Residents have recently complained to us about the state of the former Emma Hamilton site.

The site was previously cleaned fairly regularly, but this seems to have stopped in the last couple of months. The site is now attracting litter and dumped rubbish.

On 20 April, we contacted the site owner’s agents to request action.

UPDATE 1: Following our request, the site owners have cleared this bit of the site of rubbish, and repaired the fencing (22 April).

UPDATE 2: On 23 April, we heard from the Wimbledon Chase Residents Association that the Planning Inspector has upheld the developer’s appeals against Merton’s decision to refuse planning permission for the two proposed schemes. This means the developers now have permission to build either the original 5 storey development comprising retail units on the ground floor and 57 flats, or the second four storey development which has no retail and 54 flats.

We think: There are a couple of important issues. The first is that that the independent Planning Inspector decides appeals against the Council’s planning policies, which in this instance were not robust enough to prevent this sort of development.

Secondly, because councillors on the Planning Applications Committee rejected planning permission for the much improved second scheme, they are responsible a situation where the developer now has permission to proceed with its original 5 storey proposal.

Update 3: We contacted the developer to encourage them to proceed with the four storey second scheme. On 15 May, the developer’s agents told us that “The client is currently considering his options . . .   it may be some weeks before a decision has been made”.