The owners’ of the Rainbow Industrial Estate by Raynes Park station have given us some more information on their ideas for the site, and we wanted to share these with you

Their ideas at this stage include:

• Building 250 flats on part of the site – of mixed sizes and a certain proportion affordable – they say they need to build the flats is to raise funds to enable them to pay for other improvements to the site.
• An improved light industrial/business area – to replace the industrial/storage yard-type businesses that currently use the site. This new area would support employment for around 100 people, which is roughly double the employment currently on the site. They plan relatively small units, which would be affordable to support new businesses; but which would not, they say, involve large amounts of traffic or heavy vehicles – like the existing tennants do.
• Improvements to the site access and the Raynes Park station drop-off point, possibly by changes to the house next to the site entrance, which they own.

Some questions that need to be answered

• How much money is actually needed to improve the industrial estate to provide extra jobs, and are their any other alternative ways of getting this funding aside from building flats (and instead, ways that allow more employment space on the site)?
• Have Workspace consulted with the businesses that are currently on the site? What will happen to these businesses if the site is developed (for example, will Workspace offer them suitable alternative premises)?
• If flats are built on the site, who will manage them? Workspace say that they have several sites which also contain housing as well as businesses, but they were vague about how these were operated.
• Because the site is next to a railway station, Workspace assume that workers, or residents and their visitors, would not bring or use cars. But we need to know the real impact on traffic and parking in the area. Plus poor air quality in Raynes Park is a real issue – traffic is a major source of this.
• Would the improvements to the site access and the station drop-off be enough? Because of the surrounding railway lines there is only a narrow route through to the site, and would there be problems there for cars trying to get into the site?
• What will the impact of the new flats be on school places, GPs/health services and other local facilities, as well as on things like local drains and sewers? How will these impacts be mitigated?

Initial thoughts
Merton needs to maintain, and indeed improve, its employment land and opportunities for new jobs. Small and medium-sized businesses employ huge numbers of people across the capital. The site is surrounded by railway lines, and is not an ideal place for housing. We are also concerned that large increases in housing like this will cause further pressure on ‘infrastructure’ like schools, GPs, water/sewerage etc – and Workspace have no real answer to these issues – instead rather considering it as something for the Council to sort.

What’s next?
We understand that Workspace would like to see consultation with residents on a draft Planning Brief starting in late June. This is a document that determines in principle and broad terms how a site will be used.

A formal planning application would then later set out things like precise numbers of housing units, for example, or the design of buildings. However, it’s vitally important that people have their say at this stage about how they see the site developing, as once a planning brief is in place, it will be harder to change aspects of the formal planning applications.

We also understand that Workspace have asked if they can come and present some of their ideas at the next Raynes Park Community Forum on 21 June.

What you can do?
Let us know what you think about the ideas above, and what you would like to see done with the site. If there are questions that you think need answering, let us know.

Also, if you can, go to the Community Forum on 21 June to find out more and raise issues directly with Workspace.

And when a consultation on a draft Planning Brief for this area starts – make sure you have your say!