New homes have been built on the site of the former Lee Station Yard - the road now known as Glenmere Row.  One of the conditions of the planning permission was that a plan was submitted for future maintenance of the embankment (including slope stability measures).

The Council has now received a revised scheme involving re-grading of the slope.  A meeting is being held to discuss the plans at 7.00pm on Monday 28th July 2008 at the show house 11 Glenmere Row, first house after the Block 1 flats.   I’ll try and make it along.

If you’ve walked down Taunton Road lately, you can’t fail to have noticed the posters in residents’ windows regarding the Northbrook School Planning Application.   The people behind the posters are the Northbrook Action Group - a group of concerned local residents who have come together following the public meeting held on June 5th.   I met with some of NAG’s members on Saturday morning.

I was able to hear direct from residents their concerns, which fall into two broad categories - concerns about the size, scale and design of the proposed new school building, and secondly - but equally important to the group - the school’s proposals for use of Manor House Gardens.   The group explained that they’re not opposed to the school returning to Taunton Road - some of them have connections of their own to the school - but they are very concerned about the current proposed design and the proposals for use of the gardens.   NAG members are currently putting together a detailed case based on reference to planning policy, which is absolutely the right way to proceed.

I explained my own position - I’m opposed to the plans which have been submitted, for several reasons.  These include the scale of the building,  the proposed ‘teaching deck’, the poor standard of finish proposed (which hasn’t responded to suggestions made by the Council’s own design panel),  the potential impact on light to surrounding properties and gardens, and the fact the site is only 50% of the size recommended by the government.  

Yesterday’s meeting was useful in that it allowed me and the group to clarify our positions and also to discuss the planning process and the background to the application.   I’ve repeated my offer (which I made at the public meeting on the 5th June) to use my right to speak at the planning committee meeting to represent residents’ views.  I’ve also promised residents I’ll lobby the chair of the planning committee to see whether they might get longer than the usual 5 minutes to give their views.  

There’s a meeting on Tuesday night at 7.30pm in the cafe in the park where the garden usage issue will be discussed.    I also understand the planning department are expecting some revised plans from the applicant soon, so it’ll be interesting to see what changes the applicants are prepared to make, and what residents think of them.  There are also other potential solutions that I think should be explored - like purchasing playing fields off-site for use by the school.  

It was great to open a dialogue with NAG and I hope the members present felt it was as useful as I did.

People sometimes ask me what Councillors do in Lewisham now we have an Executive Mayor.    Well, apart from all our work locally in Lee Green, plus planning, licensing and other statutory committees, we also take part in overview and scrutiny - reviewing the administration’s policies and also suggesting new ways forward.    A good example would be the work the Sustainable Development Committee did last year on individual alternatives to car use (I should declare an interest as the Vice Chair).

One of the things we’re planning to do this year is to carry out an in-depth review of Empty and Under-Used Properties in the borough, with a focus on identifying the extent of the problem, and looking at ways to reduce numbers.  

We’d like to know about any problematic empty or under-used properties (either commercial or housing - this may also include lock-up garages) that you are aware of in Lee Green ward, particularly problematic examples (e.g. concerning noise or nuisance issues; environmental concerns; longstanding under-use or emptiness, etc.).

All the examples we gather will be fed into the pot and used to build up a picture across the borough and see if there are any patterns, or any solutions the borough hasn’t considered yet.

Personally, I’m hoping to push two things through this:

• Identifiying empty homes which can hopefully be used to alleviate the housing shortage in the borough.   I think there’s also opportunity to identify land or spaces which has the potential to be turned into homes.    Wandsworth Council claim to have had a fair amount of success with a scheme called hidden homes - but it’s also come in for criticism.   It’d be good to look at this in the Lewisham context and evaulate the potential (or desirabilty) of such a scheme.
• On the commercial property side, I think there’s a good opportunity to see what we can do in terms of economic development to fill empty units.   I’ve been concered to see more empty units cropping up in Lee Green of late (we’ve got four on Staplehurst Road now, and a couple of new ones on Lee High Road - not to mention Leegate).  

So if you’ve got any examples you think we should be looking at, do let me know.

As you might be aware, Northbrook School moved to the old Ennersdale School site in September in order to allow their old site on Taunton Road to be demolished and rebuilt.

 A bit later than we expected, the planning application for the demolition and rebuild has now been submitted.   You can view it here.     Please do have a look and let the Council know what you think.   You can write to the Case Officer, Emma Talbot at Planning Department, Town Hall, Catford, SE6, or email planning {at} lewisham.gov(.)uk - quote reference DC/07/67730/X in any correspondence.   Feel free to copy your comments to me, too.

Just a quick reminder that there’s a public meeting tomorrow night to discuss the application to construct a house to the side of 75a Leyland Road.  Details here.

I’m afraid won’t be at the meeting, as I’m double booked, but Sven will be chairing the meeting, so we’ll be well represented!   

Apologies for not posting this sooner.   I attended the Planning Meeting on Thursday night, and the car wash was granted permission to continue operating until 2011, subject to the conditions mentioned in the report to the planning committee.

I think this is a good result - the operators said they were more than willing to improve the signage and fencing as they’d been asked to do, and stick to the hours of operation proposed.    I think a clean and tidy looking car wash is far preferable to the site falling derelict and into disrepair.   I know this was also the view of the majority of people who attended the public meeting last year.

You might remember that a public meeting was held last year at the United Reformed Church to discuss the continued use of the former BP garage on Burnt Ash Road as a car wash.

The general feeling of those at the meeting was that the car wash provided a good service, and was much preferable to the site being unoccupied, but it’s current appearance was poor and the site needed to be tidied up.

After much chasing up by your councillors, the application to continue use of the site as a car wash will be considered by Planning Committee A this Thursday, 28th February (7.30pm at the Town Hall).

The planning department have recommended that permission is granted, subject to several conditions - regarding hours of operation, that no car sales take place on the premises; that the lighting, signage and fencing is improved (and proposals approved by the Council) and that a refuse store is provided on site. You can read the report which is going to the committee here.

Please do let us know if you have any comments, or if you plan to attend the planning committee meeting.