Dear Members
We apologise that the first email was sent incomplete. Please disregard and read this alert.This next week several important deadlines loom which you may want to comment.
344-350 Old Brompton Road (PP/21/00272)
- The comments are due this week for the application for nine-storey block of flats proposed by the new Earl’s Court Partnership, which will wrap around the corner of Old Brompton Road and Eardley Crescent facing the lovely peaceful Royal Park of Brompton Cemetery. See image by the developer above.
- We support more housing though this will be solely for the rental market. We are opposed the height and scale, lack of meaningful outdoor space, the impact on the Brompton Cemetery Conservation Area and what must be considered as setting the pattern for the beginning of a massive increase in height for the rest of the future Earl’s Court development.
- Though the formal “public consultation” ends soon, your comments must be accepted up until decision is made. Write now and tell your friends to write.
South Kensington Station development (PP/20/03216)
Yours sincerely
Amanda Frame
Chairman
- Over 1,800 objections have been received opposing plans for the redevelopment of the station and the land surrounding the tracks. But your help is still needed.
- There is a promise by Native Land that if they are allowed to build along the entire length of Pelham Street and rebuild the Thurloe Street building behind a “retained” façade, they will not start the remaining development until the station upgrade, including step-free access from Thurloe Street to the underground platforms is completed. However, there is no means to guarantee that after having built the lucrative parts on Thurloe Street and Pelham Street that they will ever even want to complete the scheme, and therefore there no means of forcing the construction of the step-free access.
- With a sleight of hand, we could end up with a massive development and still a station which is not step-free.
- We ask that you write opposing the application and demanding that no works are undertaken at all until step-free access and the station upgrade is completed.
Yours sincerely
Amanda Frame
Chairman
Shocking that both planning applications are not due to go in front of the RBKC Planning Committee but will be decided upon under delegated powers, behind closed doors, by planning officers. RBKC Councillors can object to this and call them in so the Planning Committee can discuss them in public. The Earl's Court redevelopment will most probs end up with huge skyscrapers. How can RBKC residents allow these important developments to have no scrutiny by Councillors? There is not much time to object to this lack of democratic scrutiny, hopefully concerned residents will contact their Ward Councillors and get these planning applications called in.
ReplyDeleteThe Leader, Cllr Campbell has been strident in saying that the Council now listens to residents.
ReplyDeleteas 19:51 says it is shocking that these vitally important decisions affecting tens of thousands of residents are to be made without resident's representatives being allowed to make the decisions. It is incredible planning officers ever thought that they could slam the door and lock out councillors
What is astonishing is that the Kensington Association has not raised an uproar about this slap in the face to councillors and taxpayers
ReplyDeleteCllr Campbell....Please do your duty and let the Planning Committee decide. You should not be allowing officers to spit on democratic process
ReplyDeleteI am outraged at the cavalier way residents are being treated in this matter ! Before you can blink , and after much clandestine horse trading behind closed doors , residents wake up to find yet another proposal for an outsized , domineering tower of aggressively and incongruously modern design that would spoil the historic setting of their neighbourhood . With these projects all that seems to matter is maximum square footage , and to hell with the neighbours and with preserving our historical heritage (in this case the much-loved Brompton Cemetery) . We have to stop these cancers , before they kill our beautiful city and turn it into a repository for featureless , grey stacks of deposit boxes . In this case the building is meant to house key worker renters . Very laudable , but why does the building have to be so tall ? Is it so the "pesky" obligation to provide affordable homes in new developments can be relegated to the minimum footprint , while at the same time setting a precedent for even taller market-price apartment blocks that will no doubt follow soon ? In the just published London Plan it states that borough councils should decide for themselves , where tall buildings (over 6 storeys) are appropriate . Surely the site of the former Tournament Pub is not one of those places , as it would blight the lives of thousands of existing neighbours (overshadowing , over-massing , over-looking) and harm the setting of a listed Royal Park (Brompton Cemetery) .
ReplyDeleteDear Planning Department , please take note : the days of dealings behind closed doors are over . We , your employers , are taking an interest !
Lots of Brown Envelopes in circulation here
ReplyDeleteIf you join the dots, you have the Kensington Forum Hotel, South Kensington Station, Earl's Court's 55 ACRES, the hotel skyscraper next to Hammersmith Broadway creating a swathe of high rise buildings. West London will just be the start no doubt.
ReplyDeleteThe planning portal for the 344-350 Old Brompton Road application has been showing the wrong date for the end of the public consultation. It was 12 Feb then due to RBKC website issues and complaints from residents, the date was extended to 25 Feb and this new date was clearly showing on Friday. Then this weekend the date has gone back to 12 Feb which will put people off commenting thinking the closing date has gone. Shameful.
ReplyDeleteVery suspicious happenings re this applciation. As said it did close 12th Feb originally so not much time to comment once they eventually put it on line, then no one could comment or even see the comments box so Linda Wade spoke to the council and they sorted it out and extended comments until 25th Feb. Last Friday at 4pm on 12/02/21 it said closing date 25/02/21, by lunchtime on 13/02/21 it had changed to the 12/02/21 ? who did that ? after many complaints it has been ammended again and now as of 3pm on 16/02/21 i has been changed back but to the again shortened date of 19/02/21
ReplyDeleteConstant website errors or something more sinister at play here ? as it si not happening to other planning applciations. Also Delancey is not happy that people want it decdied by planning committe and sate that was alwys going to be done, so why does it say to be decided by delegated powers online ?
The Council has corrected the extended public consultation end date back to 25 Feb for the Earl's Court building. They received complaints and also there were articles on the THINK blog about it.
ReplyDelete