Planning applications for new housing around Elephant

Several applications have been lodged for new housing near Elephant and Castle.

This website shows some pretty photomontages and the application references, which allows you to consult the Southwark website and view all plans/documents associated with them, and email or write comments to the case officer.

It is best to comment in the next couple of weeks though they will take comments after the official 'close' of public consultation.

http://www.elephantandcastle.org.uk/00,news,1620,185,00.htm

Don't assume you will have been consulted on them already - you may be quite close without having been written to. I live 120m from one of them and wasn't consulted and I walk past the site every day and but for a mature tree would be in view of my home!

Thank you Colinio. I can't seem to actually find my way to the plans though from that link - probably me being idiotic. So, in theory, I can view the plans online rather than having to go to the planning office?

The Library St one concenrs me the most as it is the site of the wonderful Diversity Garden that is being redeveloped. We have known this was in the pipeline but it was still a shock nonetheless when the paperwork appeared. Although we shall be losing a wonderful and much valued space, I find I cannot really object to the plan since, as everyone understood it, it was for 34 flats to rehouse Heygate people.

But now I have seen the paperwork, I find they are also looking to build six 4-bedroom townhouses as well! I am livid - clearly these will not be rehousing Heygate tenants, they will be sold off at a vast sum to fund the project. So, although they are obliged to leave what they call a community allotment - how big will this be now, I wonder? Looking at the plot, I just cannot envisage how they will fit 34 flats and 6 houses in.

So, if someone could please tell me exactly how I can look at the plans, I'd be very grateful. Also, can I object on a matter of principle, greed and politics?

The documents for the Library Street application are here.

Thank you, James

A brief look just makes me want to cry :(

La Martinet wrote:

they will be sold off at a vast sum to fund the project.

Assuming for a moment that you are correct, just exactly how else would you propose that the project be funded? Are you offering to pay?

La Martinet wrote:

Also, can I object on a matter of principle, greed and politics?

If you consider provision of housing in an area where it is short to constitute greed, then I do not understand!

The Mapmaker wrote:

La Martinet wrote:

they will be sold off at a vast sum to fund the project.

Assuming for a moment that you are correct, just exactly how else would you propose that the project be funded? Are you offering to pay?

La Martinet wrote:

Also, can I object on a matter of principle, greed and politics?

If you consider provision of housing in an area where it is short to constitute greed, then I do not understand!

Since I am a Southwark Council tax payer, I, perhaps naively, assumed I had already offered to pay to rehouse Heygate folk via that. I have already stated that I have no objection whatsoever to my beloved communal garden being destroyed to build social housing (your second point, I believe)

Until I am certain that these 4-bed townhouses, which crucially, did not feature on the original specification for that space, are definitely NOT going to be social housing, perhaps I should keep my powder dry. I intend to go through all 38 pages of the application with a tooth comb this weekend.

FYI, the plans do include, and always have, what is called a community allotment garden as this was part of the proviso of destroying the Diversity Garden. But, and this is where my outrage stems from, suddenly there are these townhouses which shall have "private gardens" too, this means the original space allocated for the allotment will be considerably less. Space is not elastic.

For info, these plannng applications will come before Southwark's planning committee on 17th December which is open to all - objectors will be notified. Meetings usually start at 7pm or sometimes 5pm. Venue will probably be Southwark Town Hall Peckham Road SE5 8UB. Agenda is not yet published but will be here when it is:

http://tinyurl.com/68moml

Thank you, Luke. I shall put that in my diary.

Harping back to the application: it transpires that out of the 34 proposed flats, only 15 are going to be for social housing and 19 for what they call "Market Housing" (I think I can have a stab at knowing what they mean by that!) And out of the outrageous 6 townhouses, only one is planned for social housing, the remaining 5 for "Market Housing".

How can this be right? As I said before, I grudgingly accepted the loss of this rare and valuable amenity in order to rehouse Heygate tenants but the fact that only 16 out of a total of 40 proposed dwellings on the site are to be allocated for social housing, I am rendered speechless!

Does anyone know, is this the case for all these new housing plans in and around the Elephant that are purportedly to rehouse the Heygate tenants that less than half the proposed dwellings are actually going to be for them?

Yes, all the so-called 'early housing sites' around the Elephant are funded by the sale of private homes. I had not fully appreciated this at the start of the process either.

(Though the council has stopped calling them 'early housing' as they are running so, erm, late...)

The way things are going it is unlikely that very many Heygate tenants will actually move into the new housing as the council is now keen to get the Heygate emptied and demolished ASAP.

Further to my previous post it now looks as though the planning committee is likely to meet on Thursday 18th December - although nothing is yet on Southwark's website.