Car park operated on land between Gladstone and Russell Roads (accessible via Pelham Rd).
Cllr Anthony Fairclough, Cllr Simon McGrath and Cllr Paul Kohler: Working hard for Wimbledon, Raynes Park & Wimbledon Chase. Learn more
by Wimbledon Town & Dundonald Lib Dems on 29 April, 2012
Just a quick update on the latest about the plans to develop the Rainbow Industrial Estate next to Raynes Park Station:
We understand that the site’s developers, Workspace, are working to consult soon on draft proposals for a “planning brief” for the site – this is the outline plan for how the site will be used.
At a recent Council “Community Forum” meeting, it was mentioned that the developers currently plan to use some of the site for housing along with some business/industrial use. We understand that council officers have said that they are not convinced that the ideas are entirely acceptable. The main discussion is around an access point on the ‘south’ side of the station; this is what scuppered the previous plans for a waste processing plant on the site – the road access is pretty bad, especially given that it is shared with a drop-off point at Raynes Park station.
We have set up a meeting with the developers in May – let us know if there is anything in particular you’d like us to ask them or issues to raise? As well as questions about access to the site, traffic and parking, we would also like to know how much housing they would like on the site and how much of that would be affordable housing.
3 Comments
Affordable housing is becoming an essential consideration of all planning schemes now. This should be strongly argued for.
Regarding the access point, did I once read that the owner’s of the site also own the two houses in Grand Drive on the corner ?
If this were so, would demolition offer a chance to radically change the nature of the junction ? ASssuming of course, that the properties were rented.
Hi Mark, yes – they do own the houses, and so we suspect they would use that to change the junction. There is a target of 40% housing in all new large developments – although we were dismayed to see a planning application in Wimbledon town centre that sought to exempt itself from this on economic grounds (because the price of the land has dropped). The application was rejected, but not on these grounds!
John – you’re completely right that planning for new houses needs to take into account the massive problems with school shortages and other resources! There is more money in housing for the developer, which is why they want to use some of the land in this way.
How much more housing can raynes park take? the schools and doctors are already bursting with too many people.
I believe that Raynes park is already above its housing quota so all housing develpments should be stoped.