Richard Wilson

Yesterday, Ed Butcher, Lynne Featherstone and I attended a conference on Blackstock Road organised by FinFuture, a local regeneration charity. The aim of the event was to bring together residents, businesses and the three Councils that cover Finsbury park to discuss how the area can be improved.

The Finsbury Park area is held back by the difficulties in getting Haringey, Hackney and Islington to work together and prioritise a place that often feels neglected.  For instance Ed and I have struggled to even get the Boroughs to co-operate on simple things like Christmas lights on Stroud Green Road.  And the Council’s don’t seem to talk to each other on issues like planning applications and events in the Park.

Lynne Featherstone used her speech at the conference to call for residents from all sides to work together to drive change.  She raised the prospect of people using the new Localism Act to create an official cross-borough Area Forum in Finsbury Park.  Residents in Highgate, which is similarly split down the middle, have recently started the process of setting up just such a Forum using the new legal powers.  The Localism Act is a key Lib Dem initiative in Government and Lynne revealed how she’d pushed for cross-boundary forums to be recognised.

The good news from the conference is that Islington, Hackney and Haringey Councils are going to sign some kind of agreement to work together better on Finsbury Park issues.  This is welcome and long overdue step, but there have been lots of fine words on Finsbury Park before, and residents will want to see real action to improve the area resulting from this initiative.

Well done to FinFuture for organising the conference and bringing people together.

Local residents have only a few more days to have their say on new plans for a 5 bedroom house to be built on garden space behind Elyne, Quernmore and Stapleton Hall Roads in the Stroud Green Conservation Area.   Following an earlier botched consultation by the Council where letters went to the wrong addresses, I’ve got the deadline for resident responses extended until this Monday 21 February.

This new application follows a very similar previous application last summer, which was rejected by the Council following scores of objections from local residents and from me.   The planning officers agreed with us that local gardens should be protected, and that the development was too large and intrusive for such a tiny site, and would damage residents’ enjoyment of their gardens (see previous post).

However, these new plans try to get round these objections by sinking the house into a hole to reduce its relative height.   Today, I’ve sent in an objection to the Council, arguing that the proposal is still unacceptable, because of the loss of garden space and because the proposal is still to large, tall and close to the boundary of people’s gardens.  The Council’s reasons for refusing the first application still stand for this second one and I hope that officers will reject these plans again.

To have your say, please comment on the application on the Council’s website.

Great news for residents of Elyne Road, Quernmore Road and Stapleton Hall Road who don’t want a new development at the end of their back gardens:  The Council’s planning department have refused permission for a 5 bedroom house in a green area between these roads.  As I mentioned in previous posts, I’ve been helping residents to object to the proposal that is completely inappropriate for this quiet green space.

The planning department’s judgement is on the Council’s website and it is clear that the 41 objections and the petition did make an impact.  I’m pleased to see the points from my objection and from the Stroud Green Residents Association were included in the report – it shows that determined local action can make a difference.

As the department’s report says, allowing this development would have set a precedent across the Borough that would have allowed garden areas to be broken up and developed.  So these objectors in one corner of Stroud Green have helped to protect gardens across Haringey – Well done!

Yesterday, I submitted an objection to the new ‘backlands’ development proposed for land in-between Elyne Road, Stapleton Hall Road and Quernmore Road in support of local residents.  The plans, which are on the Council’s website, are for a large 5 bedroom house that will completely change the feel of this garden area .

Afte meeting with local residents and visiting the site, I’ve urged the Council to reject the application for a number of reasons:

1. Poor access:  Access to the site is extremely poor with the path down the side of 2 Elyne less than 1 metre wide in places.  This will make construction very difficult and building materials cannot be delivered to the site without causing a great deal of disruption – as they will have to be unloaded onto the street and then carried up the path.
2. Loss of green space and natural habitat:  The gardens between Stapleton Hall Road, Quernmore Road and Elyne Road – with this site at its centre – are an important green space for local residents and for birds and animals.  Building in the middle of the site will badly degrade this green space and destroy the habitat of the animals and birds that residents regularly see in their gardens.
3. This is a greenfield not a brownfield site so building housing here will not help the Council meet its targets for building new homes.
4. Bulk and density:  The proposed dwelling is too large and bulky for the site – taking up a very large proportion of the plot and goes up very close to the borders of neighbouring gardens.  It is therefore an unacceptable increase in the housing density in the area.
5. Loss of amenity for residents:  There must be well over a hundred residents living in homes that back on to the site, who would all have their view from their back windows and gardens affected by this development.  Many of these gardens will also duffer from overlooking from the new dwelling.  There would therefore be an unacceptable loss of amenity from residents who will lose some of the enjoyment of their gardens.

The decision on the application won’t be taken till early September and there are already over 40 objections submitted on the Council’s website.

Yesterday, I investigated the site of a proposed ‘backlands’ development off Elyne Road, which residents who back onto the area are up in arms about. The proposal is to put a large five bedroom house onto the small site just a few meters from the edge of residents’ gardens.  What I hadn’t realised fully until I visited, was just how narrow the access to the site is – less than one metre wide in places, and not enough space for even a wheelbarrow. Residents are concerned this would mean chaos when building materials are delivered to the site.

Last week I attended a Stroud Green Residents Association meeting, where it was clear residents wanted to try to stop the development.  The official deadline for objections is next week, but I’m concerned that the summer holidays mean many people wont get a say.   The site is bound by Elyne, Quernmore and Stapleton Hall Roads, but many people on Quernmore and Stapleton Hall have said they never received any notification from the Council about the planning application.

I’ve written to the Council conveying residents concerns and demanding an extension to the consultation to make sure everyone can have their say.  I’ve also provided them with a list of 13 properties that did not receive any notification from the planning department about the plans.

I can understand why people are so keen to object to this proposal.  I don’t think the site is really suitable for development – and certainly not for a house of this size.  I hope that the consultation period is extended so that all residents can make their views known to the Council.

I’ve been contacted by a number of residents concerned about plans for a 2.2m wall to go most of the way round the large house at the Ferme Park Road end of Lancaster Road.  I am told that this imposing house was built by the man who developed the whole of Lancaster Road, to be his own family home – which is why it is grander and larger than the rest of the houses on the street.

This is one of the most distinctive houses in the Stroud Green Conservation Area, and I agree that hiding it behind a high wall would not be right.  So I put in an objection to the Council’s Planning Department – supporting the concerns that have been raised about the wall.

UPDATE:  I’ve now been told that the application has been completely withdrawn and the wall will not be built.   The owners have told me they understand and sympathise with the concerns about the wall and it won’t be included in any new application which they submit.

At the end of December I was alerted to the fact that there had just been a public exhibition about a huge proposed new development on the Stroud Green Road.  As the image on the left shows the John Jones arts centre plan to put a large 6 storey development on their site.  They are at an informal consultation stage – the formal planning application has not yet been submitted.

The development is on the Islington side of the road, and Haringey don’t seem to have made much effort to get involved in the process.  Councillors such as myself weren’t alerted to the event - which meant I couldn’t advertise it on this website.  So I immeadiately put an email into Haringey Council asking how they were going to ensure that residents on the north side of Stroud Green Road were able to have a say.  This week (5 weeks later) I got a response just directing me to Islington Council’s website and saying no Haringey panning officers had even attended the December consultation event.

Clearly this development would have a major impact on Stroud Green.  Its great to see people wanting to invest in Stroud Green Road, but this proposed building does seem quite tall, given the height of the Victorian terraces surrounding it.  I think everyone should have their say on this development – regardless of which side of the borough boundary they live, and  I will press for wide-scale consultation when the planning application is submitted.