JUST TWO DAYS LEFT TO SUBMIT OBJECTION TO BUILDING ON BURGESS PARK’S METROPOLITAN OPEN LAND.
Big thanks to the amazing over 2,800 of you who have signed our petition calling on the council to reject the planning application for 7 storey tower-block at Southampton Way Entrance to Burgess Park & to integrate the potected Metropolitan Open Land site into the park.
The official closing date for submitting objections is 16th March but council will usually accept objections up to the planning meeting date.
Here is the link:
https://planning.southwark.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=makeComment&keyVal=QO7ZIJKBLA600
Suggested wording is below.
We need as many objections as possible – the development has attracted the backing of a pro-developer think-tank and a number of pro-tower-block “supporter” submissions have been made, but thanks to you, objections still outnumber developer support.
Some Good News
Thanks to all your petition signatures, we have welcome good news that local Cllr Wingfield has confirmed the 3 ward councillors will oppose the application and call on the council to integrate the land into the park.
Keep up spreading the petition and PLEASE ensure you object.
Five OtherTower Blocks Along Burgess Park Wild-life Site Boundary
Friends of Burgess Park say that there are now SIX separate tower blocks planned for adjacent to the park’s New Church Road wildlife site.
As these are all to the south, they will throw huge shadows onto the park. One planning application has already been made and closing date for objection is March 18th.
30 Second Video of Park Shadowing
Check this 30 second video to see destructive shadow impact of this other application already submitted.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_sIh2SchW_Y6NBD3Ql_ftOQ4ZgCyEhxd/view
Details of link to planning department objection site for this other application and suggested grounds for objections to this second tower impacting this area of the park are listed below.
You can help this particular campaign by joining our Facebook group at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/518271348707458
For wider park campaigns please join Friends of Burgess Park.
http://www.friendsofburgesspark.org.uk
Many thanks
Donnachadh McCarthy
pp Burgess Park Action Group
SAMPLE OBJECTION - Please feel free to customise and would be great if you could personalise it as much as possible.
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
https://planning.southwark.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=makeComment&keyVal=Q7FOVEKB05A00
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 public monies and the heartache paid by the families whose homes were compulsorily bought, 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
n 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
Objection to Other Tower Block Planning Application Adjacent to Wildlife Site (Joseph Homes block)
(Note this land is not currently Metropolitan Open Land):
Link to comments on planning application:
20/AP/0858
Suggested draft text for objections – please personalise if you have time:
We object to this application due to the impact of the 11 storey tower block on Burgess Park, as with only a tiny 5 meter set back will over-shadow the Burgess Park west nature area, damaging its amenity for park-users, wildlife and biodiversity.
We also object to the proposed new entrance from this private housing block into the park for pedestrians and cyclists, as it slices right through the wildlife site, thus destroying its value for nature.
The cumulative impact of this high tower block when added to the 5 other blocks in planning stage, combined with line of new tower-blocks lining the northern boundary of the park, due to the narrow long structure of the park at this point, will turn the park from a valuable open space, into a more oppressive grassed canyon between two lines of tower blocks.
If the current land-use for industrial usage is to be changed, why can it not be changed to parkland and MOL, as Parkhouse Street is a natural boundary for the park?
If housing has to go ahead on the site, it should be at the Parkhouse end of the site, there should be no shadowing of the park wildlife site and the housing height to be in line with existing community for 2 to 4 storeys.
The proposed building is far taller than the wildlife site’s trees & will seriously damage the amenity of the park.
At the moment with long views and wide sky line it has that sense of openness which is the crucial factor for MOL and for mental health.
Please add a line in your objection about what Burgess Park means to you.