CJTCP – meeting 7 October 2010: feedback

4 mins read

6:33pm on Thursday evening. First floor of the Battersea Art Centre (BAC) I see a small door on the left: the meeting of the Clapham Junction Town Centre Partnership (CJTCP) Board has already started! The small room is packed with people and following Councillor Guy Senior, I take the last seat available. Eighteen people discuss around a table: amongst them I recognise Pamela Price from the Wessex House (where we held the CJAG public meeting nearly 2 years ago), Cllr Tony Belton, Cllr Martin Johnson, Tony Tuck from the Battersea Society, Sarah Banham from Treasury Holding (Chair), Peter Deakins, and of course Lorinda Freint, CJTCP manager who invited me to participate (as non-voting member of the board).
Minutes from the meeting will be available (I hope soon). Below are my observations (as for the Planning Forums I attended). In dark red are my personal comments.

Exemplar Scheme
The discussion when I arrive is focused on the Exemplar Scheme. You can refer to our article for more explanation on the roadworks planned. A few more information:
There will be 3-4 phases:

  1. Phase 1: Right turn from Lavender Hill to Falcon Lane + crossing + street furnitures. Implementation planned until the last week of April 2011 (although the goal is to finish the paving for Christmas 2010). Cost = £1.2m
  2. Phase 2: Changes on the main junction (St John’s Hill/Falcon road/Lavender Hill/St John’s Road). Planned for next financial year. Cost = £1.2m and funding by TfL already promised.
  3. Phase 3: Mossbury+St John’s Hill. Planned from April 2012. Funding not currently confirmed.
  4. Phase 4: Battersea Rise (to be confirmed).

Peter Deakins highlighted the controversy around the plan but the Council officer responded that consultation was conducted according to the entire normal procedure (see also article here).
Clapham Junction Town Centre Partnership news in a nutshell
The Literary festival was well attended with a large number of visitors from outside the borough.
A number of events will be displayed for Christmas: Waitrose (St Johns Road) will sponsor the Christmas tree within the town centre and will represent St Johns Road on future CJTCP board meetings.
Delancey may consider a new scheme for Clapham Junction station.
That single news was dropped during the meeting. Nothing more reported. However (and those are CJAG comments, nothing more said at the board meeting) nothing expected before 2011-12 probably if any. They might be talking to the Council, but CJAG hope they do not reiterate the same mistake as for their last scheme: why don’t they come openly with their intention and take ideas from the public?
The Clapham Junction Action Group is committed to work with residents, political parties, businesses and all stakeholders to provide ideas for the redevelopment of the station. You can participate here (click). And Delancey can contact us too…
If you want to read more (or remember) about the all story of the Clapham Junction twin towers, our dossier is HERE.
With Minerva going back to the drawing board with a new Ram Brewery plan expected early in the new year, the second massive skyscraper planning proposal of 2008-2009 might (or might not) revive.
Business and Traders Associations news
For Northcote Business Network (Andrew Wilson-Smith), trade has picked up in September. On the 8th December (4pm-6pm) is planned an event (market/local family do) for the Christmas light switch. Parking (in Council hands) was discussed.
The Lavender Hill Traders Associations (Anthony Laban) should be organising a shopping week in November. Parking restriction and anti-social behaviour (often due to off-licence premises) issues were raised.
For St Johns Hill Business Association (Steve Orne), the fair went very well with a good turn-out. The money raised will be spent on community projects such as baskets of flowers or a Christmas event (trees maybe) on 1st December.
Sainsbury have apparently withdrawn their application, and local residents showed through petition a strong desire to support their independent shops.
Battersea Power Station
There are currently a number of events planned: dancers, Tony&Guy celebrating hair dressing…
There are talks (pre-applications?) for some 16 storey buildings… This is the second time that I hear that there are some reports in the press about it, but cannot find anything specific about it. Anybody able to direct me?
Planning
Nothing that readers of this website don’t already know. Answering to some questions, I provided explanations about the Bolingbroke site that you can essentially read more fully in our article (and answer about who is right/wrong, you can find it here!).
Barry Sellers explained the implications of the Site Specific Allocation Document and the coming consultation (officially 29th October-11th December 2010). More details on all of that in my recent report on the Planning Forum Meeting.
It was proposed to take questions from members of the board about the plan during the next meeting 2nd December).
Miscellaneous (but important!)
Pamela Price provided an updated on her planning to redevelop the Wessex house. Previous plan (including a hotel) has been replaced by still nightclub (basement), restaurant (ground floor) and residential (from second floor). Members of the board suggested she contacts companies such as indoor softplay for kids for renting the first floor. For the record, she was told that Clapham Junction did not need a hotel (surprising when you think of that, isn’t it?).
And last but not least (issue raised by Tony Tuck), Asda with its new branding: Asda Clapham. Yes, residents of SW11 may be surprised to hear that although Asda HQ replied that they don’t have any Asda in Clapham, their PR seem to say they have an Asda Clapham in Battersea! Despite all evidence (including the existence of the Battersea Art Centre up the road or the Battersea post office just next door or the Battersea Library opposite) their HQ (in Leeds) is denying any wrong doing. Lorinda Freint had a call from them where their representative only repeated several times : “We are very sorry you are unhappy about the name. We have no intention of changing it, because it would be confusing“. To read more about this, visit Cllr James Cousins blog here, here, there and here again.

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CJI editor and Clapham Junction Action Group co-founder and coordinator since 2008, Cyril has lived in Clapham Junction since 2001.
He is also funder and CEO of Habilis-Digital Ltd, a digital agency creating and managing websites and Internet solutions.