving access for all, and providing an improved public realm encouraging visitors and dwell-time. It would not be necessary to re-site a large amount of visitor parking spaces. A brief overview can be found here  “Tottenham Lane Improvements” (this contains an assessment and measurements, click images).

• Similar moves could be made along the Broadway, or at the foot of Crouch End Hill where the roadway is particularly wide.
• Support was expressed for synchronising traffic lights in the town centre to allow greater flexibility for pedestrian crossing including periods free of traffic (scramble crossings).
• All schemes could be designed to enhance bus running and bus stop provision.

Priority 2.  Related town centre projects.

• Establishing additional pedestrian crossings on the Broadway and other main roads.
• Providing new public space by filtering side roads near the clock tower (such as Weston Park or Crouch Hall Road), providing trading space.
• Providing new public space by closing off a section of road abutting the clock tower island (this identified by the Liveable Crouch End scheme).
• Install parklets in place of one or two car parking spaces, possibly along Tottenham Lane. Initial trial suggested in consultation with local restaurants and replicated if successful.
• Provide segregated cycle lanes, although it is noted that this could be difficult through central road space.
• Improving bus speeds by re-engineering road space at pinch points on Tottenham Lane (this could be done as part of the favoured Tottenham Lane pavement widening scheme described above).

Priority 3.

Other suggestions made, although these are subsidiary:

• Tree planting in town centre – this is popular, but please note that such a scheme is substantially delivered by the recent crowdfunded/Haringey commitment to plant 30 trees across the town centre in the coming season.
• Heritage related schemes, including a fund for traditional design shopfronts/fascia/awnings.
• Improve and/or create additional access to public toilets.
• Additional seating around the town centre.
• Additional children’s facilities in Stationers Park.
• Install pollution monitors around the Broadway (e.g. for NO2 and PM2.5).
• Provide extra facilities for young people.