Demolition of 16 garages and 10 bedsits and redevelopment of the site
for the construction of 5 terraced three storey houses and a 19 unit
four storey block of flats providing a total 24 new homes at 100% social
rent | Seavington House Champion Hill London Southwark
It is disappointing that, having withdrawn its 2018 on this site
Southwark has submitted a new application which repeats and emphasises
the faults of the original.
The principal technical problem remains the proximity of the 5 x 3
storey houses proposed in the current application to the permitted
development at 1A Dog Kennel Hill. They would be between 10.5m and 12.7m
from the houses, whereas, according to Southwark’s guidelines, this
distance should be 21m.
The result is that 17 of the 27 windows to habitable rooms in the north
elevation of the 1A Dog Kennel Hill houses would lose more than 20% of
their daylight, which according to the Building Research Establishment
would be noticeable and produce an adverse effect.
The proximity of the proposed development to 1A Dog Kennel Hill would
also affect the privacy of the future residents of the houses. The
Planning Statement attached to the application suggests that the scheme
has been designed to avoid direct overlooking, but it is difficult to
see how this can be the case where 24 new windows onto habitable rooms
in the proposed development face 27 windows onto habitable rooms at 1A
Dog Kennel Hill.
The same factors of loss of daylight and privacy would of course also
affect the future residents of the houses proposed in this application,
with the additional disadvantage that 1A Dog Kennel Hill would cause
them loss of sunlight, being on the south side of the new development,
as well as loss of daylight and privacy.
The Champion Hill estate is composed of free-standing blocks in a park
setting. As the Design and Access Statement points out the estate “has
large areas of green open space around the existing buildings, however
this seems under-utilised and large areas are fenced off”. Our solution
would be to move the development, too big and too close to the road on
its current site, to another part of the estate where more dwellings
could be happily accommodated.
The Camberwell Society objects to this application.