VITAL NEWS ON THE HISTORY STUDIOS..OBJECT NOW!

Dear Friend and Neighbour

Re: TBLC/12/118006 Application by The History Studios 164-166 Brompton Road, SW3 1HW to place 10 tables and 20 chairs on the public highway.

I am writing to ask you to object to this application for tables and chairs on the public highway.             The History Studio, at 164-166 The Brompton Road, SW3 1HW (on the raised pavement next to Area Café)  has applied to RBKC to place 10 tables and 20 chairs outside  their premises and that of the Souvenir Shop next door at 166 (which is owned by the same company). The History Studio is not even a café or restaurant. I was told by the Manager that they only wanted to use the tables as a waiting room for their photography studio but they finally admitted to Brompton Ward Councillors that they are applying on behalf of Area Café, one of the premises in Knightsbridge selling shisha at tables in front of their premises. Therefore the tables and chairs would even not be in front of the operating premises. If this application is granted residents will have to walk through shisha smoke on both sides of the pavement for the length of three shop fronts.

The directly neighbouring Westminster City Council permits Tables & Chairs to be deployed "only directly outside the premises at the back of the footway” (WCC Supplementary Planning Guidance, March 2005). In other words, applications will not be considered for tables and chairs outside neighbouring premises, or on the far side of the footpath away from the premises’ frontage.

Cllr Buckmaster agreed at a meeting with the Knightsbridge Association last year that this was good practice and that the Royal Borough would do its best to emulate it. Permitting Area Cafe to have tables and chairs outside the History Studios, the souvenir shop and on the far (railings) side of the footpath would clearly violate both of these provisions. It would also suggest that RBKC disregards the Government's requirement under S182 that neighbouring councils should coordinate to ensure consistency across local authority boundaries.

PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY and send objections to Mahmood Siddiqi, The Director of Transportation and Highways, Room 114 Council Offices, 37 Pembroke Road, London, W8 6PW, quoting the reference number TBLCH/12/118006 or e mail: Ayesha.Flemming@rbkc.gov.uk                   

The raised pavement section of the Brompton Road is already an area of major concern . Grounds for objection could include noise and nuisance, that it would attract beggars, pedicabs and people hanging around, that the pavement is not wide enough for this many seats. That there are already too many tables and chairs. etc. It would impede pedestrian flow and add further visual clutter to an already cluttered street scene. It would create a precedent for other premises which are not even restaurants or cafes to apply for tables and chairs.

IN YOUR OWN WORDS strongly urge the Royal Borough to reject this application. All objections must contain your full name, full postal address and the reference number TBLC/12/118006

DO NOT DELAY, WRITE TODAY TO PREVENT KNIGHTSBRIDGE BECOMING THE EGWARE ROAD.

Maddie Elsdon
Knightsbridge Association