Yes, Hambro is a delightful chap, but that's no reason to allow him to go mad with a quite unnecessary 'digging'.
It's time that responsible people like Hambro realise the bulk of the community are sick to death of their lives being disrupted just so a wine cellar or meditation room be added.
So, let's have more intervention by Mr Stallwood.
He needs to prove he is on our side, not that of developers and the spoilt international rich.
While most welcome, this story must be seen as a very small step in the right direction. The decision will doubtless go to the Inspectorate.
ReplyDeleteAfter decades of abuse, it will take a great many such stories to convince RBKC residents that RBKC planning no longer acts as a wholly owned subsidiary of the local developers.
jobs for the boys !
ReplyDeleteThe argument was always made in the past that there needed to be a local policy in place which the planning inspectorate was supposed to respect when making decisions on appeals. It would seem that this case follows the new basement policy so should be supported on appeal.
ReplyDeleteyes, indeed... this is not the end of the story...
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing what a rarefied world these basement diggers live in. The young are struggling desperately to find a deposit for studios and one bed flats, often having to revert to parents for loans and gifts. While bears like Hambro buy two houses at each end of the garden and then seek to join them together by digging a hole. And of course they are also rich enough to hire tree experts to pontificate that rare Japanese maple trees are not worth preserving.
ReplyDeleteThree cheers for Director of Planning Graham Stallwood for calling a halt to irresponsibility and making Hambro and his mates sit up and think. No doubt the Norfolk Farm dinner table will be a buzz of criticism for "socialist planners in Hornton Street". Sod off, boyo
Mr Stallwood is a bureaucrat. Like all bureaucrats he is pre occupied with box ticking and shuffling paper. His world is all about "the rules".
ReplyDeleteBut Mr Stallwood is also a public servant. And decisions like this do an enormous amount of good for the standing of the Planning Department in the eyes of residents. The electorate.
Lets hope that we see more of "resident minded" behaviour from Hornton Street. Cllr Ahern should be pleased.
Cllr Paget-Brown is a poor Leader and has forgotten to remind his senior staff that their world is more than boxes to be ticked.There is a wider world. And they need to be sensitive to it. As Cllr Ahern has articulated, the senior staff in Hornton Street need to be resident minded. It is their mission to be so. For too long the Royal Borough has been staffed by insensitive and myopic individuals.
ReplyDeleteMr Stallwood's example is a rare example off fresh air coming out of a shit hole.
Neither Ahern nor Paget Brown give a damn about residents' problems. Anon 16.55's final point is so wonderfully apt, it should be set out in lights and hung across the front elevation of Horton Street. Like a piece of Moylanesque modernist art.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Mr Stallwood on a good move. We do wonder though who was the 'garden expert' who advised that these trees were not worth preserving? There has been one such particularly busy of late. We think we should be told!
ReplyDeleteAt last, a community sensitive decision. Getting this kind of response from Hornton Street is more difficult than pulling teeth.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for the Dame and her hornets. Without her efforts we would all be stuffed.