Dear Supporters,

We hope you and your families are doing well.

Here is a request for a quick action, which could help us in the ongoing campaign to save Truslove House and secure the future Central Hill Estate

Please add your objection to the latest part of Lambeth Council's plans for the estate

Lambeth  pushing ahead with plans to demolish Truslove House, which make no sense in terms of the environment, the costs involved, or the need to tackle the housing crisis.

You could save time and 'cut and paste' this objection, or of course write your own one. Thanks for your support.

Please see below.

Please email;

planning@lambeth.gov.uk <planning@lambeth.gov.uk

(Ref-21/02560/DET | Approval of details pursuant to condition 47) 

Dear Lambeth Planning Department, 

I’m writing to object to Homes for Lambeth and Lambeth Council’s plans for a play area adjacent to Truslove House, 2 Roman Rise SE19 1JG, in the area in front of Romany Prospect. 

This development has never requested by the community, nor has the community been consulted on it.  

What residents clearly want instead is the refurbishment of their homes and the preservation of the existing green spaces and play areas on the estate.  

Encroachment onto Romany Prospect open space. 

This location of this playground suits Homes for Lambeth, not the community.  

This is an attractive area of grassed open space and plants, already used by dog walkers, residents doing exercises, and occasionally for social gatherings for residents. 

The new development will encroach onto the space dedicated to Romany Prospect, next door to Truslove House, and will therefore be a net loss of space allocated to those residents. This will do nothing to offset the loss of open green space at Truslove House. 

A location next to busy road on the edge of the estate is not the best place for a play area in any case. 

Biodiversity 

This unnecessary development will represent a loss of biodiversity, in terms of the areas of natural plant life at the boundary of the site adjacent to Truslove House. 

 Areas such as these have been proven to be a key resource in the fight against mass extinction of native UK wildlife, and against climate change. 

This proposed play area is merely an unnecessary PR exercise, designed to obscure the salami-slicing of the estate and the significant loss of green space and mature trees around Truslove House, which HFL intends to replace with a massively overbearing 7 and 5 storey building.   

This building itself will have a hugely negative impact on the environment which cannot be offset by token landscaping and alterations made to the space here. 

Meanwhile Lambeth have continually failed to explain how it has calculated a net bio-diversity ‘increase’ represented by the new building on the Truslove House site. 

Lack of consultation and lack of a master plan  

Why has there been no announcement, no consultation, and such little publicity regarding this proposal? 

I suggest that Lambeth Council engage with the residents on the estate and consult with them fully on this matter.  

In principle, residents continue to demand that no demolition or rebuilding should take place on Central Hill Estate without a masterplan for the whole estate, in line with the Council’s previous commitments made to residents since 2012, and a ballot of residents, in line with GLA policy. 

As a final point, the new development at Truslove House will not help to relieve the housing crisis, as it will be merely used to provide shelter for people from Central Hill Estate whose homes are due to be demolished (22 units) along with 9 units for private sale, which will be unaffordable to most working Londoners.

Signed,