Emergency Appeal from Ben Patio

Published by Peter | Filed under General

The developers proposing the redevelopment of the Mary Datchelor site have submitted revised drawings to Southwark Council. It’s not much to write about - it seems they’ve pretty much ignored the concerns of everyone, including the Camberwell Society. They’ve made a token reduction in the number of flats from 138 to 134 and there are some associated changes to the elevations.

Cynically, they’ve made the changes just before the holiday period so that as few people as possible are around to formally object. The new scheme still fails to meet the requirements of the Development Brief prepared by Southwark; it would demolish the fine 1926 building on Grove Lane; and (worst of all, as far as I am concerned) it is dressed up in an atrocious hotch-potch of faux-Georgian and neo-traditional architectural styles that will make a mockery of the fine buildings in the area.

Comments from the general public really do make a difference and are essential if Camberwell is to get the development it deserves on this site. You can object by writing to Sonia Watson at planning.applications@southwark.gov.uk quoting application no. 05-AP-1695 - but make sure you do it by 27 December.

Update: As Ben pointed out, this is a really shitty trick; setting the deadline for comments to December 27 pretty much ensures that fewer people are around to have their say on the development. You’d think that Southwark would have a decent web presence for such a major decision, but all I can find on their website is the latest planning application and a few documents from last year. Poor show. It’s almost like they don’t want people to know what’s going on.