I have been extremely impressed how the developers on this occasion have consulted widely with local residents, local councillors and the local community. The original plans made for this site by the developers were outrageous. I am pleased that they have taken heed of the various refusals given by the Committee to come back with plans that are a huge improvement on previous plans.

Local residents should be excited by the planning gain that they will get out of this development which will lead to improved local roads hopefully assisting in traffic congestion and parking. Additionally, we should also be excited by the plans for a car club which will reduce the traffic generation on this site.

We also gave permission for exciting plans to redevelop Deepaks Cash and Carry on Garratt Lane.

These are exciting plans for this part of Garratt Lane. What these plans will mean is that there will be 31 new flats on this accommodation (8 of which will be affordable!) as well as a vibrant and redeveloped new store. The new retail unit will be of a similar size to the current unit although it will be of higher spec. This will mean that local shoppers will continue to receive a fantastic selection of goods that they current do as well as redeveloping what is becoming an eyesore in this part of Garratt Lane.

We don't always give permission for proposed developments. Many people in Earlsfield have contacted me with their concerns about the proposed development of the former Wandle Primary School on Garratt Lane.

The plans involved a new building containing 91 flats, 103 underground parking spaces and 22 flats in the current main building that is Wandle School.

These plans are a gross over-development of this site. The proposal is an intensive scheme and the design of the buildings are extremely bland. In addition, I am concerned by the relatively high density of this scheme as well as the impact it will have on neighbours and local amenities.

The Planning Applications Committee heard that there had been record numbers of objections from local residents. These included 53 individual objections as well as a detailed petition and more than 200 objections on the Council’s website.

A decision was agreed to defer the application to Committee , and although I would have preferred the plans to have not been given permission at all, this is at least the lesser of the two evils. At least this will give an opportunity for the developers to take heed of the huge number of objections made by local residents as stipulated by me to hopefully come back with a development that does justice to this site, to future residents of the development and to local neighbours.

I wish this Council would stand for local residents rather than buckling to plans made by the developers which are inappropriate for the site.

Sadiq

# posted by Sadiq @ 10:02 PM