Thursday, January 14, 2010

Camberwell Planning Meeting

Last night Camberwell Community Council met to consider a number of planning applications, two of which concerned South Camberwell. The longest application of the evening concerned an application by the Salvation Army to redevelop Springfield Lodge, at the tope of Grove Hill Road. Veronica and I have both been approached by residents who have concerns about this application, and so we were disqualified from sitting on the Planning Committee. However, we took advantage of our role as ward councillors to make representations to the Committee.

Whilst the redevelopment of the site is welcome, the particular design submitted was not, particularly as it would have an impact on the amount of sunlight, daylight and overshadowing received by neighbouring properties. It is regrettable when residents have to suffer any negative consequences from the redevelopment of any site, and I felt that it was an unacceptable loss of amenity for neighbouring properties in this case.

Despite our best efforts, and some forceful submissions, our colleagues on the Committee granted the application permission to proceed. This was a disappointing outcome, as I believe a reconsideration of the design by the Salvation Army could have overcome many of the current complaints. We will just have to hope that the impact will not be too negative.

The second application concerning South Camberwell was for the removal of a tree in Grove Park. This was fairly controversial as two years ago an unscrupulous developer removed a number of trees from a neighbouring plot in breach of a Tree Preservation Order. As a consequence of that act all applications concerning TPOs now come to Community Council. However, in this case the offending tree has been found to be the cause of some terrible subsidence, with cracks to a property increasing at the rate of 1.5mm a month.

Permission was given for the removal of the tree, so I now hope that the misery suffered by residents of the property in question soon comes to an end, and that the subsidence is 'fixed' as soon as possible.

2 comments:

nickw said...

Thanks for fighting against Sptingfield Lodge. I think the design is terrible and those who voted for it should hang their heads in shame as it will blight this beautiful area for generations.

Unknown said...

the trouble is that Camberwell is a Labour area, with Labour councillors so the Lib dems do not care about votes in this area, if this was going to be in a Lib Dem area or Tory area it would be a different story entirely.

Janet Yatak