Planning Committee Meeting 20 May 2009

1 min read

Author: Cyril Richert
The Planning Applications Committee meeting was hold on Wednesday 20 May at the Town Hall. As confirmed by Councillor Leslie McDonnell, chairman, the application for Clapham Junction station redevelopment was withdrawn by the applicants (Metro Shopping Fund) on Monday (follow the link to read our comment).
Planning Committee - Public spaceThe small space reserved for public in room 122/123 (about 30 seats) was crowded with more than 40 people, some people seating on the floor or standing near the door. Additionally, two rows of seats were also disposed in front, directly in the main room. That was not enough, and people kept coming crossing others leaving. [1]
The meeting started at 7.30pm. After agreeing on the Minutes of the previous meeting, Cllr McDonnell said that on Monday at about 3.30pm the applicants withdrew their application for Clapham Junction station, and therefore this item would not be debated. However Cllr Belton made a short statement highlighting that more than 600 residents objected (actually more than 800 objections) and he wishes that such application does not set a precedent. Cllr McDonnell replied that there is no relation between Planning Officer and Councillors.
And then…. That’s it.
Planning Committee - room 122For the next 1 1/2 hour it went on with the other applications. The discussion was extensive on Trade Tower Plantation Wharf which was criticised for scale and proportion issues within the vicinity which led eventually to refusal (it is encouraging that several councillors made the points).
Finished at 9.15pm…. I cannot imagine what time it would have finished should you have had the full agenda.
[1] An email was sent to everyone on our mailing list, in addition to the topic posted on the website, stating that the item was withdrawn from the agenda. Apparently more than 60 people decided it was still worth showing their concern!

Did you like reading this article? Help us write more!

Clapham Junction Insider (formerly known as the CJAG website) has been publishing local news for over 14 years and remains committed to providing information about the local community and engaging in public interest journalism.

Our goal is to feature a wide range of community campaigns and initiatives, local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, and provide assistance to residents.

We have always been dedicated to these endeavours and have no intention of changing. In fact, we would like to expand our efforts further.

Until recently, all the stories, analyses, and reports published have been made possible with the invaluable help of many volunteers. However, it requires a significant amount of time and effort, and we are frustrated that we cannot do more. There are numerous topics we would like to cover, but we require financial resources to provide regular information.

Therefore, we kindly ask our readers to consider offering financial support to sustain these efforts. Any contributions made will help support community and public interest news, as well as the expansion of our coverage in this area.

2 ways of supporting our project

Do you think what we are doing is helping the community and you want to encourage us to do more? We have set up two ways of supporting our project:

  1. Paypal: For one-off contributions, you can just use your bank card. However if you wish to encourage and support us regularly with a small amount, you will need a Paypal account to set up a monthly subscription. Click here to donate.
  2. Patreon: this is a well-known membership platform that connects content creators with supporters. Mainly, it offers financial tools that let supporters subscribe to projects that give creators a predictable income stream as they continue to create content. Click here to subscribe and support us regularly.

If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor.

CJI editor and Clapham Junction Action Group co-founder and coordinator since 2008, Cyril has lived in Clapham Junction since 2001.
He is also funder and CEO of Habilis-Digital Ltd, a digital agency creating and managing websites and Internet solutions.