| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Dock road car park monolith | |
| Posted by: | Guy Lambert | |
| Date/Time: | 05/07/19 14:01:00 |
| The editor has now posted a statement from the planning department which I asked for. A lot of what is being said here and other local sites is misleading so I asked the head of planning to provide an explanation of what’s really happening and what the issues are from an LBH and GLA point of view. You can see the full statement on the main page. To summarise: • Ballymore have outline planning permission to build a car park with 606 spaces. (from 2015) • They also have outline planning (from 2015) for a temporary car park of 150 spaces. This was required by the council (S106 agreement) to provide support for the High Street during construction. • They have requested that this temp car park be provided within the permanent structure and this is encouraged by the council as a more sustainable approach than building a temp car park then demolishing it. We are also keen to provide parking ASAP as the shortage of parking in the town is an issue for retailers. • Council officers have stipulated, as have the GLA, that, whilst there is no objection to building out the structure of the permanent car park, use of it must be restricted to 150 spaces until more are justified for residential parking as development progresses. Ballymore have agreed to this. • There are two planning applications ‘in the system’ – one to do with providing the 150 temp spaces in the permanent car park, the other dealing with reserved matters (design primarily) of the permanent structure. This has the additional effect of reducing the number of parking spaces from the originally approved 606 to 508. Various people have seen this proposal – Mel Collins and I had a private session on it – and it’s fair to say there is some resistance to the design. However, as I understand it they will not be completing the building at this stage, just the basic structure, which will be clad temporarily with an awning whilst the design is being finalised, also to fit in with their plans to provide the residential and retail elements (and open up additional parking capacity) of this block later. In any event, that proposal will come to Planning Committee in due course and a number of us have made comments asking for the design to be modified – in particular to make it greener. • Also worth adding – access to the car park during the time it is ‘temporary’ will be via Dock Road. When it’s complete access will be from the other end, adjacent to Heidelberg. They have lifted and saved some of the cobbles from Dock Road to allow provision of a ramp to the temporary access. These will be relayed (and where necessary restored) in due course. There is no cause to stop development. On the contrary we are eager for it (and the rest of the development) to proceed. The quantum of this development is well within the original permissions. |