Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:32-storey tower at Chiswick roundabout | |
Posted by: | Una Hodgkins | |
Date/Time: | 04/01/16 14:39:00 |
There are specialist planning consultants in the private sector who can help. The Hammersmith group employed Alsop Verrill (Malcom Alsop - http://www.alsopverrill.co.uk/community-planning-consultants.asp and http://www.alsopverrill.co.uk/king-street-regeneration.asp) to identify the issues which might be challenged legally. They were very helpful at all stages: we negotiated at the beginning what work we wanted them to do and who in AV would do it. They are planning law experts. They considered those which were relevant and they produced a report which pinpointed significant weaknesses in the application, especially in the "verified views", which are precisely defined to protect the setting of listed buildings and listed views. AV are town planners and development consultants who act for both sides in different applications, so they are clued up. The report for "Save Our Skyline" cost about £8-10K which we raised by appeal. Their expertise was worth it because the original proposal for Hammersmith Town Hall was very objectionable: it would have buried the Town Hall in the middle of high-rise blocks, slap bang in the middle of the Lower Mall/Furnivall Gardens/Upper Mall strand development; and it destroyed specialist social housing for blind people. We picked our fight with an extreme and philistine administration then in power in the local authority. |