South Grove Plans

Morrisons Second Consultation 18/1/13

South Grove Car Park Site

Morrisons' Plans

The plans have been radically changed since the July 2012 exhibition, apparently because of discussion with the planning officers. It was hard to grasp the concept as the illustrations were inaccurately drawn. The street view looked like a façade as the sky could be seen through each window and there appeared to be no roof!. The front view was not illustrated although the view from the railway was. Even this must be inaccurate as the railway looked down on the development whereas it will look up to the development!

Anyway if I have grasped it correctly street level will be the “underground” car park with the entrance and exits being the side street that currently serves the Alpha Centre which will be demolished. Unlike the car park at the new Highams Park Tesco, which was dug out, this will remain at street level. This will also be the entrance for service vehicles for the store and flats. On top of this, at first floor level, will be a Morrison supermarket accessed via a travelator similar to the new Tesco at Highams Park. At second floor level a vast platform will be created giving amenity space for the three 7/8 storey blocks - 273 flats.

If the illustrations had been accurate I might have been able to say it would be a real asset to the area, but as the illustrations are so flawed it is hard to say how good a scheme it will be. If as they say the car park is at street level and needs to be say 2.5m high and then the store on top at say 5m high the “deck” for the amenity space will have to be at least 7.5m above the existing ground level. The railway embankment is approximately 4m high which means the deck will be level or above the railway. The 3 blocks of 7/8 storey flats are in effect built on the deck so they create a 10/11 storey development. The density figures for the development were not available. The pillars on the side of the development are to support the flats to avoid having structural pillars through the store.

Not being an expert a couple of things struck me. The engineering to make this development work will be expensive and the plans as released today are far from the final ones. They hope to submit a planning application in April which is only 3 months away so either the plans are more developed than they admit or a lot of architects will be burning the midnight oil!

As to whether Morrison can afford it we are assured their board has given it the go ahead. The flats management is still being negotiated so could be a Housing Association or a private developer.