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| Insolent But there is a wind of changing blowing through the Borough. No longer is the planning committee allowing itself to be browbeaten by Stallwood and his team. |
Over the next week or so the Dame will looking at certain problem areas in need of urgent addressing.
First up is...
Removal of Permitted Development rights in Conservation Areas
Islington, Richmond and Camden have all removed PD rights in Conservation areas.
We have an equal, perhaps greater, quality of architectural heritage so why are we the odd ones out?
This has undesirable consequences for attractive street settings in our Conservation Areas. For example, with the exception of listed buildings, you can without planning permission remove an attractive (even original or historic) window facing the street and replace it with a new ugly window provided only that the new window is made of similar materials - there is no requirement for similar style or design.
A prominent resident association chairman says RBK&C should issue an Article 4 Direction to remove PD rights in all the Conservation Areas, making such developments subject to planning permission thus enabling the Council to refuse applications which fail "to preserve or enhance the character or appearance of the Conservation Area"
What an excellent idea. Trust the Dame to give us the heads up
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DeleteOur dear dame gets is right once again - thank you.
ReplyDeleteDear Dame,
ReplyDeleteWhat an excellent effort. Very valid research!!!
When people buy a property, they do not buy the whole neighbourhood so having no automatic right to P.D. and restricting other potentially nefarious schemes in conservation areas would make our borough more pleasant to live in.
Nemesis
It is noted that Stallwood has a moustache in the photo.
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DeleteI am a new reader of the Hornet and have gone back over previous stories. I must say that I am deeply shocked to learn what I have read. Even if only half is true it is deeply shocking
ReplyDeleteDame, dear: Is there anything that the populus of this Borough could do to make this possible? Are there petitions or letters we should sign?
ReplyDeleteDear Dame,
ReplyDeleteYou and I have long spoken of the need for a new borough wide plan ( with a number of community consultation planning weekends / meetings ) clearly delineating where development can and can not happen and what would be permissible. Identifying sensible development opportunities instead of always going for what appears to be low hanging fruit and fast short term commercial gain. This would prevent the need to fight the highly distressing planning applicatons of avaricious developers on sites such as the Kensington Odeon and the Holiday Inn (which has proposed densities closer to those in Tsim Tsa Choi in Hong Kong than Kensington) such proposals are unwanted and inappropriate.
I would also like to add that Mr G S took great pleasure in telling the heavies outside the first council meeting after Grendelll that I couldn’t come into the chamber to watch proceedings.
I asked him to tell me where in the council statutes it said that residents couldn’t attend meetings and he told me this one was just for Grendel residents ( I said I would stand down if necessary ) but he still blocked me and I managed to find my way in through another route.
Council officers work for us and should work with us - not constantly try to frustrate our requests
Guy Oliver .
This kind of behaviour towards Council Tax payers is not acceptable
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