At the Hounslow Council Sustainable Development Committee held on Wednesday, 17 February 2010 the planning application by St George for the land at Kew Bridge was inexplicably approved.

Given that on the last occasion this application was before the SDC the consensus was to reject the application and only at the last minute was the decision deferred, and that no significant changes were made to the application which still fails to satisfy Hounslow’s own planning guidelines, how is it possible for approval to be given?

St George seem to have known the decision was going their way – they started works reinforcing the boundary fence several weeks ago.

Anyone care to spill the beans on what has been going on behind the scenes?

The planning application by St Georges returns to Hounslow Council Sustainable Development Committee on Wednesday, 17 February 2010 at 7:30 pm and will be held at Committee Rooms 1 & 2, Civic Centre, Lampton Road, Hounslow. To view the agenda for this meeting please click here.
This may be the last opportunity to stop this development so please try and attend.

Paul Lewis, a community member of Strand on the Green Association spoke eloquently on behalf of the many community groups against the development,
“What is the point of local consultations if the views of all the local societies are ignored,” he said. “The only people that could be moved to write in with letters of support for the development were those who were managing agents for other St George developments.”

Paul, please add Green Dragon Lane Housing Co-op to your list of community groups against the development.

I cannot understand that the council officers present recommended the development given that it failed to satisfy many of the requirements of the planning brief, the unitary plan or the conservation area guidelines.

Special mention must be made for the council’s architecture expert whose presentation was so inept, and who appeared to be so embarrassed by her attempts to defend the indefensible, all she could come up with during a 20 minute presentation was that it was a “background” structure with white round bits at each corner providing “bookends” along the Kew Bridge Road frontage. Thank you, your performance surely killed this application if it was not dead already.

That the council officers, their expert on architecture and the legal adviser to the committee all met up in a local pub immediately after the meeting is I am sure entirely irrelevant.

Date:  Wednesday, 16 September 2009 7:30 pm, Sustainable Development Committee

Venue:   Committee Rooms 1 & 2, Civic Centre, Lampton Road, Hounslow

Open meeting.

St George’s planning application for the land adjacent to Kew Bridge at Kew Bridge Road, currently occupied by the ecovillage, will be decided at a meeting of the Hounslow Council Sustainable Development Committee on Wednesday 16 September. Details as follows:

Wednesday, 16 September 2009 7:30 pm, Sustainable Development Committee

Venue:   Committee Rooms 1 & 2, Civic Centre, Lampton Road, Hounslow

Contact:    Wendy Merry, Telephone 020 8583 2061, e-mail  wendy.merry@hounslow.gov.uk

This is an open meeting, although only those who have previously objected will be allowed to speak and even then only by giving at least 5 working days notice before the meeting.

A good turnout will ensure that the feelings of the local community towards this development will be made known.

Would be perhaps useful if The Times were to look into potential abuses of the planning process whereby the developers, St George West London, submitted a revised application earlier this year where modifications to their previous application were minimal but had the effect of nullifying objections made to the earlier application and where the Brentford and Isleworth Local Planning Committee approved the revised plans in May despite the Affordable Housing element of the development being reduced to zero, and, curiously, without those who had made valid objections to the modified application being notified of or invited to attend said meeting and thus denied their right to voice their objections in person.

Seemingly with the cooperation of Hounslow Council, jT have submitted a revised planning application for the Kew Bridge site the only difference being that the number of residential units is reduced from 170 to 164.

Could it be that the real reason for this amended application is that all objections to the original application of 19 June 2008 will no longer be considered for the superficially amended application and consequently all those who objected will have to do so again within 21 days of 19th March 2009 if they wish their voice to be heard?

Is this a ploy designed to reduce the amounts of compensation which may be payable to those most affected by this development?

What part are Hounslow Council Planning Department playing in this?

1) Application for Conservation Area Consent (Details here.)

Demolition of Waggon & Horses, boundary walls and associated structure walls and removal of 6 trees.

2) Planning Application (Details here.)

170 residential units, retail, cafe/restaurant, office and public house

The images in the slide show are from a previous exhibition and will be updated shortly.

There will be an exhibition of material to illustrate the scheme at the following locations:

St Paul’s Church, St Paul’s Road, Brentford from 1.00pm to 8.00pm on Tuesday 1st July 2008.

Fountain Leisure Centre, 658 Chiswick High Road from 1.00pm to 8.00pm on Thursday 3rs July 2008.