Community Working Group for Eden Walk
WE are not experts on planning policy and make no claims to fully understand the issues involved. However, we do get local guidance from the Council’s Policy Documents, the Kingston Society and the North Kingston Forum, as well as a number of other civic bodies. Some of our volunteer residents come with specialised knowledge in law, planning and sustainability. We communicate with each other via e-mail lists, social media and by organising face-to-face meetings and gatherings. Subscribers tend to send their comments to the Council independently. For example, since the summer 2020, we had numerous socially-distant meetings with various residents and groups mainly around the Grove Ward. We informed each other about the current consultations and encouraged others to comment on the developers’ websites after reading their material and attending their information events (webinars or open chat lines). Some of the letters were also sent to councillors, so that they are aware of the issues concerning their constituents.
In the case of Eden Campus, we had to change our methodology slightly. This is not only because the current public health restrictions made it impossible for us to meet face-to-face in large numbers as before but also in consideration of the following points:
1. The unprecedented size of the tower and tall building clusters proposed, which are adjacent to 3 conservation areas
2. The speed of the Applicant’s consultation process and the lack of credible and digestible information from the Applicant
3. A complete lack of leadership and public engagement with residents from the Council’s planning department
4. The previous Eden Quarter Development Brief seemingly being ignored despite being a material planning consideration. The latter having been the subject of community consultation. Is the Council now following a new tall buildings policy they have neither consulted residents on nor informed us of?;
5. Recognising that the Council had already given a green light at the pre-planning stage and issued a press release on 2 October in support of such an impactful proposal, without thinking through the consequences of allowing a 22-storey tower on a site occupied by a 6-storey tower
To address all this, in our small neighbourhood groups we started to work with the Kingston Society to focus our efforts. We met regularly and helped them create a separate website (EdenCampusViews.co.uk) which aimed to inform residents. In its first week the EdenCampusViews.co.uk website received over 2,400 page views from more than 800 people. At the end it had approximately 1,300 unique visitors and 1,690 active sessions. Around the same time, impromptu neighbourhood letters were distributed to draw attention to the developer’s consultation site with an easily accessible link for immediate viewing. We are confident that the traffic on the Applicant’s site was increased substantially due to our collective efforts. As you can see from the Applicant’s Statement of Community (SoC) Report, the second consultation drew 20% more visitors, responding with higher level of engagement and 36% of viewers coming directly from the EdenCampusViews site. So instead of complaining about negative comments from residents, the Council should thank us, the community, for the free publicity we have afforded their so-called exhibition.
Based on their SoC data, they managed to attract only 3,828 overall visitors. We also know that in Phase 1 of their consultation they had 834 visitors with 39 responders – (15 opposed, 4 no comment, 20 supporting). Phase 2 brought 1,258 visitors with 254 responders, of whom 227 opposed the proposals.
OUR RESPONSE to the Applicant and RBK Planning department is based on all of the replies, comments and queries we have received from Kingston Residents since August 2020.
For further info on our group please read About Us.
In the case of Eden Campus, we had to change our methodology slightly. This is not only because the current public health restrictions made it impossible for us to meet face-to-face in large numbers as before but also in consideration of the following points:
1. The unprecedented size of the tower and tall building clusters proposed, which are adjacent to 3 conservation areas
2. The speed of the Applicant’s consultation process and the lack of credible and digestible information from the Applicant
3. A complete lack of leadership and public engagement with residents from the Council’s planning department
4. The previous Eden Quarter Development Brief seemingly being ignored despite being a material planning consideration. The latter having been the subject of community consultation. Is the Council now following a new tall buildings policy they have neither consulted residents on nor informed us of?;
5. Recognising that the Council had already given a green light at the pre-planning stage and issued a press release on 2 October in support of such an impactful proposal, without thinking through the consequences of allowing a 22-storey tower on a site occupied by a 6-storey tower
To address all this, in our small neighbourhood groups we started to work with the Kingston Society to focus our efforts. We met regularly and helped them create a separate website (EdenCampusViews.co.uk) which aimed to inform residents. In its first week the EdenCampusViews.co.uk website received over 2,400 page views from more than 800 people. At the end it had approximately 1,300 unique visitors and 1,690 active sessions. Around the same time, impromptu neighbourhood letters were distributed to draw attention to the developer’s consultation site with an easily accessible link for immediate viewing. We are confident that the traffic on the Applicant’s site was increased substantially due to our collective efforts. As you can see from the Applicant’s Statement of Community (SoC) Report, the second consultation drew 20% more visitors, responding with higher level of engagement and 36% of viewers coming directly from the EdenCampusViews site. So instead of complaining about negative comments from residents, the Council should thank us, the community, for the free publicity we have afforded their so-called exhibition.
Based on their SoC data, they managed to attract only 3,828 overall visitors. We also know that in Phase 1 of their consultation they had 834 visitors with 39 responders – (15 opposed, 4 no comment, 20 supporting). Phase 2 brought 1,258 visitors with 254 responders, of whom 227 opposed the proposals.
OUR RESPONSE to the Applicant and RBK Planning department is based on all of the replies, comments and queries we have received from Kingston Residents since August 2020.
For further info on our group please read About Us.