Through the work of the sub-committee, the Society has been instrumental in saving many buildings of note including Addington Square, Denmark Hill Station and part of Windsor Walk. The Society has also been instrumental in influencing new development to make a positive contribution to the area, and works with local residents and tenants groups where there are common issues. The current composition of the Planning sub-committee is: Tim Gaymer, Anthony Kyrke-Smith, Elizabeth Borowiecka, Jason Leech, Robert Potz, Jonathan Hunt, Paul Cohoon, Somayya Yaqub, Michael Galt and Tom Harvey. Potential new members are welcome to attend a meeting as an observer initially. The Society is currently under represented by members from the Myatt Fields and Brunswick Park areas.
20/03257/FUL | GEOFFREY CLOSE ESTATE, OFF FLAXMAN ROAD, CAMBERWELL, LONDON
Demolition of
all existing buildings and the comprehensive redevelopment of the Geoffrey
Close Estate comprising the erection of 6 residential buildings ranging from 5
to 13 storeys providing 441 residential dwellings including affordable housing
(Use Class C3), associated community facilities, including; a residents
community centre and residents only gym, landscaping and public realm works,
including private and communal amenity space, car and cycle parking including
visitors cycle parking, and associated infrastructure works.
The existing estate consists of 4-5 storey blocks built after WW2. The estate would certainly benefit from improvements in the form of proper communal open spaces including planting and play areas, and a re-alignment of some of the buildings so that they address the surrounding streets in a more orderly way. All the existing open spaces around the blocks have hard surfaces and are devoted to car parking and a redundant basketball court. There are 134 social rented flats on the site with a site residential density of 360 habitable rooms per hectare. There is also a tenants’ communal room.
This planning application proposes replacement of the existing buildings with 6 blocks of flats between 5 and 13 storeys. The existing buildings in the immediate area are between 2 and 8 storeys, making some of the blocks overly domineering in relation to the adjacent buildings particularly the two storey houses in Kenbury Street.
135 of the proposed flats would be for social rent and 306 for private sale. The proposed residential density would be 1,143 habitable rooms per hectare. The density proposed is double what it should be for an area with a PTAL rating of 3 and more than the maximum allowed for an area with the top PTAL rating of 6a in central London, according to the London Plan.
The spaces between the blocks of flats are between 6 and 18m wide, which, together with the increased height of the blocks creates a series of ravine-like passageways. Open space, landscaping and children’s play spaces within the scheme are inadequate for the number of flats proposed.
The only communal facilities proposed for the increased population is a gym and a function room for the use of residents only. This together with the fact that the development is proposed as a gated community, locked at night, with no public routes through the site, will create an inward-looking city block, at odds with the lively community atmosphere of the surrounding neighbourhood.
The reason given for this development being necessary is overcrowding. This is not a convincing argument as the percentage of the new social rented flats which will have three bedrooms is remaining the same at 33% whereas 62% of the new social rented flats will have 1 or 2 beds. If the overcrowding is due to inadequate space standards in the original development this can surely be rectified within the existing buildings – it does not require a total re-development.
It is claimed that the existing residents of the estate support the application, but this is disputed locally, with objections lodged to the proposals by some of the tenants. In addition the scheme the tenants were originally consulted and balloted on was significantly lower in height and unit numbers than what is proposed now.
Parking: there are at present 45 parking bays on the site to be reduced to 22 on-site parking spaces by these proposals. The application states that there is adequate on-street parking provision in the neighbourhood to replace most of the parking spaces currently on the site. This is also disputed locally, with reports of cars touring the streets in search of parking spaces. The on-site spaces are also full.
In addition, the reliance on on-street parking for this new housing development goes against Lambeth Council’s own policy which states that residents of new developments should not have access to existing on street parking spaces in Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs). This site is in a CPZ.
The Camberwell Society objects to this application on the grounds of over-development, inadequate
representation of social housing, no public access through the site, inadequate public realm facilities
for the increased population and inappropriate parking provision.