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by Wimbledon Town & Dundonald Lib Dems on 11 March, 2013
In December, the owners of the former Emma Hamilton pub site appealed Merton Council’s rejection of plans for flats and shops. A planning inquiry will begin on 10 April.
There has been some concern about the recent letter sent to residents regarding a meeting of the Council’s planning committee about the plans.
The letter was really unclear, so we got in touch with Council officers, who said:
When permission was refused for the 5 storey building on this site amongst the reasons for refusal were a number of technical issues such as the provision of affordable housing and viability and retail impact.Discussions between Council officers and the appellant have addressed these matters and the report to Committee invites members to consider whether they wish to pursue or not to pursue these matters at the public inquiry.
The more fundamental concerns regarding the size of the building remain and you will see from the report that there is no intention to drop these.
To send further letters was felt by planning officers to be the correct route to follow especially given the level of local interest, however the circumstances are a little unusual. I hope this clarifies matters.
2 Comments
Merton needs to ensure that their 40% target (reason iv) is not dropped despite a single unit being added to the proposal. If these targets are tested and shown to be weak they will always be ignored and fought, leaving meagre compromises and a shortage of affordable housing. It is already a stretch to include shared ownership (as the “owners” have only half-bought, so this is incomplete) so where social rented accommodation is not included either then there is little of genuine value to many residents and potential residents from their fudged 26% “affordable” proposal. As a nearby resident I do not mind the size of the proposed structure, but feel a load of half-rented studio shoebox sized flats does nothing to help families in the area.
Unfortunately we understand that reasons (i)-(iv) were dropped by the planning applications committee. Agree with you completely.