Burgess Park masterplan — not everyone’s happy

The Masterplan report for Burgess Park has been announced; there’s a low-res summary or several high-res chapters available to download as PDF:

southwark.gov.uk/downloads/download/2350/burgess_park_masterplan_report

The Burgess Park Action Group are not happy with the proposals — I’ve included their list of grievances at the end of this post. If you agree with them or want to add your own opinion, there’s an emergency stakeholders meeting this Tuesday 8th June 2010 at 6pm at the Sports Centre in Burgess Park.

The rest of this post is taken from an email sent by the BPAG.

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Burgess Park design proposals

In the traditional ‘burying bad news’ time slot (I hope that’s not ominous), Southwark Council have released the two shortlisted proposals for Burgess Park.

I’ve hardly had time to look at these myself, yet, so reaction will follow.

Update: So here’s my considered opinion. Obviously with a constrained budget (£6m may sound a lot, but Burgess Park is one of the largest in London and is receiving a fraction of the money given to comparable projects) both have had to be somewhat cautious in their plans; it’s quite funny to see existing features marketed as new ones (“a wide tree-lined avenue along the historical canal path, with space for walkers, runners and cyclists” — that’s what we have now, only with not so many trees).

As well as improved entrances and lighting, which were requirements, both have focussed on the lake area and a new public square where the underpass currently sits; as both have proposed sealing the underpass, this does present the problem of having a very busy road run through the middle of it and no easy way to cross; a minus point, in my book.

Gillespies bid is the more cautious (sensible?) of the two; I liked their dog-only areas, cycling/walking routes, and meadow area.

LDA Designs were more ambitious; informative art pieces are respectful of the park’s history, and with more biodiversity — including a wetlands area and an orchard.

Of the two, I think I lean towards the latter (I will have to assume that everything they’ve planned can be achieved within the budget), but it’s very close.

Baby steps, but steps nonetheless

Sorry for not giving prominence to this before, but thanks to monkeycat for highlighting these plans for the development of the snooker hall on Camberwell New Road (caution: large PDF download). It also gives a history of previous applications for that site. I’m sure something is going to be granted sooner rather than later, and it will be the biggest transformation of the centre since *shudder* Butterfly Walk.

So with plans for the centre, and South Camberwell getting a little love in the shape of changes to Denmark Hill, what’s going on in the North?

Work has begun on improvements to Chumleigh Gardens; there are new play areas, ‘playable landscaping’ (whatever that means), and a newly refurbished cafe on the way. Chumleigh Gardens is a lovely location to have breakfast in summer, so a decent cafe to go with it will be great.

The five companies shortlisted for the larger Burgess Park development held a ‘speed-dating’ event recently, in which they briefly met local community representatives to hear their ideas and aims.

A page on the Southwark Council website shows the order of the task ahead of them; Burgess Park, at 50 hectares, is receiving £6m in investment — marginally more than Potter’s Field Park (£3m for 1.5 hectares), and substantially less than Mile End Park (£40m for 36 hectares). Quite an eye-opener, although it does, at least, manage our expectations for what can be achieved.

I’d like to see  a running/cycling track put all around the perimeter of the park (at least the side to the east of Wells Way), better lighting, and better entrances. And, it goes without saying, a zoo (although seeing the available budget, that may just have to consist of a rabbit hutch).

If you’re a Facebook user, there’s a Burgess Park page with all the latest news; if you’re not, then you’re not well catered for at all.

Update: Out of three possible options to extend the Bakerloo line, Burgess Park is in the favoured two. Camberwell Green, however, looks unlikely to benefit.