DDC News Archive

22nd August 2008

Report blow for Downtown Plan

Gavriel Hollander has reported in Southwark News that “Controversial plans to develop the land around Rotherhithe’s Surrey Docks Health Centre have been dealt a potentially fatal blow by a damning City hall report” (p.3).  He goes on to explain how the report put together by the Deputy Mayor of London last week advised that the Barratt Homes proposal for the redevelopment of the Downtown site does not comply with Mayor of London’s plan for the London area.  The report suggested some amendments which could be made to ensure that it would comply, but local groups who have been campaigning against the development for five years believe that it could be the “final nail in the coffin for Barratt’s plans in the area”.  Steve Cornish was quoted in the article, saying that the Downtown Defence Campaign welcome the “timely intervention by the Mayor’s office” and that the report “proves beyond doubt” that the application is “fundamentally flawed”.  See the Southwark News article for the full story.

 

 


28th August 2008

Boris questions plans for Docks development

It is good to see that The Docklands (the 27th August edition) has picked up on the fact that Boris Johnson’s office “has expressed serious reservations about a new housing development in Surrey Docks”.  The item goes on to report that “Giles Dolphin, deputy mayor and head of planning decisions, said that the plan for the Downtown site ‘does not comply with the London Plan’.”

 

 

20th August 2008

From John Willis, Secretary of the Downtown Defence Campaign - A Summary of the main  implications of the Mayor of London Report

    Great news for those of you who are DDC supporters or  everyone who cherishes their environment and open green spaces.

    The mayor has dropped the threshold on where he can get involved on individual sites by a massive 50%.

    He can now be involved with the Downtown Health Centre Site and  has responded immediately with a substantial report on Barratt's proposed development. 

    The GLA's Head of Planning decisions(Giles Dolphin) has stated that the "the Deputy Mayor considers that the that the Downtown application does not comply with the London plan"  & there are numerous reasons why this is.

    You can see the full 18 page report by clicking on the Friends of Russia Dock Woodland link below. Then click on Downtown DefenceCampaign,& then scroll down to 'Mayor of London's report re Downtown Site' dated 15th August. (It's in in pdf format)

    Don't forget Barratts also have to address the three grounds for refusal recieved at last year's planning failure.

    This is a massive boost for the DDC and could not have come at a better time. The DDC gives full marks to the Mayor for honouring one of his election pledges to act as a"green" mayor in acting so quickly on something we all know is wrong.


John Wills
Secretary, Downtown Defence Campaign

 

15th August 2008

Mayor of London report re land at Downtown Road

Please see an extract, below, from a letter from the Mayor’s office regarding the Downtown site.  This is very good news for the Downtown Defence Campaign:

    Town & Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended); Greater London Authority Acts 1999 and 2007; Town & Country Planning (Mayor of London) Order 2008, Land at Downtown Road, planning reference 08-AP-1563

    I refer to the copy of the above planning application, which was received from you on 8 July 2008. The Mayor has delegated his planning function to his Deputy Mayor, Government Relations, and on 13 August 2008 the latter considered a report on this proposal, reference PDU/221S/0l. A copy of the report is attached, in full. This letter comprises the statement that the Mayor is required to provide under Article 4(2) of the Order.

    The Deputy Mayor considers that the application does not comply with the London Plan, for the reasons set out in paragraph 86 of the above-mentioned report; but that the possible remedies set out in paragraph 88 of this report could address these deficiencies. The application represents EIA development for the purposes of the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (England and Wales) Regulations 1999. The environmental information made available to date has been taken into consideration in formulating these comments.

    If your Council subsequently resolves to make a draft decision on the application, it must consult the Mayor again under Article 5 of the Order and allow him fourteen days to decide whether to allow the draft decision to proceed unchanged, or direct the Council under Article 6 to refuse the application, or issue a direction under Article 7 that he is to act as the local planning authority for the purpose of determining the application and any connected application.

 

The full letter and the accompanying report can be viewed here (15 pages in PDF format). 

 

5th August 2008

Val Shawcross objection to revised Downtown planning application

Thanks very much to Kam Hong Leung for forwarding the letter from Val Shawcross which puts forth her objections to the revised Downtown planning application.

You can download it from this link, in PDF format.

 


4th August 2008

Latest News re development of the Downtown Site

1) Members of the Friends hand delivered over 300 objection letters to the council’s planning offices last week where they were all stamped and approved. This is clearly a massive number of objections.  Once again local Downtown Defence Campaign supporters have put time aside to help our cause by knocking on doors and collecting their neighbours’ objection letters. Well done and thanks to them.
 
2)  All three of our local councillors accepted a Friends invitation to meet as a matter of urgency, and the meeting took place on site last Thursday, 31st July August. It the first meeting to take place on site with the local councillors. Steve and Friends senior members have now met representatives from all four major political parties. they are:

  • Jenny Jones (Green Party & London Assembly Member)
  • Valarie Shawcross ( Labour Party & London Assembly Member)
  • Andrew Boff (Conservative Party & London Assembly Member)
  • Lisa Rajan, Paul Noblet, & David Hubber, (our three local Surrey Docks councillors.)

We talked about the latest application from Barratt Homes and whether it addresses the three grounds for refusal received at last years planning failure. It would be fair to say that all agreed that there are still major issues with the removal of the community benefits i.e.

  • community hall re-provision
  • breakfast club and creche
  • failure to  address the poor urban design and poor traffic flows through the new proposal
  • the size of the new 'buffer zone' extension' that has been achieved by removing the above.

The best thing to come from the meeting was that our councillors are going to request that the planning committee visit the Downtown site to take a closer look for themselves in order to assess the physical reality of site, and the proximity of the “buffer zone” to the  Russia Dock Woodlands ponds and waterways.

 

28th July 2008

Downtown Site update

Steve and other volunteers spent over two hours with Andrew Boff, walking all around the Downtown Site, as well as other parts of Russia Dock Woodland and Stave Hill Ecological Park. Everyone agreed that it was amazing to think that the Downtown site came under the heading of a “brownfield” site.  Andrew Boff has promised to bring this to the attention of Boris Johnson as a matter of urgency. Steve has explained to him that other assembly members such as Valarie Shawcross, and Jenny Jones, have opposed this development from the very start.

Good news is that Steve was able to hand in 251 individual objection letters to the planning department last Friday afternoon. We still have more to deliver over the next couple of days.

The local public have responded to our call for help once again.

 

 

18th July 2008

Help required

Steve Cornish and the DDC need as much help as possible this coming weekend:

We now have a couple of hundred downtown site objection letters printed. We now need some help to knock on a few doors this Saturday/Sunday to get local residents names, and addresses, plus post codes, put on the letters, which will then be hand delivered to the planning office by the end of next week. Please let Steve know if you are available to help this coming Sat/Sun. you can get anyone to fill in the objection letters. It’s all about numbers. if you need some please contact Steve direct on telephone
 
0207 237 7586 or 07947 275386
 
or collect at

5 Somerford Way, off Downtown Road.

 

 

9th July 2008

Information and objection package

Please be aware that the DDC team have been working hard on getting an overall information and objection package together for the general public to take on board, in order to make a judgment on the new application.

The DDC has also put together a letter to the supporters of the DDC.  Please view it on this site.

Our  objection letter for the general public will be finalised and printed by this weekend and we will be knocking on their doors for members of the public to put their names and addresses down if they agree that this application still does not go anywhere near satisfying the people of Rotherhithe.

As Chairman of the DDC Steve Cornish has written an objection letter, which may be viewed here.

 

 

 

5th July 2008

Jenny Jones letter re proposed Downtown Development


A letter to the South London Press from Jenny Jones, from the Green Party Group, London Assembly, has raised some of the concerns about the Barratt Homes Downtown development proposals. She writes:

    With Southwark Executive's decision to grant Barratt Homes a "new contract" for the sale of the Downtown site in the north of Southwark, who have moved a step close to losing public land, plus its valuable 300 mature trees. Whilst most people accept that some development is necessary, it seems unwise to do this now, in a time of falling prices and unresolved planning applications with Barratt Homes.
     

 

4th July 2008

Thanks very much to Steve Cornish, Chairman of the Friends of Russia Dock Woodland, for the following email, received this morning:

    The application for full planning permission landed on local residents doormats this morning. The 21 day consultation period started from the 1/07/08. So we now only have 19 days to object to the latest proposal. Will the council ever learn. I sometimes wonder who's side they are on.

        The new application remarks on the 'new children's play area' which Barratts had to address because of the last applications failure to provide amenity play space. But in no way whatsoever do they mention that to make way for this 'new children's play area' they have taken away the Downtown Community hall re- provision that has always been part of the plans from day one, six years ago. In effect to address this ground for refusal from the previous application Barratts have taken away a large part of the community benefits along with Redriff Schools creche, and breakfast club. Removing these community benefits also helps to address Barratt Homes’s other grounds for refusal 'poor urban design'. . . the planning committee stated that the school drop off point would be a disaster with only 15 spaces available to park while the entire school, plus the youngsters at the new creche/breakfast were being taken into the school by their parents. Removing these facilities has created a win, win, win, situation for Barratts and a lose lose lose situation for the people of Downtown.

        Ruth kelly's reasons for overruling her own planning inspector were "that the community benefits outweigh the dis-benefits". We must remind ourselves that southwark council unanimously decided to challenge her decision at judicial review. So I am now completely lost. We have gone full circle.

        We will of course be knocking on doors once again to canvas peoples views on whether this application is in anyway acceptable to them. Early opinion is much to be expected. This new application gives slightly with one hand, while taking massively with the other. with some members of the public stating 'this is now an insult to the local community'. . . .

        We will be drafting our objection letter over the weekend so that local people can fill in their names addresses, post code, then we will hand deliver them to the planning dept.

        If anyone wishes to look at the new proposals and drawings, they can do so by visiting;

        REGENERATION AND NEIGHBOURHOODS
        COUNCIL OFFICES
        CHILTERN
        PORTLAND ST
        LONDON SE17 2ES

        Between the hours of 10:00 & 4:00, Monday to Friday

     

 

25th June 2008

On the 24th June 2008 Southwark Council’s Executive Committee decided to grant Barratt Homes a 'new contract' for the sale of the Downtown site. The Downtown Defence Campaign put its case to the executive but they decided to go with the Planning Department recommendation to delegate the power of sale to an un-elected council officer. One executive member stated “How do you think we will get the pot holes in our roads repaired if we don’t get the money in capital receipts from this type of development?”.
 
Barratt Homes will now put in their revised application some time in September 2008. If this gets the nod then the 300 + trees on the downtown site will be cut down before Christmas 2008. Its now down to you, the local public, to make your voices heard loud and clear.
 
We will be holding our D.D.C AGM very shortly (before September) to decide on on our future plans. All is not lost, Barratts still have to address the three grounds for refusal received after the last planning failure.

Please see the deputation presented by Steve Cornish on behalf of the Downtown Defence Campaign on the next page