Dear Everybody
The developers have now submitted a planning application to build a 7 storey tower block on this section of Burgess Park's Metropolitan Open Land.
This is one of the last bits of the designated boundaries of the park, still in private ownership.
The council committed to complete the remaining compulsory purchase orders in 2016. They completed the one on the police repair yard.
But this one remains outstanding, which is why the developers are again trying to build on it.
It would be a disaster for this entrance to the park on Southampton Way to be dominated by a 7 storey tower block and it would severely damage the adjacent wildlife site, which has costs over £150 million to create over the last 50 years.
This is the direct-link to the application on the council's website, where you can post your objection.
https://planning.southwark.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=makeComment&keyVal=QO7ZIJKBLA600
We have posted below a sample objection from which you can cut and paste and add your own planning objections.
Please continue sharing this petition and thanks to all who already fantastically got us over 1,000 signatures!
Together we can win this battle to stop building on the park's protected open space and get the council to finally landscape this decades long eye-sore & integrate it into the park.
many thanks
Donnachadh McCarthy
pp Burgess Park Action Group
PS If you would like to help the campaign join our Facebook Page at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/518271348707458
(Called : No Building on Burgess Park MOL Campaign)
SAMPLE OBJECTION - Please feel free to customise.
Objection to building 7 storey residential tower block on Burgess Park’s Metropolitan Open Land by its entrance at 1 to 13 Southampton Way
Planning reference number: 21/AP/0451
1. The Southwark Plan clearly rules out any building on Metropolitan Open Land other than ancillary to open space uses.
2. The London Plan also rules out any building on Metropolitan Open Land other than ancillary to open space uses.
3. The open space protection allocated to this land has been in place since the early 1980s, as it was part of the designated landbank for incorporation into Burgess Park by the GLC and the then Southwark Council under the Mid-South Southwark Local Plan, then its successor the Southwark Unitary Development Plan, then the first Southwark Plan and finally the latest adopted new version of the Southwark Plan.
4. The MOL protected status was defended successfully at THREE public inquiries into the above plans.
The land was designated MOL by Southwark Council with temporary licences to occupy, which have lapsed. The council should negotiate and keep the commitment to integrate the land into Burgess Park.
5. The proposed tower block would be building right on top of the Southampton Way entrance to the park and would seriously damage the open-space nature of the approaches to the park-entrance.
We know of no other park in London that would welcome a 7-storey tower block at its entrance!
6. This MOL site is immediately adjacent to the park’s New Church Road wildlife site. This site has been in gradual development over the last 40 years, incorporating privately owned MOL earmarked for the park, bit by bit as the council funds allowed, following the demise of the GLC.
A rough estimate for the creation of this wildlife site by the purchasing and demolition on the housing, business premises on the site would amount to £150 million in today’s terms.
It would be heart-breaking to allow that investment in human heartache and public moneys to be squandered by allowing this tower block to veto the completion of the wildlife site.
7. The location of the block to the south-west and west of the immediately adjacent wildlife site would damage it in two ways.
a/ It would cause significant overshadowing of the wildlife site for significant proportions of the day, especially in winter. Thus, it would damage its wildlife potential.
b. It would cause light pollution & human interference to the immediately adjacent wildlife site, destroying its habitat ability for bird-nesting and bat roosting.
8. The Southwark & London Plans both commit to maximising biodiversity & tree cover and expanding greenspaces across London. Giving permission to building on Burgess Park’s protected MOL on a site earmarked for decades for incorporation into the park, would seriously contravene such planning provisions.
9. A previous assessment of the New Church Road wildlife site by the London Wildlife Trust said the following “This is, without doubt, the richest wildlife habitat in Burgess Park and the whole of the north-west Southwark area. Although Burgess Park was designated as a Borough Grade 2, site by London Ecology Unit, I believe this portion of the Park is of significantly greater value – effectively Grade 1.”
The council in 2016 passed a motion committing to the CPO of this remaining MOL designated for the park.
Granting planning permission now for the tower-block would be a tragedy.
10. The immediate area has significant proposals for large high-density new housing developments, that are not MOL & with almost zero green space, so this protected site within the Burgess Park Metropolitan Open Land does not qualify therefore for any exceptional circumstances to allow its protection to be over-ruled.
11. A potential doubling in urban residential intensification is in progress around all the boundaries of the park, with no parallel increase in open space. This makes it more imperative that this site is protected and landscaped as planned for decades.
I look forward to the planning committee upholding the site’s protection and so rejecting this unwelcome planning application and allowing the original vision for the completion of this final section of the park’s assembly and completion to proceed.
Yours sincerely
A. N. Other