A NEW OBJECTION TO THIS DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION FILED ON THE WESTMINSTER PLANNING PORTAL YESTERDAY SETS OUT VERY WELL IN A PERSONAL WAY THE REASONS  WHY SO MANY PIMLICO RESIDENTS AND DOLPHIN SQUARE TENANTS ARE STRONGLY AGAINST THIS SCHEME...

(Objects)
Comment submitted date: Wed 06 Mar 2019
I have relatives who live in Dolphin Square and have visited it regularly to see them for over 25 years. I know the area, and many of the other older residents and have listened carefully to their fears and distress about these proposals. I also have relatives who live locally, whose children go to Pimlico school, and who are 'key workers' - a teacher - and whose home is absolutely tiny and hardly affordable with no outside space.

I am objecting on three counts.

1. The provision for Westbrook have now offered of 23 affordable homes for social rent in their scheme and another 34 homes is clearly insufficient to make any significant difference to the housing shortage in Westminster or the wider capital. Given the scope of the redevelopment plans, and the fact they were was not part of the the original application, they do give rise to some cynicism that they will ever actually manifest.

Of these, the intermediate one bedroom flats are likely to have a rent of around £400 a week, which is simply not 'affordable'. They are also of a size that precludes families, or those hoping to start families.

The other 23 social housing flats would be a drop in the ocean of the need for this kind of housing in central London and are not sufficient to overcome the other, legitimate concerns that residents have about the works, and their impact on the wider community, including the school.

2. This is an historic and iconic building, its gardens are listed, it is also surrounded by three Conservation areas of which Dolphin Square forms a part. It does not seem to many of the older, long term residents of Dolphin Square, and the surrounding area, that there is any reason why Westminster Council should support an application which does not address local housing shortages in any sort of meaninful way, and as a result of years of building, will significantly impact on the existing community (including the School) by way of the increased traffic (including lorries and large vehicles involved in a build of this scale), plus the impact on parking and finally, and most importantly, the polluting aspects - noise, particulates and possibly asbestos during the demolition process. This would not only be injurious to the health of the existing residents, but neighbours and teachers and students in the school who will be exposed to at least 5 years, if not more, of building works to complete the proposed build.

3. Spending any time in Dolphin Square these days reveals that fears that ultra short-term lettings are the real aim of Westbrook is justified. The majority of the lettings are short term and the older, long term tenants, many of whom have lived there for decades, are not treated the same. They feel like 'second class citizens'. This may mean that social housing tenants may also not be made to feel welcome by their landlords (an issue seen in many other mixed developments across the capital). This model is clearly working for Westbrook, but it is not the job of Westminster Council to support applications that are detrimental to the community in order to increase the profit margins of property developers. 
Five minutes spent looking at the housing that is being built in Westminster, across the river and all over central London reveals that it is not helpful to maintaining the historic communities that have lived here, and is so expensive that much of it remains empty, but still pushing 'normal' people further and further out, making it difficult to recruit people to do the jobs that are needed in central London. My relatives have lived in Dolphin Square for over 50 years, and at their age, these works mean that they are likely to spend their final few years in a noisy, filthy building site, but with no hope that their children, or grandchildren would be able to afford to live in the borough, despite their strong, local connections.

Please stand up for your community. Listen to the objections of long-term residents. Acknowledge that short-term renters are not going to become involved in this because they can just move somewhere else if it becomes unpleasant to be in Dolphin Square, so statistically equate the number of objections with those who really do 'live' in Westminster and don't let Westbrook create yet another homogenous development of studios, one bed flats and hotel rooms at the expense of families and the existing community - including the school.

I would also like to add, as a matter of public record, that the system you have for comments on this is discriminatory to those who are not computer literate. Older people often do not have the skills to negotiate the online environment, and you do not offer an easy way for them to make alternative objections, for example by letter, or a comment book in the local library or some scheme of that sort. This skews the results of these sort of consultations. Because of the length of time it took me to compose my thoughts, my session 'logged out' and so I had to start again to submit them. Luckily I had saved my text, but if I hadn't, I might not have had the time right now to start again.

PLEASE GO URGENTLY TO THE WESTMINSTER PLANNING PORTAL AND REGISTER YOUR OWN OBJECTIONS TO THIS SCHEME. THE WEBSITE ADDRESS IS:-

www.westminster.gov.uk/planning/applications

The application reference is: 18/01099/FULL

ALSO PLEASE CIRCULATE TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES ON SOCIAL MEDIA LIKE FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM AND WHATSAPP AND WE THANK ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE MADE FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS ON THE CHANGE.ORG SITE TO PROMOTE OUR PETITION.  JUST THE COST OF A CUP OF COFFEE HELPS!