The Strettons office at the junction of Hoe Street and St.Mary's road is to become an 11 storey hotel and 5 storey office block. Not only is this an inappropriate site for such a development as it is almost inaccessible for construction traffic and it is totally out of scale with the surrounding 2 storey Victorian Terraces.
Please send in your objections to the Planning Department before the 8th December 2018.
Planning Dept: dmconsultations@walthamforest.gov.uk
Strettons wrote in 2017 saying it would be a Premier Inn and be 13 Storeys and this is the image I produced then to object to it.
After extensive consultation with the planning officers and limited consultation with the public they have reduced it by 2 storeys to 11.
It will now look like this but whether it will be a Premier Inn is not mentioned in the planning documents.
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| View from Selborne Road gyratory junction |
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| View at the junction of St Mary's Road and Hoe Street |
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| View down St Mary's Road |
Below is the Civic Society's objection to this development:
Brett McAllister
Development Management
The Magistrates
1
Farnan Avenue
London
E17 4NX
Dear Mr. McAllister,
Application
No: 183632
189-203 Hoe
Street, Walthamstow, London E17 3AP
It is unusual but this application has been well presented
and public consultation has been better than normal but no real effort was made
to engage the community hence only 23 responses.
1.
Construction Issues
a. Neighbouring developments – In the WSP document Outline Construction
Logistics Plan Paragraph 3.2.2 and 3.2.5 refer to neighbouring construction
sites. It is prepared to “assist in the assessment of freight consolidation
opportunities and cumulative impacts of construction operations in the area”.
As a construction company has not been appointed this seems over optimistic!
b. Other sites – If the C&R Town Centre development goes ahead, which is due to
start in 2020, and go on for at least 5 years the Hoe Street area will be
heavily congested with construction traffic. Juniper House is also up for
development and this will create more construction traffic. Currently this part
of the Town Centre has been a building site for at least 2 years waiting for
the gyratory system to be completed and Walthamstow Gateway. No sooner will they
be completed and Central House will start in March 2019 and go on until June
2020. Juniper House will start in 2019 and go on well into 2020. There are
plans to rebuild Walthamstow Central which will also become a building site for
many years. All this means residents of this area will have experienced
building site conditions for 10 years or more. This is unacceptable and makes
Central Walthamstow a very unattractive place.
c. Central House has very
limited access which means St Mary’s Road and Stainforth Road will have to bear
all the construction traffic. Church Hill is limited to 7.5 tonnes so this will
mean increasing the number of lorries to service the site. This area was held
up by the council as a great Mini Holland success. The quieter roads created
will now be the main routes for the construction traffic meaning the Mini
Holland expenditure was a waste of public money.
d. The corner of St Mary’s Road
and Hoe Street is a major pedestrian route to the station so what restrictions
are going to be put in place to protect pedestrians trying to get to the
station?
e. St Mary’s Road is a dead end
with Victorian terraces either side so how is the construction traffic going to
turn around and what plans will be in place to ensure one way traffic to allow
the lorries in and out of Stainforth Road?
2.
Design
According to LBWF Urban
Design Supplementary Planning Document paragraph 5.7.3 states:
In some places within the borough, such as some Victorian or Edwardian
terraced streets, the character is very distinct with strong building ‘rhythms’
and a prevalence of unifying features, materials and detailing. New development
should therefore take these into account in the design response, by seeking to
reflect the prevailing scale,
proportion and detailing of buildings, albeit not necessarily by way of a
pastiche response to context.
How can an 11 storey modern
glass and brick tower block come any way to meeting this requirement? Another
tower block so close to Hoe Street is going to change the whole nature of the
area and overwhelm the existing 2 storey Victorian Terraces in St. Mary’s Road.
This is the road that leads to the historic Walthamstow Village visited by
hundreds of tourists! This cannot be allowed to happen and is contrary to
council policies.
3.
Fire Precautions
a. Grenfell - After the Grenfell disaster it is vital a proper analysis is made of
how the emergency services will access this very restricted site. Until the
Grenfell Inquiry is completed we don’t believe any tower blocks should be built
until it is fully understood why the regulations allowed the Grenfell disaster.
A fire at this very congested point would have a massive impact on the whole
Town Centre and the risk is too great so this development should not be
approved.
b. Fire Safety - It is up to the planners to make sure the design of this building
meets the necessary fire precautions such as a fire lift and sprinkler systems
etc. Plans need to be in place to show how evacuation of the building can be
achieved and how the emergency vehicles can access it and get the necessary water
supplies to fight a fire.,
4.
Transport
a. Victoria Line Congestion - Between Tottenham Hale Station and Walthamstow
Central there are over 5,000 apartments being constructed or in the planning
process. The Victoria Line is already at capacity with trains every minute.
This hotel with no car access is going to create a lot of tube journeys and
will just help to congest the line even further. There is no more capacity in
central Walthamstow for buildings that create additional tube journeys. People
moved to Walthamstow because it was cheap and it was easy to get into central
London. Now the tube is getting dangerously overcrowded before many of the new
properties are completed and TfL have no plans for increasing the capacity of
the line. The council must stand up to the GLA and demand a stop to these
developments as the transport infrastructure cannot cope with the forth coming
demand.
b. Road Network - Hoe Street is often jammed with traffic as it is a major route
through the Borough. This development cannot be accessed from Hoe Street
without blocking the road and the buses. The only access to it is through quiet
residential streets which have been made quieter by Mini Holland. This scheme
cannot be built without destroying the environment of the local residents and
having a significant impact on the people living on the route of the
construction vehicles from the North Circular up Chingford Road into Hoe
Street. Thousands of residents along the route will have their lives disrupted
by all the construction traffic trying to head to the Town Centre for the
various developments that are being proposed. As noted earlier this is going to
go on for over 10 years.
5.
Servicing the Site
a. Construction Traffic - Very severe restrictions will need to be put on
the construction traffic to ensure the Town Centre does not jam up and the
lives of the residents in the surrounding roads is not made a misery. All
construction staff will have to arrive at the site on public transport which
will just congest the buses and tube more. The Planning Committee will need to
see a fully worked up transport plan to show how the construction traffic will
be managed and which streets disrupted.
b. Hotel Traffic - many people arrive at a hotel by taxi as they have luggage to be
carried and it is not clear what route the taxis will take and how many extra
vehicle journeys this will take. They cannot be allowed to drop off in Hoe
Street as that will just add to the existing congestion.
6.
Overshadowing
The Daylight and Sunlight
Study show that over shadowing is an issue but is played down with words like “The
results confirm that the proposed development does not fully comply with the BRE
numerical recommendation.” Why should some residents lose their light just so
that Strettons can fund a new office? This is wrong and further proves a tower
block in this location is not acceptable.
We urge you to reject this plan as it is out of
keeping with the existing low rise Victorian terraces, is too congested a site
and access is only through existing quiet residential streets. This is a bad
scheme for the Town Centre and for the adjacent residents.
Yours
sincerely,
Adrian
Stannard
Planning
Watch
