Author Archives: mitchamcricketgreen

A busy week in planning

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It’s been a busy week for us in terms of planning applications and we have submitted three documents to Merton Council.

Sites and policies plan

The sites and policies plan is an extremely important document. It contains all Merton’s planning policies that will be used in the assessment of planning applications in the borough once it has been adopted. It also identifies sites for redevelopment between 2014 and 2024.

The plan has been available for public comment and a final draft will be produced and submitted to the Secretary of State for scrutiny by the end of September. in December there will be a public hearing by a planning inspector to examine the plans. The inspector will report in early 2014 with the final version being adopted by the council and put into general use some time during next year.

You can see the document for yourself and register to be kept informed of meeting dates at Merton Council’s web site here.

You can read our comments here.

18 Commonside West

You may recall that a plan to demolish a bungalow on Commonside West and replace it with houses was turned down by the Council.

The developers returned with a new proposal and while we did not object in principle we found some aspects, including having balconies on the front of the houses, unacceptable.

Balconies easily and understandably become full of ‘clutter’ which could negatively affect the views of this important strand of homes in the Cricket Green Conservation Area from across Three Kings Piece.

The developers have revised their plans and made adjustments to the balconies. You can read our comments on the revised plans here.

Mcmillan Williams, 8 & 10 Cricket Green

We were shocked and surprised when Mcmillan Williams Solicitors on Cricket Green tore the original (1830s) windows out of their locally listed offices facing onto Cricket Green without having applied for permission to do so. The windows were replaced with modern windows totally out of keeping with the building.

We contacted the Enforcement Officer at Merton Council, and Mcmillan Williams Solicitors has applied for planning permission to replace the windows it recently put in with new ones restoring them to a faithful replication of the original.

You can read our comments on their application here.

Cricket pavilion open, guided walk and six a side competiton celebrating Open House London, 21 September

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We are delighted to be opening the Cricket Pavilion for this year’s Open House London weekend on 21 September.

Please join us at the cricket pavilion on Mitcham Cricket Green.

  • Free access to the 1904 cricket pavilion with its stunning views across the cricket green and great collection of local cricketing memorabilia
  • Special display about the cricketers listed on the Ruff Memorial Stone
  • Refreshments. Take tea on the balcony and soak up the atmosphere
  • A six a side cricket competition between multi-age sides from Mitcham Cricket Club starting at 11am and going on all day
  • A free guided walk around the Cricket Green area starting at 11:30am

The cricket pavilion will be open from 10:00am to 5:00pm.

Full details including how to get there are on our poster.

 

Council plans floodlit sports pitches at Canons

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Merton Council has shocked people with crude and damaging plans to construct floodlit sports pitches in local woodland and on the site of former tennis courts in the heart of the conservation area.

The development contradicts the Council’s own planning policies to protect wildlife, avoid light pollution and care for local heritage.

Mitcham Cricket Green Community and Heritage has campaigned for the old tennis courts in the grounds of the Canons to be brought back to life.

One of our objectives is to encourage recreation and this community facility has stood idle and wasted for years. Now it faces the prospect of being lost forever as Merton Council has plans to develop two “multi use games areas” and floodlight them till 9.30pm every day and all year round.

Eight towering floodlights will be erected and a swathe of woodland will be lost from the nearby and much loved copse.

The Council’s own reports show that such development can have a devastating impact on the local bat population. The light pollution will also have a highly damaging and urbanising impact at the heart of the Conservation Area. The grounds of the Canons are valued for their sensitive lighting and quality of the night time landscape. This was recognised in the development of the Cricket Green Charter and is enhanced by the Council’s own policy deliberately to provide subdued lighting in the area.

All this will go.

The planning application even fails to provide any guarantees that the new facilities will be available for use by the local community.

With underused facilities already available nearby at the KNK Stadium and Cranmer School it is no surprise that a Council study of sports pitches concluded that provision in Mitcham is “significantly better” than elsewhere in the Borough.

There is no excuse for such a devastating development.

We are asking Merton Council to think again and return with plans to restore the old tennis courts for use in daylight hours by local people. We are even offering to help with the fundraising.

Read our full views on the plans for floodlit sports pitches at the Canons.

If you agree, let Merton Council know your views – the information is at Merton’s web site here, and you can submit your views online here.

Mitcham Cricket Green hits cinema screens nationwide

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Earlier this year there were film crews around Mitcham Cricket Green, based at Brook House. The crew was working on a new Alan Partridge movie.

That movie, Alpha Papa, opens in cinemas on August 7th.

The movie features Steve Coogan, of course, but also a host of other big names including Colm Meaney, Sean Pertwee and Anna Maxwell Martin.

For locals, none of the movie names may matter all that much. For us it will be the sight of Cricket Green and its surroundings on the big screen that make the movie worth going to see.

And if the trailer is anything to go by, there will be plenty of Cricket Green on show. Watch it for some glimpses of the very, very familiar.

Glebe Court added to Mitcham Cricket Green Conservation Area

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We are delighted that Glebe Court has been formally added to the Mitcham Cricket Green Conservation Area.

We’ve long lobbied for these iconic 1930s flats to be included.

A redrawn Conservation Area is part of the Cricket Green Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan, a document that describes the features of the Conservation Area in exquisite detail, breaking it down into a number of ‘Character Areas’ whose special feature are described.

The Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan is also a piece of council policy that can be taken into account in planning and other decisions that affect the area. It includes a Management Plan which makes recommendations for future work to improve the Conservation Area.

The Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan was formally adopted by a Council Cabinet meeting on 1 July. The final version of the document is not yet available, though the draft presented to Cabinet can be viewed here.

Anyone with an interest in the Cricket Green Conservation Area will find it very interesting. As well as being full of information, it contains some excellent photographs.

Why we are against bringing buses into Fair Green

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We are in the middle of the second phase of the Rediscover Mitcham consultation.

Merton Council is asking people what they think of a whole raft of possible changes to the Fair Green area. A consultation document has been sent to all 22,000 homes in the CR4 postcode.

We welcome the activity we’ve seen so far to help regenerate Mitcham town centre. In particular we are very positive about efforts to reinvigorate the market and support shops and other local businesses that’s happening through the OneMitcham project. Visit OneMitcham on the web and on Facebook to learn more about what the project is doing.

However we have major concerns about one of central proposals that Merton Council seems very keen to push through as part of its plans.

The Council wants to build a road dedicated to buses (and usable by cyclists) through the centre of Fair Green. It says this will mean 5,000 to 6,000 extra pedestrian trips per day will be made into the Fair Green area.

We have done some research on these figures. Among the things we’ve discovered are:

  • The figures are in most cases four years old
  • The figures include both people boarding and leaving buses with more than half leaving Mitcham by bus. We wonder how much this  can really be claimed as ‘extra’ pedestrian trips

Please read our full report on the Mitcham Buses proposal.

We don’t doubt that Fair Green needs people visiting it in order to help it be more successful. But we think improving the range of shops and market stalls, and enhancing the open, car free aspect of Fair Green is the way forward.

We’ve heard plenty of people say Fair Green will be much less pleasant with a road through it, and very few have told us they want a bus street. Add to that the fact that we don’t think the figures stack up, and we can’t support the idea. 

We support the Mitcham Society’s campaign against the buses.

You might like to read a leaflet the Mitcham Society produced in April when the first Rediscover Mitcham consultation was taking place. In it the Mitcham Society  explains that the road would bring up to 90 buses an hour into the Fair Green and that its own survey of local businesses showed a massive 80 percent were against the idea.

You might like to go to the Council web site to see the Rediscover Mitcham consultation document and complete the survey so that your view gets counted.