Passing thoughts before the final vote.
5th November 2015
Final Decision Day
Most of us who live in Kingston would know Kingston Town centre is blotted with some brutalist architectural experiments and bizarre Council decisions. From time to time, we must have all looked at a building or an estate or a derelict site and asked ourselves ‘how did they allow this to happen?’. Of course, again, most of us do not dwell too much on these matter because we have other more pressing worries. Besides, we all know why we live in and love Kingston. It is a fantastic place to live with its easy access to the Thames walk, green open spaces and even the shopping. It is very rare in London that you find a place where you can raise a family, study, commute and retire… If you can afford the housing, that is.
These days we cannot watch the news without hearing of the looming housing crisis and the lack of affordable homes across the country. Kingston is certainly not immune to these challenges. This is one of those places where an acute shortage of affordable homes makes the place even more unaffordable.
So, for an outsider, it must seem puzzling as to how a housing developer with a seemingly decent reputation can receive such a hostile public reception. What makes people come out and defend a large derelict site so close to public amenities and ripe for housing redevelopment for decade? How come all these people do not want this jazzy housing development with glitzy shopping, community spaces and housing units. They even offer to protect and enhance the 2 heritage sites on the site for pity’s sake! ‘What is the residents’ problem?’ you might say.
Well, we would like to reverse the question: developers, councillors and planners in charge of growth, what is wrong with you? How could you get this process so wrong?
If you cannot answer this simple question tonight, we will be doomed to repeat this same debate over every planning application that follows tonight’s decision, irrespective of whether this particular application is permitted or refused.
Everyone has probably heard enough of our objections over the past 14 months. These have mostly been policy reasons – guideline breaches, policy breaches and legal implications, as our QC detailed in his 20 page opinion. We have deliberately tried to restrict the amount of subjective whining by local residents, although the inevitable accusations of NIMBYism have been levelled at us nonetheless. Here is a shorter take:
People are disgusted by this development not because, as some people like to believe, ‘people want housing developments but not close to their house’ but because ‘people do not want empty unaffordable homes next to them with poor gates leading to a few supposedly affordable homes’. For all those NIMBY accusers, please remember that in 2015 people do not welcome gated, impenetrable, tall and unsustainable identikit tower blocks on their doorsteps! These blocks will be massive headaches for future generations, just as the future of those ugly towers at Kingston College, New Malden and Tolworth vex current generations of residents. London is currently blighted by a new wave of these irresponsible and greedy designs, which attract mostly investment buyers, causing yet further property price inflation in the locality, and with practically no affordable housing for people to actually live in. We argued that it is possible to create more homes and a better urban environment if we concentrate on mid-rise houses and apartments rather than complex multi-storey buildings. That is the crux of our argument.
Also, during our campaign, it became very clear that St George’s application, if approved, will set a precedent for the rest of Kingston Town development plans. These include Eden Walk, Surrey House, the Old Cattle Market – described by the Council as a ‘blank slate’. If we did not respond to St George and pressure the Council on this application, we may as well let all the associated planning guidelines (which are applied to us residents so stringently) be flouted by future developers in the same manner.
We also know that the Council rushed their growth agenda and that they remain underprepared and ill-equipped to handle the volume of development interest attracted to this town. The farcical nature of this application, with committee meetings cancelled and bizarre interjections by the Leader of the Council, do not give us the confidence that they are actually able to cope with all this attention.
Whatever their motives are, somewhere, somehow Council planners and private developers have decided that the residents of Kingston would like a piece of Nine Elms or Canary Wharf here in Kingston. Maybe they are misled by an over-ambitious but under-prepared Council leadership. We will never know. We were never party to their ‘briefings’ to these large developers. Probably they all think that residents should not meddle in planning affairs that are none of our business and too ‘strategic’ and ‘complex’ for amateurs to comprehend. We would like to remind them that we are no longer living in the 1960s and we would actually like to avoid repeating the mistakes of past decades – such as the various Council-commissioned high-rise monstrosities that currently scar the borough.
So get used to hearing from local residents, we are watching your plans to remodel our town. We only ask that the Council and developers show a little imaginative and strategic flair and come forward with something appropriate for the needs of local people, such as sensitively landscaped, mid-rise buildings and homes we can actually afford to live in. Until that day, the residents of Kingston can and will fight to obstruct inappropriate, ugly property developments in this town we are are lucky enough to live.
Final Decision Day
Most of us who live in Kingston would know Kingston Town centre is blotted with some brutalist architectural experiments and bizarre Council decisions. From time to time, we must have all looked at a building or an estate or a derelict site and asked ourselves ‘how did they allow this to happen?’. Of course, again, most of us do not dwell too much on these matter because we have other more pressing worries. Besides, we all know why we live in and love Kingston. It is a fantastic place to live with its easy access to the Thames walk, green open spaces and even the shopping. It is very rare in London that you find a place where you can raise a family, study, commute and retire… If you can afford the housing, that is.
These days we cannot watch the news without hearing of the looming housing crisis and the lack of affordable homes across the country. Kingston is certainly not immune to these challenges. This is one of those places where an acute shortage of affordable homes makes the place even more unaffordable.
So, for an outsider, it must seem puzzling as to how a housing developer with a seemingly decent reputation can receive such a hostile public reception. What makes people come out and defend a large derelict site so close to public amenities and ripe for housing redevelopment for decade? How come all these people do not want this jazzy housing development with glitzy shopping, community spaces and housing units. They even offer to protect and enhance the 2 heritage sites on the site for pity’s sake! ‘What is the residents’ problem?’ you might say.
Well, we would like to reverse the question: developers, councillors and planners in charge of growth, what is wrong with you? How could you get this process so wrong?
If you cannot answer this simple question tonight, we will be doomed to repeat this same debate over every planning application that follows tonight’s decision, irrespective of whether this particular application is permitted or refused.
Everyone has probably heard enough of our objections over the past 14 months. These have mostly been policy reasons – guideline breaches, policy breaches and legal implications, as our QC detailed in his 20 page opinion. We have deliberately tried to restrict the amount of subjective whining by local residents, although the inevitable accusations of NIMBYism have been levelled at us nonetheless. Here is a shorter take:
People are disgusted by this development not because, as some people like to believe, ‘people want housing developments but not close to their house’ but because ‘people do not want empty unaffordable homes next to them with poor gates leading to a few supposedly affordable homes’. For all those NIMBY accusers, please remember that in 2015 people do not welcome gated, impenetrable, tall and unsustainable identikit tower blocks on their doorsteps! These blocks will be massive headaches for future generations, just as the future of those ugly towers at Kingston College, New Malden and Tolworth vex current generations of residents. London is currently blighted by a new wave of these irresponsible and greedy designs, which attract mostly investment buyers, causing yet further property price inflation in the locality, and with practically no affordable housing for people to actually live in. We argued that it is possible to create more homes and a better urban environment if we concentrate on mid-rise houses and apartments rather than complex multi-storey buildings. That is the crux of our argument.
Also, during our campaign, it became very clear that St George’s application, if approved, will set a precedent for the rest of Kingston Town development plans. These include Eden Walk, Surrey House, the Old Cattle Market – described by the Council as a ‘blank slate’. If we did not respond to St George and pressure the Council on this application, we may as well let all the associated planning guidelines (which are applied to us residents so stringently) be flouted by future developers in the same manner.
We also know that the Council rushed their growth agenda and that they remain underprepared and ill-equipped to handle the volume of development interest attracted to this town. The farcical nature of this application, with committee meetings cancelled and bizarre interjections by the Leader of the Council, do not give us the confidence that they are actually able to cope with all this attention.
Whatever their motives are, somewhere, somehow Council planners and private developers have decided that the residents of Kingston would like a piece of Nine Elms or Canary Wharf here in Kingston. Maybe they are misled by an over-ambitious but under-prepared Council leadership. We will never know. We were never party to their ‘briefings’ to these large developers. Probably they all think that residents should not meddle in planning affairs that are none of our business and too ‘strategic’ and ‘complex’ for amateurs to comprehend. We would like to remind them that we are no longer living in the 1960s and we would actually like to avoid repeating the mistakes of past decades – such as the various Council-commissioned high-rise monstrosities that currently scar the borough.
So get used to hearing from local residents, we are watching your plans to remodel our town. We only ask that the Council and developers show a little imaginative and strategic flair and come forward with something appropriate for the needs of local people, such as sensitively landscaped, mid-rise buildings and homes we can actually afford to live in. Until that day, the residents of Kingston can and will fight to obstruct inappropriate, ugly property developments in this town we are are lucky enough to live.
