The Council Leader needs to tell Mr. Stallwood, our planning supremo, this sort of shabby trick will no longer be tolerated in the new era of openness.
The owners of the Holiday Inn Forum have applied to demolish the existing hotel and construct two massive towers sitting on a “podium”.
This podium itself will span the length of the garden square and will be 6 floors high.
Each one of these three structures would normally require an application as a stand-alone.
By any measure, this is a massive over-development.
Residents will end up with the tallest tower being the highest building in the borough- 10 metres taller than the existing hotel.
Even the lower of the two towers will be 10 m higher than the Grenfell Tower.
Ongoing construction chaos will last 8 years!
The development will create massive traffic with chaos, dirt and dust, more than likely, asbestos, everywhere.
There will be a massive wall of buildings visible from Kensington Gardens to Battersea Bridge.
Local residents and businesses will be directly and adversely affected by this development so everybody needs to join together and fight to halt yet another offshore developer whose sole objective is to make hundreds of millions and blighting residents' assets and quality of life.
To fight the billionaire developers we need donations and residents' support.
PP/18/03461
Please email the Council at planning@rbkc.gov.uk quoting the planning application reference above and cc’ing philip.elliott@rbkc.gov.uk, cllr.gregory.hammond@rbkc.gov.
Please include at least one of the following points in your letter of objection:
- The setting of nearby listed buildings and conservation areas would be affected, including important local views. It would result in substantial harm to these heritage assets.
- The towers will be seen from an area as wide as Kensington Gardens to Battersea Bridge, dominating the skyline.
- The wall of buildings will force a sense of enclosure on nearby residents.
- The towers will reduce the hours of direct daylight to the neighbouring premises on either side. Residents have a right to light.
- The relative height and proximity of the buildings will result in overlooking of neighbouring properties. Residents have a right to privacy.
- The proposed construction is 50% larger than the existing building, and would cause an over-densification of what is already one of the most densely populated areas in Europe. This would add additional strain to an already overstretched infrastructure, such as the water supply and the sewage disposal.
See the justgiving page and website, links below, for a fuller list.
Donating:
We need to fund raise £5000 for legal and professional fees if we are to successfully oppose the proposal.
We’d appreciate any contributions from the residents who will be seriously blighted for the next several years
Donations would be gratefully accepted by cheque, bank transfer or by credit card through the justgiving page:
www.justgiving.com/crowdfundin
We are hosting a meeting on 8th August at St Mary The Boltons 6.30 - 8pm. We’d love to hear from you and have your input and participation.
Please share this email. If we have enough objections and points to counter this application, the council will refuse it.
With best regards,
The ACGRA Committee
www.stopthetowers.org.uk
ACGRA, Ashburn Courtfield Gardens Residents Association, with the support of The Kensington Society www.kensingtonsociety.org, and SK&QGRA http://www.southkenqueensgater
Another GIGANTIC MESS to bring misery to the Kensington residents. One mess for another it seems.
ReplyDeleteI hope the campaign can stop it.
Chinese developers ruining our city. Go away, you greedy pigs
ReplyDeleteAsbestos is present in the current (Holiday Inn) building. Residents cannot feel assured when they know that the Earls Court Exhibition centre also contained asbestos but the site was not sufficiently protected by the developer CapCo prior to demolition. Fine white dust began to appear outside and inside the homes of residents living adjacent to the development. The Council did not hold CapCo to account.
ReplyDelete10m higher than Grenfell?!
ReplyDeleteNot exactly. Grenfell Tower was/is only 67.3 metres high. The highest of the two Holiday Inn towers will be 110 metres, while the lower of the towers will be 75 metres. So the lower of the towers will be 10 meters higher than Grenfell, while the higher tower will be 43 metres higher than Grenfell - and 38 metres higher than the proposed Newcombe House tower in Notting Hill Gate.
DeleteThis disgraceful sale of London needs to be halted. Money comes, money goes, but these ugly prison-like buildings will last for the next few generations to deal with. Poor them.
ReplyDeleteIs the Planning and Borough Development department a facilitator for Commercial property developers?
ReplyDeleteIt looks that way by how they are handling the objections. First it was Odeon, Earl's Court and there are other places in the borough equally handled nearly criminally which aren't big development that the whole borough wouldn't know. The Planning just pretends that we are encouraged to submit objection etc but at the end of the day, they'll find a way for the plan to be given permission regardless of disadvantages to the residents.
DeleteLondon houses more billionaires than any other city - many in RBKC - and this global super-rich inflate the property market to the detriment of residents
ReplyDeleteI can't think of the stinking rich wanting to stay in a seedy, dated Holiday Inn tower block.
DeleteIt is important to oppose this project: 1)for developpers, 1 tower is never enough 2)it might give Capco the wrong idea.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.stopthetowers.org.uk/
Cromwell Road needs updating not downgrading. Not another mess like the Capco failure at the Exhibition Centre. What about another dog-friendly green space where we can enjoy the signature hot drinks from the corner shop.
ReplyDeleteI agree but be careful, updating these days usually means a dated 1970's style characterless block. Holiday Inns are the worst of them.
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