Hi Everybody
DEADLINE FOR OBJECTIONS EXTENDED
AND A THIRD (!!) TOWER BLOCK PLANNING APPLICATION ON BOUNDARY OF THE BURGESS PARK WILDLIFE SITE!
Just to update you on petition that you all kindly signed calling on the council to reject planning application for 7 storey tower block at Southampton Way Entrance to Burgess Park, which is protected Metropolitan Open Land (MOL).
The council has extended the deadline for objections to this planning application to April 28th, so if you have not yet submitted an objection, you now have another chance to do so.
We have provided suggested text to base your objections on below. Please put them in your own words if you have time.
ANOTHER TOWER BLOCK PLANNING APPLICATION ADJACENT TO BURGESS PARK WILDLIFE SITE
21-23 Park House 10 Storey Tower Block Planning Application
Since our last Update, a third (!!) planning application for another 10 storey tower block has gone live on the wildlife site boundary!
We expect there to be 5 tower block planning applications in total!
See the graphic for how the proposed new tower blocks dwarf the existing buildings around this part of the park and the park itself!
These tower blocks will have a much more damaging impact on the park than the tower blocks being built on northern side to replace the Aylesbury Estate.
This is because the proposed tower blocks are directly south of the park and so will overshadow the park all year long, unlike the Aylesbury tower-blocks.
Secondly, the tower blocks are proposed to be built right on top of the boundary with the park, with no wide road, footpaths or set-back to lessen their over-bearing impact on the park and wildlife site, as the new tower blocks on Albany Road have.
We have included some draft text with additional points below.
Please keep spreading our petition which is now up to a brilliant 3,555 people.
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
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
SAMPLE OBJECTION TO THIRD TOWER BLOCK PLANNING APPLICATION
Suggested text for Objections to 21-23 Parkhouse Street Tower Block
19/AP/0469
Deadline 9th June 2021
https://planning.southwark.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do
1. This ten-storey tower block istoo tall for this location directly adjacent to southern boundary of Burgess Park.
2. It has an inappropriate height and mass for its location by the park.
3. The site is not designated for tall buildings in council planning policy.
4. The buildings due to being directly south of the park, will block the sun overshadowing the park, impact on ecology and wildlife and how people currently use the woodland area.
5. It is out of scale with the adjacent local St George’s Church tower.
6. The height of buildings is not in keeping with the local area or the park edge.
Any development on this site needs to be at the southern edge adjacent to Parkhouse Street i.e. away from the park.
The land on the site adjacent to the park should be used for open space for the kids living in the proposed apartments, as required by council policies for open space and play space on such new developments.