Park being replaced with a block of flats? Post Reply

[David]

I thought it'd be worth spreading the word that a planning application has gone in to completely replace the little public park at the junction of Gowrie & Taybridge Road (Clapham Common Northside) with a block of five flats. To make matters worse, it seems it's from Languard Investments, the same developers who controversially demolished the Castle pub up on Battersea High Street. Dense development here's not new, but I think complete replacement of a public park - even a slightly overgrown one - is a first!

It's not too late to comment (the deadline is Tuesday the 1st) - but it hasn't been especially well publicised, there's a sign on a lamp post but that's about it. Photos of current park (everything will go including all the trees), and illustrations of the development, attached - if you live nearby you may want to see and comment on this proposal, details are at https://planning.wandsworth.gov.uk/WAM/ ... =2016/5528 .

The proposed building's frankly inoffensive (three times the height of its neighbours, but the neighbours are quite low) - I'm more concerned that the proposal will significantly reduce the sense of openness, losing a well-established public space including huge trees, that has been used for over 40 years. It's also an overdevelopment of a small site, adding ten or so additional parked cars on the street (as no off street parking is included and it won't be excluded from parking permits).

I'm a bit taken aback at this development - has anyone seen anything similar elsewhere in the Borough? I'm a little worried this is the thin end of a wedge - which other less-well-known local parks might also be facing the axe in the near future? I suppose we can complain, and maybe the more relevant complaints the better (hence why I'm passing this on) - but the overall direction of travel seems worrying.

[BALLANTINE]

There is a housing shortage - how many people use this local park? There is a vast common at the end of the road too.

[atbattersea]

The problem with that attitude is that the next thing they want to start building on is the "vast common". We should be protecting our open spaces, not surrendering them to developers. The real issue here is that Wandsworth Council is just interested in the money they get from developers in various ways, and making themselves look better. The typical thing, as the OP posts, is that they don't account for the extra parking on the street, etc, that this development causes. Exactly the same problem at Battersea Exchange - 300 flats, no parking!?

The other problem is that the Council probably has "brownfield" sites that could be developed, but they don't have the brains or the systems to recognise this, so they just go for the easy options. I know of at least two sites close to me that are owned by Wandsworth Council that they have not developed or sold for development. One of those I know has had plannning permission for an extended period (so long in fact, that it lapsed and the muppets had to go through the process to renew it. It's probably close to having to be renewed/lapsing again).

[Piccalilli]

I think this site is a tricky one. The area is currently unused, over grown and stinks of urine. It's not a very useful space and it would be great to sort it out.

My objections are that the proposed flats are totally incongruous with the rest of the area and will look very imposing next to the single story bungalows which neighbour them and that there is no parking provision when we already cannot park outside our house.

I agree that we have a housing shortage but I very much doubt these flats will be at all affordable for those who need them. We already have an excess of new build stock in the Nine Elms area which isn't selling.

My most significant complaint is that the council will benefit from this with no consideration to what the immediate area needs which is drastic improvement in primary school provision for the northside of the common.

[David]

Thanks all for the interesting thoughts. I agree with the above comments that the park's not in a great state - but to be honest it seems to have been deliberately run down with a view to turning a quick buck. It used to be far better looked after and not overgrown, sadly it's had no investment or even basic repairs for maybe twenty years.

My worry is that once a public green space is gone, we may get a handful of pricey flats, but the space is never coming back - and there are many unglamorous but useful small parks all over the borough that could easily be deliberately left to go to seed for a year or so, then closed and sold. I can already see arguments that the likes of Banana Park and Fred Wells Gardens up near Battersea Square are looking a little tatty, as well as York Gardens and the small local park opposite the former church on Queenstown Road.

The only parks that are certainly safe - thanks to the curious legal situation of common land, general fame, and being in conservation areas - are Clapham Common & Battersea Park. Several parts of Wandsworth Common, which I believe is more of a patchwork from a legal perspective, are much more at risk.

There are, as poster above has noted, quite a lot of remaining industrial sites in the Borough - and other better ways of creating housing - I reckon the better bet would be to think imaginatively about the space, for example supporting redevelopment of e.g. B&Q in Wandsworth to have the shop below and flats above, like the new Sainsburys in Nine Elms.

It reminds me that this particular park also suffered, back in the day, with being used by people from the old St Mungo's hostel on Cedars Road, back when it was a hostel for people with severe alcoholism problems who used to drink in the street all day. I think this is why the benches here (and in a few other bits of the neighbourhood) were removed. The hostel still exists but the alcoholics were moved to a new hostel in Vauxhall a few years back and the Cedars Road place - now starter flats - caters to a very different demographic (exclusively female and non drinking); the problems in the neighbourhood melted away overnight but the park never recovered its seating.

[atbattersea]

Falcon Park (aka Banana Park) is already under threat from the Council, they want to stick a 'pay to play' astroturf pitch in the middle of it, and it looks like they are going to get their way.

The stupid thing being that there are already astroturf pitches in Battersea Park, and the school right next to Falcon Park has all weather pitches too (hey, how about some joined-up thinking here - invest some money in the school and let them hire out the pitches == no loss of amenity!?).

[Invest]

Is there even a public park there? Not that I'm aware of.

[atbattersea]

It's a green public space - perhaps it doesn't quite qualify as a park, maybe "garden", but it's still public space.

[krystyna]

Please can anyone who would like to put in their comments to planning application 2016/5528 do so by tomorrow 3 November. This relates to a small park/green space on the corner of Gowrie Road and Taybridge Road which has a beautiful mature sycamore tree on site.

Wandsworth Council has sold this parcel of land to a developer and they want to build a 3 storey contemporary building with balconies and basement. There would be 3 x 2-bedroom maisonettes and 2 x 1-bedroom flats. None of this accommodation is for social housing. There would be more demand for on-street parking and during building work there would be months of disruption on these narrow streets with delivery lorries, skip lorries and noise from heavy machinery.

Please go to planning.wandsworth.gov.uk and quote application 2016/5528 to make your comments.

[David]

Well done everyone - there are over 70 thoughtfully argued objection comments to this application from local residents on the Wandsworth Planning website - and I think NV.net can take a lot of credit for spreading the word, hardly anyone seems to have been notified by the official routes. I believe that - even if the Council wants to rubber stamp this - this level of objection means that this has to be escalated to a far higher level of decision making, where it will be hopefully recognised that this is really not a good idea...

The story is also picked up in today's Evening Standard - with photo of the park and residents -

Evening Standard article today

The Council comments on the ES article are revealing, and depressingly dismissive - overlooking the fact that the park has been deliberately run down in the last few years, somehow denying that it is green oasis (It's overgrown if anything - I wonder, has the spokesperson ever been there?) and arguing that it's 'vacant' (that's what parks are, and hopefully that's what this one will remain) and some sort of criminal haven... They also suggest that it has had homes on it in the past - which is true, back in 1945! But it was deliberately converted to a park when the surrounding streets were rebuilt in the 1960s and densified with flats and new terraces that had smaller gardens / no gardens...

[atbattersea]

Well done to get some press attention. Although I think that if the Council has already sold the land they would have done so on the condition of granting planning permission - so it will be really hard to get them to back down.

As to what is now parkland once having housing on it. Banana Park/Falcon Park had gypsy caravans on it at one time, and the bit west of the railway had prefabs on it up until the 1980s. Perhaps that's why the Council think they can get away with privatising bits of it now!?

[ChristopherP]

Note online objections are open until 25 November so there is still time to add yours...
Requires a short objection based on planning, such as:
Loss of existing open space. Open space should be improved and enhanced not removed.
No provision for parking. Local streets already have too much parking pressure.
Building is unsympathetic, overbearing and will lead to loss of light/privacy for neighbours which is not in line with planning policy.
Case number 2016/5528.
Direct link here:
https://planning.wandsworth.gov.uk/WAM/ ... =2016/5528
Thanks!!

[krystyna]

On 6 December a report by a Council planning officer was published recommending Council approval for the building of a block of flats on the site of the Gowrie Road pocket park, despite the many objections to this proposal. Please see link below to read the objection letters, the 6 Dec report and other background information:

https://planning.wandsworth.gov.uk/WAM/ ... =2016/5528

The next step is that it will go before the Planning Committee on 14 December and they will most probably rubber stamp that recommendation. The only way of stopping it after that is by "Judicial Review". The local councillor Mr Cousins is apparently going to speak for local residents at the Planning Committee. Members of the public can attend, but cannot speak.

[papinian]

No provision for parking. Local streets already have too much parking pressure.

I didn't want to hijack this thread previously, but now that planning permission has been recommended, I wanted to comment on this parking pressure point.

It seems to me that this is not really a planning issue but an issue of Wandsworth Council issuing resident parking permits. They issue a parking permit to any resident. This means that when a house is converted into three flats the number of cars with parking permits likely increases. However, it can also mean that there is a house with three parking permits. It seems to me that this should be dealt with by limiting the issuance of new resident parking permits based on some objective standard relating to the property, e.g. the amount of street frontage and certainly limiting resident parking permits to no more than two per house or one per flat or something like that.

[Balhammom]

They issue a parking permit to any resident. This means that when a house is converted into three flats the number of cars with parking permits likely increases.

I don't know what they do with conversions of Victorian/older properties that have already been built and I can imagine in these circumstances they will issue passes to all residents, if the property is subsequently converted into flats.

However for new builds this isn't always the case. There is a new build in Balham opposite the storage centre by Chestnut Grove. We popped in to ask about buying one as a BTL but one interesting point is that they don't come with permits and permits can't be issued for them, that was part of the planning consent. I was surprised but the developers were adamant this was the case. Its one reason they're selling parking spaces for a fortune but it did strike me as odd that one was buying a flat without the chance to ever park on the road (in controlled hours).