Category Archives: Cricket Green Conservation Area

The Cricketers pub: Appeal hearing on 15 January – how you can help

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The appeal hearing for the Cricketers pub development will be held at the town hall in Morden on 15 January 2013.

If you want to help us stop the Cricketers pub on London Road from being developed into an overpowering, inappropriate block of flats, now is the time to make your views known. Read on for the story so far and details on how you can help.

The story so far

The appeal hearing will examine two planning appliations from the same developer.

One is a design which the developer calls ‘modern’ but which we think is no different to thousands of other blocks of flats to be seen all over the country. The building is too large and too poorly designed for this sensitive site. This design was turned down by the council and the developer is appealing against that decision.

The other is, in the words of the developer, an ‘idiosyncratic design’ based on ‘fake history’. It is version of what a Victorian pub might look like if it were turned into a block of flats. This design is going to the planning committee on 13 December. Merton council officers have recommended that the planning committee refuse the application. We will report on the decision as soon as we know it.

Part of our objection to this proposal is that with so much real history on Cricket Green, this fake history would look like what it is – a confection with no real meaning. It would undermine and overpower the Vestry Hall , a real Victorian building, and the fire station, built in the 1920s. Both are locally listed.

You can read our objection to the ‘modern’ application here and to the ‘fake history’ application here.

The Wimbledon Guardian ran a story on the ‘fake history’ application last week. Read it here.

How you can help

The best way to get your views across is to send them in via the Planning Inspectorate website. The closing date for making comments on the ‘modern’ design has passed, but you still have time to make comments on the ‘fake history’ design.

The deadline for comments is 28 December – but do it now before you forget!

You can make comments here

Please also make your views known here

It is important to do this twice as there are two applications being appealed – one for planning consent for the new building (this is reference APP/T5720/A/12/2186739 and the other to demolish the existing building in a conservation area (reference APP/T5720/E/12/2186745).

Alternatively, you can write (enclosing three copies of each letter) to The Planning Inspectorate, Room 3/06 Kite Wing, Temple Quay House, 2 The Square, Temple Quay, Bristol BS1 6PN. Please quote the two reference numbers above.

The main points we have made and which you may want to consider in your own comments are that the proposals will significantly damage the character of the conservation area because they:

  • overwhelm the site and compete the with the locally listed Vestry Hall and fire station
  • remove an important community use
  • introduce a design based on “fake history” into an area rich in authentic heritage
  • fail to meet the high design standards required of such an important and sensitive site at the heart of the Conservation Area
  • introduce intrusive new railings and paved areas which have no precedent in the surrounding area
  • introduce a major new source of light pollution into the muted and sensitively lit nightscape of Cricket Green
  • prevent the future of the whole island site, including the fire station and Vestry Hall, being considered together.

Please get in touch if you would like any information or advice on how to make an impact. email us at info@mitchamcricketgreen.org.uk

Our exciting new Heritage Lottery Funded project – Know Your Cricket Green

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We have secured £20,000 funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund for an exciting initiative to raise public awareness and understanding of the historic significance of Mitcham’s Cricket Green through activities which promote the area and encourage local involvement.

Know Your Cricket Green comprises a range of projects. The first projects will take place in Spring 2013 and include cleaning and conservation of the cricket memorial stone and the listed horse trough and milestone. The horse trough will also be relocated to a safer position. This conservation work will be recorded by Mitcham Camera Club. We will produce an audio trail to guide people around the heart of the area and record oral histories based on interviews with local people.

Later in 2013 we will be organising a photographic exhibition of sporting history and introducing a geocache trail through which people will explore the area. We will also provide a Hall of Fame on our website with information and photographs of famous Mitcham residents. There will be activity to raise the profile of Mitcham Cricket Green Community and Heritage in what is our tenth anniversary year; including a membership leaflet, stand at the Mitcham Carnival, display for London Open House, improved website, events, and design of a logo.

We will be working with a wide range of partners, including Mitcham Cricket Club, Mitcham Camera Club, Mitcham Society, Friends of the Canons and the London Borough of Merton. There will be a wide variety of different ways for people to get involved and special training provided for those who want to get involved in the oral histories, audio trail and exhibitions. If you want to know more or get involved then contact us at info@mitchamcricketgreen.org.uk

Is SITA a good neighbour?

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Volunteers recently helped Mitcham Cricket Green Community and Heritage complete a survey of SITA traffic.

Local people have been raising concerns with SITA for a long time about large lorries using the narrow end of Church Road and the tight junction at London Road to access the SITA site.

Yet SITA has done little to encourage vehicles to use the much wider part of Church Road that leads into Colliers Wood and our survey suggests vehicles by far prefer to use the narrow end of Church Road.

Passers by were keen to talk to our volunteers as they did the survey. One volunteer reported:

“A young woman with a push chair told me how frightened she was walking along Church Rd and also crossing Hallowfield Way. “The lorries just come bombing down from Sita”

The local Guardian published an article about our survey and asked SITA for a comment. The response falls well short of the mark, suggesting that SITA takes comments seriously and wants to be  “good neighbour” but refusing to take immediate action.

Read our full survey report.

What can you do?

If you would like to help, or would like to share your own experiences of SITA lorries, please email us at info@mitchamcricketgreen.org.uk

If you see any lorries in the narrow part of Church Road, or any SITA lorries causing problems or displaying bad driving behaviour please let us know by email, telling us the date and time and describing what you saw.

Please send us the registration number of the vehicle if you can, and if you can take a photo with your phone please send us that too. We will alert SITA and keep all incidents on file.

Mitcham town centre regeneration project gathers steam

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We’re excited about new proposals for regenerating Mitcham Town Centre.

Merton council has secured at least £3 million to invest in Mitcham town centre. The focus will be on the Fair Green, with a keen eye on breathing new life into the market, shops and open space as part of the scheme. There is also money to improve roads and transport.

The council is about to start on a major public consultation programme so that local people can influence how the money is spent.

A consultation document will be delivered to the 22,000 homes in the CR4 postcode. Schools, libraries, faith and other groups will also be contacted.

There will be a consultation event on Fair Green on 22, 23 and 24 November.

Visit the Rediscover Mitcham web site today – and watch it for further developments.

We like the Mitcham Maps

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Anyone who finds themselves in central Mitcham with a bit of time to spare could do a lot worse than take a walk with one of the two new Mitcham Maps.

Both maps have a huge number of places of interst on them, and offer a couple of suggested walk as well as letting you simply wander around and learn about the amazing history and heritage of our area.

The maps include existing places and places that have disappeared for ever. The area covered runs from Figges Marsh to Mitcham Common, from Merton Abbey Mills to Mitcham town centre.

You should be able to find printed copies of the maps in various locations such as libraries, or you can download them from the Borough of Merton web site:

Upper Mitcham

Lower Mitcham

The maps have been produced by Volunteers from the Mitcham Society working with the London Borough of Merton

A busy time ahead

At our meeting on 31 July we discussed a number of upcoming planning applications.

18 Commonside West. Currently a bunglaow, an application has been made to demolish this and replace it with three, three story town houses.

The Cricketers Pub. As we had anticipated, a third application for housing on this site is has been made, the previous two having been refused.

The Bank Building London Road. A planning application from last year to increase the size of this building and turn it into flats, which never went to the planning committee, has been revised and the deadline for comments is imminent.

We are working on our represenations to the London Borough of Merton on all three applications.

Members are welcome to submit their views to us at info@mitchamcricketgreen.org.uk. If you would like to become a member, our joining form is here.