Wednesday night saw Merton Council discuss the draft planning brief for the Rainbow Estate.

A motion was passed (text below) asking the Council to carry out a “needs analysis on the capability of local schools, GP surgeries and other vital services to cater for the increase in population that would result from the significant residential development currently being proposed by the Council in conjunction with the site’s owners, Workspace Group”.

This is certainly an improvement, but we felt that the Council could go further – this approach should be taken with every large development, and specifically in relation to the Rainbow Estate – how many new job opportunities could the site support?

“A fundamental lack of transparency”

Merton’s Liberal Democrat councillors attempted to amend the motion in three ways: (1) to make a wider point that when considering large developments, the Council should consider the full impact of housing on an area; (2) to bring employment on the Rainbow Estate within the “needs analysis”. We feel the site has been allowed to deteriorate and could currently support more jobs than the 45 people working there now, and so the potential employment opportunity of the site is greater than the 100 proposed by the developer. Lastly, our amendment also stated that (3) there has “been a fundamental lack of transparency in the development of the Planning Brief for the Rainbow Industrial Estate”. We wanted to make the point that the close working relationship of the developer with Merton Council in preparing this brief may lead to a conflict of interest and potential compromise of the Council’s commitment to safeguard the interests of taxpaying residents.

Sadly Labour and Residents Association councillors voted to reject the amendment.

Consultation responses now available

The responses to the consultation on the proposed planning brief is now available on Merton Council’s website.
You can see our detailed responses and petition there too.

Motion passed by Merton Council about the Rainbow Estate.