Kwik Fit redevelopment unfit for Conservation Area

A new developer has put in plans to redevelop the former Kwik Fit site.

This has lain empty for years now and we are keen to see it developed in a way that respects its location at the gateway to the Conservation Area and in key views from the historic cricket ground and listed Burn Bullock.

Merton Council gave permission for 22 flats in 2016 for a shockingly poor development that led us to call for the site’s removal from the Conservation Area. With a new owner the site provides an opportunity for a flagship building of a standard which could be listed within 30 years.

The new application falls woefully short of this potential.

Its five storeys will overwhelm surrounding buildings and intrude on existing homes in Broadway Gardens and Highfield Court. The building will be a significant imposition on the key view from Mitcham cricket ground and damage its setting and that of the Grade II listed Burn Bullock by virtue of its scale and the poor quality elevation facing London Road.

In direct conflict with planning policy none of the 24 flats will be affordable. The developer backs this decision with reports claiming the scheme wouldn’t be viable. We have asked Merton Council to subject these to independent review.

The development includes over 400 sq m on the ground floor for retail or commercial use. This is welcome. The developer says it is in in talks with the Co-op. Similar talks with the same supermarket fell through over the road at Justin Plaza when this was converted from offices to flats. As a result we ended up with more flats on the ground floor. We have asked Merton Council to ensure the ground floor is put to good use before any flats are sold if the development does get permission.

The development has come forward at the same time as plans for 19 flats and around half the area of retail or office space on the ground floor on the car wash site across Broadway Gardens.  Taken together the plans will means Broadway Gardens residents being forced to pass through a canyon of new building to get to their homes and an excessively high wall of new development along a major stretch London Road just where it enters the Conservation Area.

These are both sites where development is needed and we are disappointed to find ourselves once again having to object to what is proposed. A high quality development of three to four storeys with shops on the ground floor to fill this gap in London Road would be very suitable.

Neither developer has engaged the local community before submitting their plans. We are asking for better for both sites and the opportunity for local people to shape what is going to happen to their neighbourhood.

Read our comments on plans for the former KwikFit site Development of KwikFit site – January 2020

Read our blog and comments on the car wash site 

Merton’s “Green Belt” at risk on Imperial Fields

2020 has barely begun, and is already looking like a watershed year for the local area with a record number of live planning applications for blocks of flats to be developed across the neighbourhood.

These include plans for 77 flats in a six storey development on Imperial Fields along Bishopsford Road. This is on the Sutton boundary and would involve the development of one of Merton’s most protected areas of green land.

Merton is one of the greenest boroughs in London due in large part to the designation of large areas of green space as Metropolitan Open Land. This has the same level of protection as Green Belt. It cannot be developed unless “very special circumstances” can be demonstrated and it receives the “strongest protection” in the London Plan. Metropolitan Open Land is also protected in Merton’s Local Plan.

The Imperial Fields scheme is promoted by the owner of The Hub on the grounds that it will support investment in sports and community facilities on the site.

We welcome the community offer provided by The Hub but on closer inspection the plans fall well short of meeting the test of “very special circumstances”.

Contrary to claims that “we are not a commercial company” the applicant, Tooting and Mitcham Leisure Ltd is a private company limited by shares controlled by and dependent on a £1m + loan from a property developer. It is not a charity and the planning application lacks legal guarantees that investment on The Hub’s facilities will follow.

It is also apparent that the new development could generate funds for only a small part of the investment needed at The Hub. Given their community emphasis we are also disappointed that the applicant did not engage local people in the plans before they were submitted.

The development itself will be very intrusive for the surrounding open land which forms part of the important green corridor along the Wandle Valley and includes Poulter Park. The design lacks distinction and ignores the character of other buildings in the local area. The plans also introduce a large area of surface car parking on what is currently green space.

We are pleased that Sutton Council has registered objections and have alerted Mayor Khan to the plans.

Read our views in full Imperial Fields – January 2020

Our call for Merton Council to up its game on community engagement

Merton Council is reviewing its official “Statement of Community Involvement”.

This is an important document which sets out the approach Merton Council takes to involving local people and organisations in development and planning issues.

We’ve welcomed the long overdue review which will replace a 13 year old document that does not meet today’s expectations for deeper and earlier community engagement in planning decisions. 

We are calling for a step change in Merton Council’s approach which, in our experience, rarely exceeds legal compliance and sometimes even falls short of this. This discourages community engagement, frustrates those who do engage, and ultimately results in less well informed and poorer planning outcomes.

We have identified an array of current problems and inconsistencies in Merton Council practice.

These range from squeezing the time available for the public to speak at Planning Committee to a quality of online public access to planning documents that falls well short of other local authorities. 

Merton Council allows significant changes to planning applications to be made without publicity, blocks resident representations on planning applications appearing online and often provides inadequate summaries of public views in reports presented to councillors.

It also fails to make good use of design tools which can involve people in setting local expectations, such as masterplanning and design codes. We are clear in our reponse that we expect prospective developers to be put in touch with local community groups before they submit planning applications.

Merton Council’s draft Statement of Community Involvement states that “Merton’s local communities are those that are most likely affected by development in their local area and more importantly, know the most about their neighbourhood and how they would like it to grow and be shaped for the future.”

These are fine words. We are asking for changes to make the effective engagement of Merton’s local communities a reality.

Read our submission to Merton Council’s draft Statement of Community Involvement –Statement of Community Involvement – Dec 19

Merton’s Climate Action Plan – our submission

Merton Council is one of hundreds of public bodies that have now declared a Climate Emergency.

We commend its cross party declaration back in July 2019 and the commitment to producing a Climate Action Plan.

Cricket Green’s role in helping tackle the Climate Emergency was an issue raised during our own local discussions in producing the Cricket Green Charter. We have now developed this thinking into a submission to Merton Council.

We believe there is much that can be done that is already in the gift of Merton Council to deliver.

This includes much stronger planning policies, action to tackle excess parking and idling traffic, better walking routes and a major programme for planting new trees, hedges and shrubs throughout the area. Cricket Green’s rich network of green spaces provide important carbon sinks that could perform even better if they were managed properly in ways that reduce mowing and encourage wild areas. Merton Council and its contractors should also be using zero emission vehicles and equipment. Zero emission buses should also be the norm, starting with all routes running through Fair Green.

In addressing the Climate Emergency we urge Merton Council also to ensure any measures respect the historic environment of Mitcham Cricket Green Conservation Area and its environs. We see a close alignment between measures for tackling the Climate Emergency and those that protect the historic and natural environment. It is imperative to securing continuing wide public support for climate action that this is not seen to cause harm to other aspects of the environment which local people care about.

Read our submission on Merton’s Climate Action Plan Tackling the Climate Emergency – Dec 19

Cold water for plans to develop car wash site

Plans to develop a five storey block of flats have been put forward for the car wash site on London Road at the junction with Broadway Gardens.

The development includes 19 flats and makes provision for retail or office use at street level, including a hot food take away.

The car wash is in a sensitive location right on the edge of the Conservation Area, opposite the Grade II listed Burn Bullock and in view of the historic cricket ground.

We support residential development on the site and have put it forward for inclusion in Merton Council’s new Local Plan. We are keen for the ground floor to be used to extend the existing retail parade and for any new building to respect the height of the existing buildings along London Road.

Unfortunately, the developers have come forward with a scheme almost as high as that permitted for the former Kwik Fit site on the other side of Broadway Gardens.

Their own drawings show just how out of keeping this will be, especially when combined with whatever eventually gets developed on the Kwik Fit site.

The design approach is every day and ubiquitous. It fails to respond to to the rich character of the surrounding neighbourhood and the upper two floors in particular are poorly executed, with intrusive balconies, poor use of materials and an incongruous white colour which cannot be found elsewhere in the area.

The development will also overlook existing houses in Broadway Gardens and makes no provision for any parking. It even tries to avoid putting any affordable housing on site and proposes giving Merton Council a meagre £120,000 to provide this elsewhere.

The planned hot food take away is also controversial. There are already three nearby and Mayor Khan’s new London Plan is clear that no hot food take aways should be permitted within 400m of a school. The car wash is just 210m from Saints Peter and Paul Primary School.

Once again we find ourselves having to object to a poorly designed and overly large development brought forward without any effort to talk to the local community. We look forward to an opportunity to work with the owners to help design a sensitive development for this site.

Read our full response – 370-374 London Road – Dec 19

Red light for old fire station hoardings

The new owner of the old fire station has submitted a planning application for hoardings to be erected for a year while they sort out what is going to happen with the now empty building.

As anyone walking round the area will know there are already hoardings on the site which have been erected without permission.

We are strongly objecting to the plans.

They enclose a large area of land in front of the old fire station which has nothing to do with providing security for an empty building.

The effect will be to block views across Lower Green West, damage the special setting of the listed war memorial and impinge on the surroundings of the locally listed fire station and Vestry Hall.

Remarkably, the area proposed for the hoardings is all owned by Merton Council and not the applicants.

We have asked our local councillors to ensure that, as responsible landowners, Merton Council puts a halt to such unnecessary and damaging proposals even before a decision is made on the planning application.

Read our representations – Fire station hoardings – Dec 19

Find out what we have said about plans for the fire station itself – Old Mitcham fire station plans a non-starter

See how we wanted to transform the old fire station – Mitcham’s cultural revolution