Please object to the demolition and rebuilding of 3 Highland Road on the planning application 25/00241/FUL, found here:
(If the link fails, please Google: Lambeth Planning Portal. Click on 'Visit the Planning Application Database'. Then type 3 Highland Road in the Search bar at the bottom.)
If for whatever reason, the planning portal fails, please email your objection to: planning@lambeth.gov.uk, Subject: 25/00241/FUL.
Closing date: 30th April, 2025
Reasons to object are:
Lack of Sewage Capacity: This development will cause sewage to come up existing residents toilets and baths.
There have been very recent cases of sewage water coming up residents baths and toilets. This prompted the council to flush the system. This is not good enough. Residents in that area will be vulnerable to more surges if capacity is increased without completely redoing the sewage on the estate. Something the council has not done. There needs to be more maintenance and investment before more demand.
Lack of Refuse Capacity: It is expected that the five houses will put their rubbish in existing bin chutes. This is without assessing the capacity of the existing bin areas, which is not enough for a fully-inhabited estate, which is Lambeth's plans. The large number of empty properties on the Central Hill Estate would give the impression that there is enough capacity.
There are no new bin chutes planned for the five houses. It is even misleadingly indicated on the plan that there will be a bin collection to the individual gardens of the properties, when there is no individual bin collection on the estate. This needs to be looked into.
Insufficient Parking spaces in the awkward area: The planning application states that there could be six extra cars parking in the locality. There is not enough capacity for extra cars to park near the site, even now, let alone when Central Hill Estate is fully inhabited. There are many empty properties in Vicars Oak and Highland Road. The planning application uses roads that are far away to show capacity for this.
Highland Road is an awkward junction with poor visibility. A bin lorry hit a tree recently trying to negotiate the space. The design should have more car parking spaces on site. There are not enough spaces for the extra cars in the surrounding area and will lead to residents parking dangerously on the street.
The development is too big for the area.
No construction plan has been submitted. Construction will cause chaos. it is a very narrow cul-de-sac and very awkward area to develop. It will adversely impact the residents living close to the site not only in fumes, noise and disturbance, but with access to their cars and refuse areas. A tree was recently knocked down by a refuse lorry. This is without any development.
Removal of Homeless Provision: The building currently is being used as a provision to temporarily-house the homeless, a provision recognised by the Inspector at the Public Inquiry, last year, and has been for almost 20 years. The reprovisioning of those who use the building will be absorbed into the company's existing portfolio. This will lead to a reduction of homes available for the temporarily-housed in the area.
Unaffordability: There is a removal of the provision is being replaced with full market properties, which are too expensive for local people. There should be 35% affordable homes on the development. Instead the developer is going to pay Lambeth.
Wasteful Environmental Impact: We should not be knocking down structurally-sound buildings, especially those that house the homeless to build homes no-one can afford to live in. Construction is the most environmentally damaging activity that a local government endorses. Each brick, sheet of glass, aluminium, steel and concrete has been extracted, processed and transported using intensive carbon-emitting methods. Not only is it waste of resources and creates tonnes of carbon emissions, but the homes produced will not alleviate the Lambeth's Housing Waiting lists. More affordable provision or places to temporarily house the homeless are desperately needed.
Destruction of Cultural Heritage: 3 Highland Road is part of The Central Hill Estate, part of the UK's social housing legacy, designed by Rosemary Stjernsted, one of the few woman architect of the time, and built under the town planner, Ted Hollamby, OBE. 3 Highland Road should not be developed separately.