The council has now received an application for use of the old warehouse on Old Road as a ‘martial arts centre and training facility’. As readers might be aware, issues around this building have been rumbling on for some time.At present, the building only has planning permission for use as a storage facility (what’s known in planning terms as class B8). The applicants are seeking to change this so that it can officially operate as a facility for their companies Unified Training Consultants and Firefight Combat Simulations.
You can view the application and supporting documents on the Council’s website. I’ve set up a short-cut to the right page via http://tinyurl.com/87oldroad
According to the application, the operating hours would be 9am-10pm Monday-Friday; 10am-8pm Saturday, Sundays and bank holidays. They envisage 12 full time and 10 part time staff. I couldn’t see any reference in the application to the number of customers that would be on site at once.
I know people have a lot of concerns about the noise and parking problems caused by having such a facility in a residential area. We now have our opportunity to lodge objections or make any other comments on the application. I am very happy to support residents through this process, and to use my rights to speak at the planning committee on behalf of residents.
The deadline for comments is 14th September 2009, and these should be sent to planning {at} lewisham.gov(.)uk quoting ref DC/09/71653. Please feel free to copy your comments to me (details here).


