| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Tower Blocks on Chiswick High Road | |
| Posted by: | Elizabeth Ross | |
| Date/Time: | 15/10/14 20:15:00 |
| It is best to make sure you are well informed on this before coming to any decision. The CHRAG (Chiswick High Road Action Group) website has posted drawings and a summary and a survey, you will also find it on Facebook and Twitter. The 'tower' will be taller and have 'bolt on' balconies and the 'wings on either side will also be higher and slightly set back. The apartments are for sale to the 'higher' end of the market and that, in itself, suggests they will be bought for investment purposes which is just what has happened to the development on the old VW site at St. Peter's Square. Personally, I welcome redevelopment of this area as does almost everyone I speak to but certainly find I am most unhappy with what is proposed. It is over heavy, dominant and unattractive and will do nothing to enhance the conservation area in which it sits and also the Grade 11 listed pub beside it. To my mind, the real horrors come with the development just behind. Go to the street market area in front of Sainsbury and as you approach the entrance take the small road on the left. The proposal is to build blocks of flats 8 and 7 storeys high and then 4 'townhouses on the western end with their front doors right on the road. The drawings show that the developers propose to narrow and landscape this road but until you look at what is already there you realise that this will just not work. All the shops from Valentina to the east have rear loading bays and parking areas and what is proposed will be insufficient for two way traffic let alone the happy picture of cyclists and pedestrians using the same space as shown on the idealised drawings. There will be very limited parking associated with 137 dwellings (in fact almost none at all). Then there is a building to go up on the car parking area beside the mini roundabout on the west entrance to the Sainsbury Car Park. It has absolutely no architectural merits and whilst the words 'affordable' housing are being tossed about, there is nothing definite and should the Council Planners try to enforce it, it could be that they say it is not economic to provide such housing as has happened on the redevelopment these developers are undertaking at The Elephant and Castle. This is neither fair nor right and we must make every effort to ensure that Chiswick remains a village for all levels of society and not just for the elite. Please make an effort to acquaint yourselves with what is proposed, complete the survey that CHRAG are putting out to ascertain the views of the Chiswick residents - Lend Lease (the property developers) that they received overwhelming support for their proposals - for redevelopment yes but not for what they are proposing to put in the place of the current building and the additions behind it. |