Issue - meetings

(DC/15/00701/FULL1) Footzie Social Club, Station Approach, Lower Sydenham, SE26 5BQ

 

 

Meeting: 08/09/2015 - Development Control Committee (Item 28)

28 (DC/15/00701/FULL1) - Footzie Social Club, Station Approach, Lower Sydenham SE26 5BQ pdf icon PDF 515 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members considered the following planning application report:-

 

Item No.

Ward

Description of Application

5.3

(page 57)

Copers Cope

Demolition of the existing buildings and redevelopment of the site comprising the erection of a basement plus part 8/9/10/11/12 storey building to accommodate 296 residential units (148 x one bed; 135 x two bed and 13 x three bed units) together with the construction of an estate road, 222  car parking spaces, 488 cycle parking spaces and landscaping of the east part of the site to form an open space accessible to the public.

 

Oral representations in support of the application were received from the applicant’s agent, Mr Christopher Francis.  Mr Francis made the following statement:-

 

“There is a political nettle in front of you this evening and I ask you to have the courage to grasp it.

 

Whilst there is wide-spread acknowledgement of the desperate need for additional new housing, particularly in London, you as a Council consistently say “not in our backyard”.  This I believe, is because you are seeking to preserve what you consider to be an essential facet of grand suburbia – detached and semi-detached houses with gardens – whilst ignoring the needs of the young and old who want one and two bedroom flats in accessible locations.

 

This site, close to Lower Sydenham Station is ideally located to provide a worthwhile boost to local housing provision without giving rise to any harm to the amenity of other established residential occupiers.

 

Elsewhere in the borough there would be loud and extensive objections to the development of c.300 new units so ask yourself why there is a lack of objection from residents to this scheme?  It has been well advertised; we consulted over 370 local residents and held an open evening: it featured on the front page of the South London Press and was also in the Bromley Shopper.

 

Yes the site is designated as MOL – this is a designation found in the 1976 GLDP based on a large grid square area on a diagrammatic plan not on any critical analysis of this site.  As our submission shows if such critical analysis is undertaken using the criteria now set out in the London Plan the site would not be designated as MOL as it:

 

i)  is not clearly distinguishable from the built up area;

 

ii)  does not include facilities which serve either the whole or significant parts of London; and

 

iii)  does not contain features or landscapes of national or metropolitan value.

 

If you decide to refuse this application you are saying to all Londoners including all Bromley’s residents, “we don’t care about the needs of your children and those who want to live in a well-served part of our borough; we only wish to keep the status quo, but by the way we will allow significant development in the MOL if it is for the likes of us” – just look at the cricket club up the road and 89 Kings Hall Road.

 

As politicians you will  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28