LBWF Families and Homes Hub - Update 3

Families and Homes Hub

Architects Haworth and Tompkins

Previous Updates

Last night (8th Oct 2020) the second online consultation was held by LBWF reporting back on the previous consultation. The design has been changed dramatically as a result of resident's views. The previous design was a single 9 storey building with 65 flats with the Hub on the ground floor. 

The site is adjacent to Woodside School and a whole generation of children will be impacted dramatically by the noise and pollution during the construction. Future generations will always be overlooked by the tower block. This is just not acceptable. As a sop to residents they propose to set up a monitoring group to control the site. That will not stop the disturbance of the children's education! 

They were unable to say how the site will be accessed during the construction phase saying that was a matter for the Planning Application. That may well be the process, but in this case, as the site is totally inaccessible by construction vehicles, that is not acceptable. There is no access to the site so all site equipment has to be dropped off and housed on either Wood Street or Forest Road. This would mean a lane being taken out blocking the road to the current heavy traffic. Their solution is to Mini Hollandise the junction to reduce the traffic, but as both roads are vital arteries for traffic that is nonsense, and will the work be completed NOW as demolition has already started! It was also pointed out Tesco can now no longer deliver to its store by parking adjacent to the store, but has to park some distance away to get its deliveries.

Over 800 people descend on the site at the start of and end of the school day. It is mayhem, especially at the moment when Covid restrictions are in place. It is also very dangerous as there is a lot of traffic in both roads so the last thing parents need is to find a construction site making their lives even harder.

The changes are as follows:

1. There will be 2 buildings. A 2 storey building adjacent to Foundery Mews to house the Hub and a thinner 11 storey tower block for 67 flats. This is to meet the complaints from residents of Foundery Mews who objected to being so close to the tower block as the roof terrace on the 1st floor would have overlooked their flats.

2. The garden will now be on the ground floor.

3. As the tower will be narrower there will be less flats per floor.

4. When questioned about overlooking the school we were told the windows would be narrower on the school side and only the flats on the 1st floor would be able to see into the windows of the school! The higher flats will see over the school. It will be interesting to see the evidence for this conclusion!

5. Demolition has started and is expected to finish in March 2021. A resident's group is being set up to monitor the noise and pollution.

6. There will be a layby in Wood Street to enable deliveries once the building is completed. This will narrow the pavement adjacent to the school which is creating a risk for the children using this part of the pavement.

7. They tried to convince people it would be a beautiful building as the ground floor would be stone clad re-using the stone from the existing building, brick on the middle floors and fluted detail on the upper floors. 

8. For reasons they did not explain the plans have to be approved by the GLA - why? So if you don't want to see this terrible plan implemented object to Mayor Khan.

9. There had ben rumours on Social Media that the Youth Offending service would be using the building. They made it clear a new facility for the Youth Offending service was planned for the "south of the Borough" but no detail was given. It then became apparent Youth Offenders might have to attend the Hub on occasion and those attending the meeting expressed their very real concerns of having Youth Offenders coming to an area with 2 adjacent schools. 

It looks like a back lash from the community is beginning to build!

Response from the council about the construction traffic access:

Logistics Plan

Dear Mr Stannard,
I respond to your email of 9th December to Stewart Murray, below.

I can advise that the Council’s project team and the demolition contractor have had discussions with the school to enshrine safe working and negotiate operating hours on the site. We have in place arrangements to ensure that no works are allowed to proceed until 9am every day and there are no demolition vehicle movements allowed after 2.30pm to allow for safe access and egress to the school. We are happy to report that the arrangements are working well. In addition to this no works are allowed during weekends or Public Holidays. We have also negotiated two periods of quiet working each day to alleviate any potential noise impact on all neighbours and between the hours of 10.30am to 11.30am and 2pm to 3pm, no noisy works take place.

The area where the skip is located is regularly swept and kept free of debris and it is coned off at 8.30am every working day, with the cones being cleared at the end of the day.

The location of the skip, is not on the footpath of Wood Street but within the land of the old Wood Street Library. The skip is being loaded as you identified, with non-hazardous contents being cleared from within the building. Once demolition works begin, the movement, management and loading of materials arising will all take place behind hoarding and the skip will be removed on or before 23rd November.

In order for the demolition to proceed it is a requirement that a detailed construction logistics plan (CLP) be in place. Amongst other things, this sets out arrangements to ensure safe working, including vehicle movements and accessing of the site. The key objectives of the document are to ensure that the safest working practices are undertaken and to manage the safe movement of construction vehicles around the Wood Street and Forest Road junction. The CLP must be approved (it has been) and it is a live document with mitigation measures and methods updated and changed as required.

The current CLP identifies that a hoarding will be erected around the area where the skip is currently located and plans for this to be installed are being concluded now. We have allowed additional time for the erection of this hoarding in order to minimise the impact on the footpath at Wood Street, next to the school. I can advise you that preparations are underway, for the hoarding to be erected during the Christmas school holidays and we can assure you that there will be no demolition vehicle movements on site, until the hoarding has been erected.

To summarise, the works are being undertaken in a carefully considered, safe and supervised manner. There are no agreements in place with highways to close any part of the road on Wood Street or Forest Road. The detailed construction logistics plan is a public document, developed in conjunction with Highways and approved by the local planning authority, it can be accessed on the Waltham Forest Planning portal here: https://planning.walthamforest.gov.uk/application-search#VIEW?RefType=APPPlanCase&KeyText=203451
This document details the solution to access, egress and vehicle movements, to allow for the demolition to proceed safely and with the minimal impact possible to neighbours and the public.


Kind regards,
Laura Glasgow
Senior Project Manager

 

Original Plan