News - Woolwich Love Lane Development
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Connaught Mews News - Woolwich Love Lane Development |
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News - Woolwich Love Lane - Planning Permission ResponseThe following letter was drawn up in response to the planning permission request sent by the council on the 18th July 2006. It was sent by Connaught Mews SE18 Management Co Ltd on behalf of all the residents at the Mews.
Your reference 06/1751/O /2
Date 10-Aug-06 Dear Sir/Madam, We write further to your letter to residents dated 18th July 2006 regarding the proposed "Love Lane Development". 1. INTRODUCTIONConnaught Mews is situated in over an acre of land just outside the heart of Woolwich, immediately adjacent to the planned development. There will be a significant and potentially undesirable impact should the proposed planning application be agreed.The Mews consists of three Grade II listed buildings and shares the rich historical background of the area. It was previously a military hospital with links dating back to Queen Victoria and Florence Nightingale. Connaught Mews SE18 Management Company Ltd (CMSE18MCL) was originally formed in 1996 by the residents who had purchased the freehold. CMSE18MCL operates as a commonhold style limited Management Company. It is a not-for-profit organisation run for the benefit of the residents by directors who are themselves residents and work on a voluntary and unpaid basis. CMSE18MCL has canvassed resident's opinions both formally and informally with regard to the proposed development. At times it has been difficult to obtain views, as often we have been given very little notice of consultation events. Additionally some properties are owned by landlords who are not resident on the Mews. At the end of July, we gained agreement to an on-site meeting, with representatives from both the developers and the Council attending. This took place on 3rd August 2006. Despite the fact that we were only able to give three days notice to residents of this meeting, there was a notable response. Twelve people attended the meeting and a further twelve submitted a formal written response. As many again verbally relayed their views to CMSE18MCL directors. This gave us input from approximately 50% of the properties i.e. a significant proportion. We trust that this gives a sense of how important this is to us all and how strongly we feel about this development. In all there are 61 properties within Connaught Mews, with significantly more residents. We write today as first directors on behalf of all the residents and the following comments represent the majority view of both the residents of the Mews and CMSE18MCL. 2. GENERAL COMMENTSFeedback2.1 Generally the residents are very much in favour of investment in Woolwich, but not at the cost of it becoming an unpleasant place in which to live. Many express the view that the Love Lane area is in need of development, but not in such a way as to adversely affect the surrounding areas, which includes Connaught Mews2.2 There has been confusion over the dates by which comments on the planning submission need to be made. The letter sent to residents states comments must be submitted within 21 days from the 18th July, however the notices in the streets say 21 days from the 26th July. We raised this with both the developers and Council officers and have now been reassured that comments will be accepted up to 15th August. However others will be unaware of this later date and would have welcomed more time to reflect on these significant proposals and taken longer over our response Expected Outcome
3. THE HEIGHT, SIZE AND DENSITY OF THE DEVELOPMENTFeedback3.1 Most residents of the Mews are opposed to such a large and dense development - particularly in light of all the other developments in the area3.2 Many query the need for such a large supermarket and are greatly concerned about the effect of this on small local businesses, that will inevitably lose trade and potentially be forced to close 3.3 By far the biggest concern was the height of the development, particularly at the end nearest to Connaught Mews. One resident described this as "an intense invasion of privacy". Some residents are now less concerned since the plans have been revised to lower the height to 16 floors and to move the block further away from the Mews. However, some serious scepticism remains about the adherence to the 16 floor height limit, as other reassurances we have been given have been overturned 3.4 Many residents remain unhappy about the excessive height of the main tower block which will dominate the area Expected Outcome
4. TRAFFIC VOLUMES - NOISE, CONGESTION AND POLLUTIONFeedback4.1 The residents of Connaught Mews welcome the proposals to improve the control of traffic by introducing traffic lights at the accident black spot at the top of Grand Depot Road4.2 However we remain very concerned about the funnelling of all new residential and shopping traffic down Grand Depot Road. The developers and Council officers have seemed;
4.3 Although we have raised concerns and objections to this proposal, few of them seem to have been taken into consideration and our requests to look at alternatives appear to have been largely ignored. For example, we have had no formal response to our suggestion at the December 05 consultation event that the entrance and exit to the site be made at opposite sides of the development to reduce the impact on Grand Depot Road 4.4 At the same consultation event we asked for details of the traffic analysis and were told these would be made available, but this has not been forthcoming. In the absence of any shared detail, we remain concerned that there will be major congestion in, and around the development 4.5 The level of noise and pollution for properties adjacent to the South Circular Road has now been recognised as a serious problem. This problem was considered serious enough by the developers to include a raised embankment to shelter the new residential properties, but no similar consideration or remedy has been proposed for the residents of Connaught Mews 4.6 Residents are already concerned about the current levels of pollution in Woolwich and in particular close to the busy A205 South Circular Road. The EU stipulates that daily levels of PM10 should not exceed 50 µg m-3. However, the graph below for Plumstead High Street, shows that the PM10 levels regularly exceeds that limit
Source: www.londonair.org.uk 4.7 The new development will inevitable increase the levels of traffic and the associated pollution. We want to see the environmental report and health impact assessments for pollutants, including Ozone, PM10 and N0x for the surrounding area. In particular we would like to see the projected increases, both during the construction when heavily polluting vehicles will be accessing the site and after completion of the development 4.8 We will be seeking the views of the Mayor of London, as we are aware he has been given responsibility for reducing the PM10 and N0x levels and he has been given extra powers to deal with planning and development across London Boroughs 4.9 To help address the impact of the problems of noise and pollution, the residents of Connaught Mews request that the Council approve and the developers fund the raising of the Mews boundary wall at the top of Grand Depot Road 4.10 Many residents are concerned about pedestrian access along Grand Depot Road and would like firm assurances that the promised 3m wide pavements and with grass and trees will be put in place on both sides of the road 4.11 The residents are very concerned about deliveries to the supermarket and shops and want a condition of the planning approval to be a restriction on deliveries to between the hours of 9am to 5pm 4.12 Residents are outraged that they will now have restricted access to Connaught Mews. We had been given every reassurance at the consultation stage that residents would still be allowed to drive down Grand Depot Road and turn right up Woolwich New Road to access the Mews. This reassurance now seems to have been worthless. Several residents who have lived here for a number of years could not even work out an alternative road route to reach the Mews. This will severely restrict access for residents, visitors, deliveries and essential services for the Mews. The residents feel most strongly about this unexplained change. This is utterly unacceptable to residents, who now seek information and explanation for this complete u-turn that we understand was not the developers proposed, nor their preferred option Expected Outcome
5. THE PROPOSED CONSTRUCTION UNTIL 2013Feedback5.1 Residents are very concerned about the noise, congestion, vibration, disruption and pollution during this massive development over a very long time frame. We now understand that construction is unlikely to be completed before 2013 at the earliest5.2 The residents want reassurance that the road improvements will be done before construction work commences 5.3 The residents want reassurance that construction traffic will not be given access to the site near to the Mews 5.4 The residents want reassurance that the construction work will only be undertaken by developers who have committed to a "considerate contractor scheme" 5.5 The residents want a condition placed on the planning approval that construction work will only take place between the hours of 9am and 5pm 5.6 The residents would like the construction developers to minimise the noise and disruption during the day in consideration to the residents who;
5.7 The residents would like a clear and public plan and time line for the development 5.8 The residents would like a clear and simple process for the management and escalation of resident's problems and concerns regarding the development during the construction work Expected Outcome
6. THE CONSULTATION AND COMMUNICATION PROCESSFeedback6.1 The majority feel that the consultation process has been unstructured, poorly promoted and has confused the public6.2 As far as we are aware no timetable of events or deadlines has ever been publicised and the process remains unclear 6.3 We were told at the December consultation event that there would be a further consultation prior to the submission of the planning application. However this clearly has not happened and at the last event an official stressed that it was a public exhibition and not further consultation 6.4 Unlike other recent examples of public consultation on major planning applications, this exercise has lacked structure and clarity;
6.5 The developers and Council officials have said that they feel that they have made extensive attempts to consult, but residents here have said that they;
6.6 The Love Lane Development web site has given little information and was not updated until this was highlighted at the last public event. Even today the site cannot be easily located using a common internet search engine such as "Google" (the first suggestion returned by Google for "Love Lane Development" is in fact the Connaught Mews web page) 6.7 At the last consultation event we repeatedly raised the issue of raising the profile of the consultation and we were assured that different ways would be investigated. We were further assured that everyone who had registered an interest via the Love Lane Development site would be contacted by email. To date, nothing has happened Expected Outcome
7. OTHER CONSIDERATIONSFeedback7.1 Some residents, especially those with young families and the elderly, have concerns about safety. Some anxiety has been expressed about the large influx of people to the area from the development7.2 A lot of residents are concerned that the property values will stagnate, or even decline during the seven years of development work. While this may not prove to be too great a problem in the long run, it will affect those who wish to sell in the short or medium term. There is already some anecdotal evidence that sale of properties in the Mews is being affected by the proposal (some properties that have sold quickly in the past have recently been slow to sell) 7.3 Some landlords are also concerned about being able to let property, or maintain a respectable level of rent, during the development construction work 7.4 Some residents have concerns about parking. They are not convinced that adequate provision has been made in the development for car parking spaces for shoppers and the new residents, who will seek to park in the immediate locality. We have already had problems with non-residents "tail gating" resident's cars through the gate and then becoming trapped within the Mews. Further parking controls and parking enforcement in the Mew's car parks will be a direct cost to residents 7.5 The residents are also very concerned about other development works around the Mews. We have recently become aware of a demolition/improvement order for the estate on the other side of the Mews on Woolwich New Road. However, we have no idea what is proposed for this development area, nor are we aware of the time line. Residents are very concerned that the Mews will become "trapped" in between two massive construction sites for many years. Others are complete unaware of these additional works. All of the surrounding planning applications and development proposals need to be considered collectively and publicly, to determine the combined impact and degradation in the quality of life for the residents of the Mews Expected Outcome
8. CONCLUSION8.1 In summary we are in favour of the development of Woolwich, but still have some very serious reservations about the proposed planning application8.2 This is a massive development work that will significantly impact the residents of the Mews for at least the next seven years 8.3 To date we have had no written responses to our input to the consultation and now seek a formal response to each of the points in this letter 8.4 As this letter represents objections from multiple households we expect this planning decision to go before a Council Committee and would welcome the opportunity to speak at that meeting. We would also expect to be given an agenda and sufficient notice in advance of the date of Committee meeting to prepare our case Expected Outcome
Signed on behalf of Connaught Mews SE18 Management Company Ltd cc. Mayor of London Ken Livingstone,
Site last updated : 19th Febuary 2010.
Registered office: 20 Lantern House, Connaught Mews, Woolwich, London SE18 6SU.
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