Author: Cyril Richert
As reported in one of our previous article, the location of the old Children’s home site (50 Winstanley road) has been sold by Wandsworth Borough Council to Berkeley First.
Wandsworth Council’s press release said:
“The council’s planning application committee has approved plans for 114 studio flats for students attending Imperial College. The accommodation will be built on the site of a disused and derelict building in Winstanley Road.
Each flat will contain a study cum sleeping area, as well as a kitchen and bathroom. The six storey building will also contain a secure bike storage area for 74 bicycles. There will be a handful of off-street parking spaces and the students will not be permitted to buy parking permits for the area’s existing controlled parking zone. “
The previous permission raised questions about the density and size of the buildings (with the provision of 452 studio flats). The new building extension would reinforce the same arguments.
UPDATE 13/10/2010: PLANNING APPLICATIONS COMMITTEE – 16TH SEPTEMBER 2010
Planning application #2010/2853 was before the committee in September (fast-track!). The proposal was indeed the demolition of building and construction of six storey building to provide 114 self-contained studio rooms for use as student accommodation, with associated car and cycle parking (as evocated above).
The building would be positioned approx between 5m and 13m from Livingstone Road and between 4m –22m from Winstanley Road, and would be approx 17m in height stepping up from five-storeys to the north to six storeys to the south.
The council received 3 objections which highlighted the same concerns has for the previous application (mainly density and size): the proposal is not providing sufficient parking for the proposed 114 occupants of the studio rooms; with the sites joining together there will be 566 residents many of which will have cars, which will lead to congestion and pollution problems in the area; the development is too large and will deprive residents of their right to light; the urban area desperately needs to keep all the existing trees; further granting of these buildings will encourage more large scale developments into this area with loss of its character; preferred a low rise development for another minority group to keep balance in our community.
Indeed there is not additional provision for car parking. The proposal would share the existing parking provision of Phase 1 and provide a further 2 parking spaces (increasing car club provision from 2 to 3 spaces and disabled parking provision from 4 to 5) between the two developments. Therefore for 566 post graduate students, they don’t expect more than a couple of cars at all time! (I let you decide whether you think this is realistic, optimistic and just fantasy).
To encourage the students to cycle, a total of 292 secure cycle parking spaces between both developments would be provided (the report said it would exceed TFLs ratio requirement of 1 space per 2 students: 566 students/2 = 283 – only just right!). However, the report presented to the council denied any significant adverse impact on existing traffic or indeed car parking demand on the adjoining roads and said that the development should be excluded from obtaining car parking permit under any future extension of the Controlled Parking Zone (current CPZ does not include the location). However the planning department admits that there is a need for traffic calming measures on Grant Road: as we were told during our meeting with the developers, a construction raised table/crossing point with Winstanley Junction is planned (under section 106).
The recommendation to grant planning permission was adopted by 6 votes to 2 (Labour).
The site was the home of the childrens’ home, who were moved out. Why are Wandsworth Council claiming it is disused and derelict?