An Open Email From Friends of Putney Common

Dear Putney Resident,

Friends of Putney Common – who are we?
This email is sent by an informal group of Putney residents called “Friends of Putney Common”. We came together in 2012 to protect Putney Common from inappropriate development by the Council. We have had some success in delaying their plans to build on the site of Putney Hospital both by using the legal system but also by encouraging the 800+ residents and local amenity societies who objected during the first round of consultations. As a result the planning permission granted by the Council in October 2012 was quashed in the High Court because they had not supplied a valid Environmental Impact Assessment. A Judicial Review is also being held in the High Court on the 9/10 October to decide if the Conservators can sell rights to the Council to build private roads on the Common. But the Council is taking no notice.

Why do residents now need to object again?
During this summer the Council added some revised reports about the application and also announced that they would “re-determine” the application by taking it to a Planning Application Committee (PAC) later this year. The first PAC available would be the one being held on the 7 November. However before they could do that it was necessary for them to consider whether an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) would be needed. On the 16 September they published a ‘screening opinion’ that declared that such an EIA would not be necessary, because they claim the environmental impact of the 420-pupil school and 28 flats on traffic, parking, pollution etc would be no worse than when the hospital closed some 15 years ago! They have therefore just opened a 21-day consultation period to allow residents to comment. They have not listened to a word residents have said.

Despite the many criticisms from residents and others – including the Putney Society, All Saints School, Friends of Putney Common, the London Borough of Richmond and many others – they have made no changes to the plans at all. The development still requires the construction of private roads across Putney Common, as well as the urbanising of Putney Lower Common with paths, bollards, street lighting and mounds where there were none before.

The first application was invalid, the second quashed by the High Court both due to action taken by FofPC. The High Court Judicial Review will be held on 9 - 10 October to consider whether the Conservators are acting lawfully in selling the access. The Council is still taking no notice.

How can you help?
To help protect Putney Common please object to the planning application before the 17 October, even if you did so last year. We have listed below some key points that you might like to use when you post an objection. Just paste these from this email into the online form on the Council’s planning portal – this can be reached simply by clicking on this link bit.ly/putney_hospital_objection or by pasting these objections into an email sent to the Council’s Planning Case Officer: RosalynnClaxton@wandsworth.gov.uk.

You will need to quote the following reference: Objection to planning application 2012/0758 for Putney Hospital.

I/we object to the Council’s plans for Putney Hospital (2012/0758) for the following reasons:

o Any proposed development must stay within the Putney Hospital site and not include building private roads on Putney Common protected by the 1871 Act. Sixty per cent of the area covered by the application is metropolitan open land which should not be enclosed and built on.
o The Screening Opinion by the Council confirming an Environmental Impact Assessment is not necessary is fundamentally flawed, by comparing the proposal to a working hospital which closed in 1998.
o The size of the school and flats is out of scale with the constricted site, and a roof-top playground is unacceptable.
o Traffic on the Lower Richmond Road during rush hour will be severely impacted – the new traffic assessment report underestimates the impact of the development. There will be severe impacts on local parking. The road is already unsafe and it will become more so, particularly if over 420 primary school children and their families are expected to travel and from school every day.


Yours sincerely,
Nicholas Evans
Spokesman for Friends of Putney Common
info@friendsofputneycommon.org

Friends of Putney Common


Friends of Putney Common (FoPC) has been formed by residents to protect the site of Putney Hospital from inappropriate development.


October 4, 2013