Proof that the Community Can Win - Tyson Road proposal defeated

Written for the Forest Hill Society Newsletter by Cllr John Russell and Cllr Philip Peake

It doesn’t often happen so when the community comes together and wins a significant victory against overdevelopment, we should all take note and learn lessons for the future. When Loromah Estates put forward a planning application to build nine blocks of flats on a backland site behind the Christian Fellowship Centre on Honor Oak Road and to the rear of Tyson Road, local residents refused to accept the odds stacked against them and came out fighting. The Forest Hill Society supported them all the way as did their local councilors, John Russell and Philip Peake. We asked the councillors to explain why this victory matters.

In our short number of years as councillors, we have frequently come up against that bane of local campaigners’ lives: the English planning system. Particularly at Lewisham Council, it is very difficult and rare to be able to defeat a developer’s proposal once it has the support of the Council Planning Officers.

Yet on 31st of March, that’s exactly what we all did at Planning Committee ‘B’ – not just marginally, but entirely: members of the committee voted unanimously to turn down officer advice and reject Loromah Estates’ application to build 74 flats on predominantly ex-garden land between Tyson Road and the Christian Fellowship Centre on Honor Oak Road.

The community, Forest Hill Society, and we councillors can all be proud of ourselves. But celebration should be tempered by caution. Draft documents in the council’s new planning policy – the ‘rules’ committee members have to consider – still allocate the site for 80-odd flats. Loromah may not appeal but instead present another plan: it remains to be seen whether any new ideas will genuinely address local people’s concerns.

Now is a useful time to look and see what happened: just why did the residents, the Forest Hill Society and ourselves working together manage to win this one? We can all learn lessons and apply them to future planning applications.

In this case, the developer was his own worst enemy. In an attempt to maximise profit, his team had introduced a fundamental design flaw. All car movements would have had to go underneath the blocks as there was no space for roads elsewhere. And despite extensive use of public relations consultants, it was clear that the development would not feel like a “woodland glade” after most of the trees had been removed and bat-boxes and green/brown roofs had been used as eco-sticking-plaster.

The obvious flaws created a vigorous residents’ campaign. Three-hundred-and-thirty-five objections must be a record for this borough. Led by Andrew Wood, residents did their homework and fought a very informed and highly effective campaign. The secret to their success was not to object saying “we do not like this,” but in properly studying and understanding the Lewisham Council planning policies and the London and national planning frameworks.

Campaigners were then able to argue from a postion of knowledge, putting together a coherent argument, based in planning law. This is a position which has to be taken seriously. Backed up by the strength of local feeling, residents, FHS and councillors were able to pull this together into an argument that ultimately won over the committee.

It is a powerful example of what local residents can do when working in partnership with the FHS and ourselves in a common cause. We should be proud of what we have done and ready to start again at a moment’s notice when necessary.

Chair's Report

Unfortunately, our Chairman, Peter Irby, has been unwell for a few months now. We all wish him a speedy recovery but until then the honour of writing the Chairman's report has fallen to our vice-chair, Michael Abrahams.

We have had an eventful few months with visits to areas of nature conservation, a pub crawl, a general meeting plus our regular events from the 23 Club. Behind the scenes, we have had lots of meetings about swimming pools, planning issues, transport, swimming pools, improving the natural environment, and ... swimming pools.

All these issues and more came up at our General Meeting at The Hob on 7th May. Thank you to everyone who came along and shared their views. You can read the full minutes on our website www.foresthillsociety.com.

Beyond the Forest Hill Society, we have seen some great things happening in SE23 despite the gloom of the global recession and the flu pandemic raging around us. There’s investment going into our parks and gardens (see below) and, although we have seen a few shops closing recently, we have also seen some new shops opening including a gym in the former site of McDonalds, and Tapastry is now twice as big but with the smaller name of Try. This bodes well for developments in the coming year as we see TfL take over the station this Autumn and the East London Line starting next summer.

We are particularly pleased to see fewer bins in Dartmouth Road and London Road with daily collections being arranged by Lewisham Council. Honor Oak Parade is looking better than ever thanks to the support of the Friends of Honor Oak Park.

So this Summer, don't fall for all this gloom in the outside world. It's a bright future in Forest Hill - we might even have a swimming pool one day!

Thanks to everybody who has continued to support the Forest Hill Society. Attending events and helping out in any way allows us to do so much more. So if you would like to get actively involved, please let me know - don't leave it all for others to make Forest Hill an even better place to live.

Improvements for Forest Hill Parks

We’re not short of green spaces in SE23 but some of our parks have been neglected over the years. Now, thanks to extra funding, the Horniman Triangle and Mayow Park are getting the tender loving care they deserve.

Horniman Triangle

.... or Forest Hill Beach, as we like to call it! Yes, it’s just a sandpit at the side of the noisy South Circular but this is no ordinary sand pit. It’s got climbing frames and a water pump and the children love it. It has been packed since it opened in early April thanks, no doubt, to the unexpectedly warm weather this Spring. There’s also a little café with outside seating BUT there are no toilet facilities and this is a regular complaint. The swings are also missed especially by people with very young children. Nothing’s ever perfect, unfortunately.

Mayow Park

The Friends of Mayow Park (FOMP) put in a bid to Lewisham Council for ‘Playbuilder’ funds to create a new space where older children could socialise and exercise. That bid has now been successful and the park will receive the funding in 2010-2011. The new space is intended for young people of around 10 to 14 years old.

Even before this exciting news came through, FOMP had started talking about the scheme with some of the Lewisham Young Advisers to the Young Mayor. They are keen to take a lead with planning and development of the proposed new area and a committee has been formed with some Young Advisers, the Council Officers who support them, Green Scene officers, Councillors and FOMP members.

Meanwhile, a revised version of the plan for the Bowls Club accommodation has been submitted to Lewisham Planning Department. Plans were available for viewing in the Bowls Club Pavilion on Saturday 16th May. If the Bowls Club can vacate the present pavilion, it would be available for refurbishment and potential use when cricket restarts in the Park, it’s hoped in Summer 2010.

May Bank Holiday Revels on our Millennium Green

Some places celebrate May Bank holiday with parades, or dancing, maypoles and ribbons. Forest Hill and Sydenham Societies decided to join forces to celebrate with.... a group litter clear-up.

Millennium Gardens, a little visited green oasis at the end of Albion Villas Road, off Sydenham Park Road, was the venue. And, true to Bank Holiday tradition, on a grey, overcast day, enlivened with occasional drizzle, a small group of stalwarts turned up armed mainly with eagerness to sort out any mess.

If that all sounds a bit grim, well, it really wasn’t. With a freshly mown grass meadow, a copse of deciduous trees, bluebells, lilac, frothy masses of mayflowers and the remains of a tennis court with benches, we set to hacking through stinging nettles to retrieve the miscellany of rubbish which had been dumped over the perimeter wall. An hour or so later, a now warmed-up people-chain had passed old sofas, defunct computers, bags of domestic and garden refuse and other junk into a clearing near to the exit from where it could be collected.

It’s amazing what people throw away – and where they choose to throw it. Why would anyone dump their junk into a lovely public space like Millennium Gardens? But discarded old chestnut paling was quickly identified by gardeners in the group as recyclable for bean or netting supports. And a couple of wooden pallets, separated by bricks and stuffed with other debris, were reconstructed into a bug hotel.

There were about thirty of us for the picnic lunch, tucking in with a satisfied air after a job well done. Revels it wasn’t, but a junior cricket match on the meadow green and senior boules on the old tennis court rounded off the afternoon.

Maybe next year we could have dancing and ribbons and maypoles?

23 Club Update

June 23rd is the first anniversary of the 23 Club. It’s really taken off and exceeded our expectations. Thank you to Mary who organises the venues, thank you to Rob for coming up with the idea, thank you to all our members who’ve supported the event and thank you to the local restaurants who’ve given us a great welcome and twelve enjoyable evenings of good food and good company.

A quick recap of where we’ve been since the last Newsletter:- In March, the 23 Club went to the Old Bank restaurant in Honor Oak for some excellent, authentic Italian food. You can see your food being prepared as the main kitchen area is in full view. With the restaurant busy, the service was a little slow, but the results were worth waiting for!

On April 23rd, we celebrated St George’s Day and Shakespeare’s birthday, choosing from an excellent and imaginative menu at the Dartmouth Arms, a gastropub with car park in Dartmouth Road. One member, Bernard Keeffe, rose to his feet and recited the topical passage from Henry V, getting a round of applause from everyone there!

We hope you’ll continue to support the 23 Club in its second year. The restaurants we have chosen for the Summer months feature delicious dishes from Bangladesh, Spain and England at reasonable prices. And please note that because August 23rd falls on a Sunday, we’ve turned it into a family-friendly Club event and we’ll be meeting at 1pm.

Tuesday June 23 at 8pm : Elachi – (Bangladeshi) 16-23 Sunderland Road SE23 2PR : Phone 8699 0866

Thursday July 23 at 8pm : Try (formerly Tapastry) - Spanish tapas 39 Honor Oak Park SE23 1DZ : Phone 8291 2822

Sunday August 23 at 1pm : Forest Hill Tavern – lunchtime, family friendly get-together 108 Forest Hill Road SE22 0RS : Phone 8693 0338

Just to remind you, the 23 Club is open to Forest Hill Society members and their guests. Please make your booking directly with the restaurant, saying you want to be seated with the Forest Hill Society or 23 Club group. Everyone orders and pays separately for their meal. Do please book so that the restaurant can arrange the seating in advance – thank you.

The Third FHS Pub Crawl

It may have been only April, but it was a lovely, warm evening for a stroll through SE23. It was also the first real opportunity to celebrate the refusal of planning permission for the Tyson Road development.

We started with a small crew at the Railway Telegraph, recently taken over by the new landlady, Pam, who kindly brought over a large plate of hot dogs to help line our collective stomachs. The Telegraph is a fine, large, old pub serving Kentish Shepherd’s Neame beers. We wish Pam the best of luck and hope that members will try it out – maybe even the poker table!

More people joined us at our next pub, the hidden back street gem, the General Napier, on Bovill Road. On the walk over, we passed the Stanstead Road Community Garden – immaculately tended - and an assortment of interesting, small businesses including one that makes large models for the performing arts. The Napier just seems to get better and better – on first viewing you may find it a little old fashioned but then it simply grows on you. And it is not featured in any pub guide or blogs on the area. Maybe it is best kept as our secret.

Onto the refurbished Tapastry for the grand reopening, no less, now that the owner, Jason, has expanded into the old video shop next door. But the name has truncated to ‘Try’. It was buzzing, so much so that we sat outside in the still mild evening. There were new beers to try from the Meantime brewery in Greenwich (a note for your diary is the Greenwich Beer and Jazz fest on 8-12 July at the old Royal Navy College, where the brewery will soon be located.) Our agenda would have had us crossing the border into Crofton Park to check out the refurbished Brockley Jack and onto a fave, Mr Lawrence’s Wine bar, but we couldn’t face leaving Honor Oak so left these exciting venues for another crawl.

Friends of Honor Oak Park

There are some very energetic, creative, dedicated people here in SE23 working hard to make our community an even better place to live. Take Fiona Hull. She’s one of the founders of the Honor Oak Park Action Group (HOPAG) which has made a big difference to the high street there already. HOPAG has now changed its name to the Friends of Honor Oak Park. Fiona would love to inspire some of you to set up similar schemes around SE23 so she passes on these tips.

Why we set up the group
After walking past this kind of mess for the umpteenth time, I thought to myself enough is enough.
I’m lucky that I have a close friend who lives in Honor Oak Park whom I could moan to about the state of our neighbourhood. Eventually, we decided to stop moaning and do something about it. We gave ourselves a name - Honor Oak Park Action Group - and we started the slow, painstaking process of finding out whom to talk to about the things we wanted to change. Recently, we changed our name to Friends of Honor Oak Park. This way we will be able to work more closely with Southwark and Lewisham Councils and residents on larger projects.

Rule 1: Getting started
We contacted our station manager, sent him photos of the mess outside the station and asked him to come down and pay us a visit. Seeing that we were passionate and determined, he agreed to give us £250 to plant up a drought-tolerant garden in front of the station. He arranged for the railings to be painted a nice, pale green and removed all the fly tipping and rubbish.

Rule 2: Get to know your local councillors and Council
We held a planting a planting day at the station, invited local councillors and raised money and awareness of what our group was trying to achieve.

Rule 3: Get to know your members
We set up a blog www.honoroak.blogspot.com where we could let our members know what was going on and ask them what they thought. We told them about the cleverly designed Moo Moo recycling bin. We decided we wanted one because, apart from its funky design, it increases recycling rates by 66%. We put a paypal donation button on the blog and had raised £200 in less than two weeks. We were amazed and excited. Lewisham council agreed to contribute the rest so that we could have our own Moo Moo bin.

Rule 4: Create partnerships with people who are in a position to help you
We invited Joan Ruddock MP to come down and have a look first hand at what we were trying to achieve, particularly the fly tipping issues and overflowing refuse bins in Honor Oak Park. We spoke to the Head of Environment who encouraged our non municipal approach and we now have a lovely, clean high street.
We spoke to a Director at O2 as we have an O2 phone mast painted navy blue and a cabin outside Honor Oak Park station painted dark green. We asked him to come down and see our Moo Moo bin and how we wanted the O2 mast and cabin painted black. Not only did he do this, but he put us in touch with his community funding scheme at O2. Encouraged, we applied for funding and were recently awarded £750.

Rule 5: Get informed and involved and don’t take no for an answer
Find out what’s going on at all levels, locally and nationally. There’s so much going on now at a grass roots level and we firmly believe that this is the way things are going to change. This is the way to keep inspired and motivated because you have to have a huge amount of energy and determination to get things done as some projects are not easy to get off the ground.

Devonshire Road Nature Reserve Open Day

Devonshire Road Nature Reserve Annual Open Day takes place this Sunday, 14th June 12:30-17:30

• Enjoy the Woodlands, meadow, wildlife garden and ponds
• Exhibition of drawings for the new gates
• Blacksmith and mobile forge
• Guided Walks
• Plant and craft stall
• Live amphibians & reptiles
• Refreshments

The reserve is also open on Saturday 13th June - 12:30-16:00 as part of th Open Garden Squares Weekend

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Sunday June 7th – 1pm-6pm. Forest Hill Society picnic in the Horniman Gardens. We should be easy to spot so do bring your picnic hamper and join us on what is absolutely bound to be a gloriously sunny day.

23 CLUB - Tuesday June 23 at 8pm : Elachi 16-23 Sunderland Road SE23 2PR : Phone 8699 0866

Saturday 27th June 2009 – Blythe Hill Fields Day. Fun community event with music, a wide variety of stalls and donkey rides. The Forest Hill Society will be there with a stall selling our popular SE23 cakes!

Sunday 5th July and Sunday 12th July - Craft and Design Fair at The Hob.

4th, 5th, 11th and 12th July, 11am to 7pm – Havelock Walk Open Studios. Part of Sydenham Arts Festival.

23 CLUB Thursday July 23 at 8pm : Try (formerly Tapastry) 39 Honor Oak Park SE23 1DZ : Phone 8291 2822

Saturday 9th August, starts at midday – Jerk Chicken Cook Out at the Horniman Gardens. The Forest Hill Society will be there with a stall.

23 CLUB Sunday August 23 at 1pm : Forest Hill Tavern – lunchtime, family friendly get-together 108 Forest Hill Road SE22 0RS : Phone 8693 0338

Sunday 13th September at 3pm— Green Chain Walk Festival - walk via Horniman Gardens, One Tree Hill, Nunhead Cemetery and Peckham Rye Park
Meet at Horniman Gardens, by the museum gate. Duration 2 hours. Led by Peter Frost.

Planning for a Pool on Dartmouth Road

Below is the content of the proposal from the Forest Hill Society to Sir Steve Bullock regarding bringing swimming back to Forest Hill as soon as possible.

A sketch of the proposals for the site can be viewed here.

Dear Sir Steve,

We have given careful consideration to the various options that are around about the use of the existing pools site and the alternative site at Willow Way. We are concerned that the potential of achieving planning permission is not being realistically stated and that alternative options for funding a pool, on the pools site, are being ignored.

Firstly we are concerned that the potential of achieving a pool on the Willow Way site is being overstated generally and particularly in the current consultation. A pool on this site is strictly speaking contrary to the UDP and a leisure use does not meet many of the criteria set out as mitigating reasons why non-employment uses would be considered. Pushing ahead this option could be problematic for the council. Legal guidance has already stated that residential would not be allowed on the Willow Way site and such an option has been removed from the consultation, however, it remains questionable whether a swimming pool would be suitable for the location.

As well as resulting in a loss of employment, moving the swimming pool from the Dartmouth Road site would also be contrary to regional policy intended to retain leisure uses in town centre locations. This location is not recognised as meeting most of the criteria for the location of a swimming pool – specifically it is outside a designated town centre and is not correctly located to provide the maximum level of access to swimming within a 20 minute walk from their homes. The location is within a 20 minute walk from the Crystal Palace pool, which means that half the catchment area is already served by another pool. This calls into question the long-term viability of this site for leisure use.

There is a similar planning problem when considering the loss of a pool and park from Dartmouth Road for conversion to residential. This will have a detrimental effect on the town centre and specifically on the library, which will no longer be adjacent to a leisure destination. This will again require a major change of use of the land, and with the density of housing proposed, close to existing housing and two grade 2 listed buildings, is likely to meet resistance from local residents.

We understand the financial problems that you have in providing the pool on the existing Dartmouth Road site but the Forest Hill Society have been working on a proposal for Live/Work development to cross-subsidise the pool on the existing pool site. The would comprise approximately 50% live/work units providing 25-30 jobs, and just under 50% residential units above the live/work units. We believe that this option will maximise the employment available on the site (greater than for the likely use of the site for pure employment as either B8, B1, or B2, or for the pool). However, we recognise that this does not fit with the 100% employment use that is outlined in the UDP and in the draft core strategy options produced in 2009, although it does achieve the objectives for flexible, creative employment accommodation.

The use of Willow Way as a mixed site for employment and residential is actually a very good use of this site that assists with the regeneration of the area, maximising employment (and possibly a small amount of residential use), whilst maintaining additional employment in leisure services at the existing pools site. It has to be done in the right way to create a viable live/work community, but the residential element will positively assist in this desire. We recommend that the council consider the Wilow Way site as a suitable site for mixed use development, allowing such a development in the south of the borough as well as a number proposed for the north of the borough. This is the best use for this site independent to any consideration of the pools location.

There should not be any significant problem in designating Willow Way as a mixed development in the Core Strategy and Spatial Strategy that are being produced and this would allow for the building of live/work units plus residential on Willow Way in the same timeframe as the alternative idea for housing on the existing pools site. The council should then be able to move forward with plans for the development of the new pool on the Dartmouth Road site, knowing that approximately £2m can be realised from the sale of the Willow Way site (our conservative estimates show a minimum of £1.5m land value based on 2009 property values).

Unfortunately Willow Way cannot completely cross-subsidise the estimated cost of the pool if it does cost £12.5m, with a shortfall of £5m from the funds the council have earmarked for the Forest Hill pool. We believe that most of the remaining £3m shortfall can be addressed by the reduced cost of building over that last two years, and by careful consideration to reduce costs on the site.

The current plan for option 2 is to push ahead with building a pool on the Willow Way site prior to approval for building housing on the existing site. We believe that if this can be done for option 2, a similar process can be put in place for option 1, allowing for the building of the new pool on the existing site to commence in the same time frame.

This option, of pools on the current site and mixed use on Willow Way should result in less risk to the project as a whole, by a minor and justifiable change to the designation of Willow Way, rather than significant changes to the designation of both sites of proposed development. This will provide for swimming facilities at the earliest possible opportunity in a site favoured by residents, planning and leisure guidelines, and by council officers to whom we have spoken.

We believe that an Outline Planning Application on this site may be a good way of testing and determining the future of the Willow Way Site and would be happy to help you wherever we can in the preparation of such an application.

I look forward to your response on this proposition.