Development corner of Weston Street/Leathermarket St

Although previous posts gave all the details - planning officer's name, planning reference, 'phone number and e-mail address - it still wasn't clear whether anyone was going to actually contact the council, so I just e-mailed them. I'll post again when I get a response.

Thank you for contacting them. Being a user of the playground (or rather my kids are), I am very interested to hear the response.

I struggle to think how it could be legitimate - at the same time if it is not, the cheek is unbelievable and don't see how they could think they would get away with it.

Walking past this morning I saw that one of the playground rocking horses is still sitting there amongst the rubble - on their side of the hording....

Thank you, Sandgrown Dave.

I also see that the gate to the playpark has been used as fencing, and is now wide open to dogs and foxes [cats could always get in] - very healthy!

Sandgrown Dave wrote:

Although previous posts gave all the details - planning officer's name, planning reference, 'phone number and e-mail address - it still wasn't clear whether anyone was going to actually contact the council, so I just e-mailed them. I'll post again when I get a response.

Thank you, united front! I had emailed Ronan, and left a message too. I will forward any correspondence to the forum.

Progress Report:
No word yet from Ronan or anyone else at Planning and the site is looking like it's there to stay, they are painting their hoardings a pea green as I write.

Clive S wrote:

Progress Report:
No word yet from Ronan or anyone else at Planning and the site is looking like it's there to stay, they are painting their hoardings a pea green as I write.

News just in, Ronan just contacted me. The "land-grab" is both temporary and approved... he writes:

"I have been passed the above case in relation to the possible breach of planning control. In relation to the section of the park which has recently been enclosed by the hoarding, I have contacted the Councils parks team, and the developers themselves, and I note that the developers will only be using the land during the construction period and will not be lost to the development by way of no part of the building being erected on this Southwark Council owned land.

At the moment, the developers have a 1 year licence from the Parks team for use of the land but they may apply to extend if their project overruns. Once the development is complete all land will return to public use and the developer will reinstate turf to the affected area and plant new trees within the park. I can confirm that they are also paying a fee which will contribute to development and maintenance of parks in the area.
There are some outstanding matters relating to planning conditions attached to the planning approval, however these details are to be submitted next week in order to formally resolve any planning enforcement matters. I hope this information is of use and should you have any further questions then please feel free to contact me on the details below."

Be very careful!

There is a long history of developers in Southwark taking hold of bits of land and somehow managing to keep hold of them. I suppose it's the 'possession is nine point of the law' approach.


For example, on my estate, we had a sizeable chunk of our grass area taken by the Globe Academy when they were rebuilding the school 'because they needed it for a temporary games area'.

They got a licence from the council.

When that expired they had to extend it 'because the building works have over run'

Then when that extension overran they wanted a 10 year extension of the licence. The tenants and residents association had to get senior councillors and council officers to come down and only give the school an extra year - with a promise to put the land back afterwards - because building work was still going on.

Even now the school is dragging its feet, is still trying to persuade residents to let it keep the playground and is not letting us know when the work will start to give us the land back.

It's clear, if you look from the flats above, that the school designed this playground as an integral part of their development. It didn't look temporary. What they'd hoped to happen in the long run, I can only guess.

So keep an eye on this - and make sure we remind the council in a year's time. It'd be interesting to know how much is going in to the parks budget, and where it's going to.

Thanks to James Hatts for pointing me to this link as I was worried about what was happening with this site. I too will keep a close eye on this and hope this reverts to park land at the end of the "permitted" time.

Ah,,, More Southwark "I'm sure we told you we were going to landgrab and build hi rise flats no body round here could afford" propaganda... it's the same round my way

Here's a visual, and link the to the developers website!
http://www.westonwilliamson.com/news.php?a=oct10