Author Archives: Cyril Richert

Eventually 4 storey building at Plough Rd/St Johns Hill?

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Author: Cyril Richert

Application 2013/5712 (70-74 St John’s Hill) was granted in April 2015 at the Planning Application Committee for erection of four-storey plus basement building to provide Class A1 shops at ground floor with 8 flats above including a first floor roof garden.

There was a new application 2017/0488 asking for condition 12 regarding sustainable development certificate to be removed as developers claim that “The government had scrapped the requirement for the code of Sustainable Homes in March 2015 and our planning approval is dated 22 April 2015“. Other requests to modify conditions were submitted and granted: 2017/0919, 2017/5179 and the latest 2018/1526 regarding cycle storage (approved 9 October 2018).

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Ganley Court: strong objection from residents to developments of up to 31 storey towers

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Authors: Owners and residents of No. 17, 18, 20, 23, 40, 42, 43 and 44 Ganley Court

Latest plans for skyscrapers on York Gardens

NB: This is a transcript of the detailed objection of Ganley Court residents regarding the Planning Application 2019/0024, which is proposing to build on York Garden up to 2550 residential units ranging from 3 – 31 storeys above ground level including leisure centre, health, flexible commercial uses, park, landscaping, public realm, energy centres, car/cycle parking and new vehicle accesses.

We are the owners and residents of No. 17, 18, 20, 23, 40, 42, 43 and 44 Ganley Court, Winstanley Estate, SW11 2EW. We are all freeholders of well-maintained low rise terraced family-sized houses of three and four bedrooms with garden. We believe that the changes being proposed are substantial and that, despite our feelings about the Master Plan having been made clear from the beginning, the rights and needs of the freehold residents of Ganley Court have been neglected and undermined throughout the consultation process. We therefore request further consultation and a revised planning application before this is determined. Continue reading →

Horror plans to redevelop Clapham Junction/Winstanley area

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Author: Cyril Richert

An article from the Evening Standard a few days ago revealed to the general public some pictures of the plans instigated by Wandsworth Council to redevelop Winstanley & York estates. We have already explained in many articles how Wandsworth Council ignored some results of the consultation 5 years ago and has conducted parody of consultations along the process. For a reminder, you can just glance at our previous article: Winstanley regeneration: Can we trust the Council?

There is not much to add to the pictures published in the Evening Standard and that we post below. It resembles more Canary Wharf or even New York in some extend and as “phallocratic” tower-plans go (as Boris Johnson famously named them in 2007) the budget for this “grand” design slipped from £1bn in 2017 to £1.4bn nowadays. Who knows, it might soon reached £2bn if you had 2 or 3 more skyscrapers… And to reuse a headline describing the former Mayor of London, it could be Tory’s dire legacy for Clapham Junction. Continue reading →

Planning Forum meeting 23rd January 2019

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Author: Cyril Richert

Planning Applications Committee – Room 123

This is now the third time that we experiment the new format of the Planning Forum meeting, since the changed decided by the Chair, Cllr Will Sweet (change in which CJAG was instrumental).

Instead of spending most of the time being updated on planning policies with little time for attendee’s questions, only 20 minutes was dedicated to officer’s topics with the rest of the 90 minutes dedicated to items raised (submitted in advance) by Forum members.

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David and Goliath in Northcote Road?

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Urgent! If you want to respond to this planning application, you have only until Friday next week, 15 February, to post objections.

Author: Jane Clifton (Northcote resident)

If only David could win! David: twenty or so homes (Bramfield Road, Northcote Road, Staplehurst Court and Halston Close). Goliath: Wandsworth Council.

The residents of these homes will suffer a dramatic reduction in the quality of their lives if the Council proceeds with its plan to redevelop the current Chatham Hall site.

In 2017 the Council conducted a consultation process about their proposal: closure of the current Northcote Library (to be replaced by retail and residential space) and demolition of the current Chatham Hall and nearby garages (to be replaced by the erection of a new Northcote Library and a building combining community centre facilities and flats). Continue reading →

Update on Clapham Junction station’s future

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Authors: Cyril Richert & David Curran

CJAG met with Jill Stone, Network Rail development manager (Wessex area & early projects) on Thursday 17 January to talk about the current consideration for Clapham Junction station.  It was an interesting and open discussion, and we appreciated Network Rail taking the time to meet with CJAG at such an early stage in the project.

Her team is currently at the relatively early stage of exploring two broad options:

  1. A scheme aiming to release the current congestion in the station – recognising that usage of the station continues to rise, and the existing pedestrian subway is reaching the limit of its capacity.  At this stage it is envisaged that this would involve replacing the subway with a new footbridge over the tracks, and significant associated changes to the station entrance on St John’s Hill.
  2. A more comprehensive redevelopment of the station, again involving the closure of the subway but going further and building a new deck over some of the tracks that could accommodate further development and substantially improve access to the station.

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Consultation on community involvement: great principles but in practice no improvement

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Author: Cyril Richert

Wandsworth Council has consulted on its draft Statement of Community Involvement (SCI), which is a document that describes how to get involved in planning decision-making process. The first Wandsworth SCI was adopted in 2007 and was last revised in 2012.

Comments were to be submitted before mid-December, and we have been a bit slow in producing a response. However, in view of our current efforts to get improvement in the planning process and our call for planning reform, we thought it was important to submit a detailed analysis of the draft paper.

You can read below the summary of our comment. To get more information, you can view/download the documents:

  1. Statement of Community Involvement 2018 draft for consultation
  2. CJAG Representation in response to consultation on the draft Statement of Community Involvement
  3. Clapham Junction Action Group: Draft Paper on Planning decision reforms

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