Category Archives: Environment

Shakespeare Road Waste Site – Lambeth’s reply

29/09/2023 letterbox 1 Comment

In response to our message urging the Council to refuse permission to rebuild the waste site in Shakespeare Road, the Councillor responsible for planning has written a detailed and carefully worded explanation (below) which is worth reading in full. My emphases, in bold.

In effect Lambeth needs to allow legal applications for waste sites, and this one cannot be permanently closed without some alternative being made available. But there will be consultations.

Thank you for your email to Cllr Holland regarding the Shakespeare Road site, which I am responding to as Deputy Leader with responsibility for planning policy.

In respect of land use planning matters, the site is one of a number of designated waste sites within Lambeth. These waste sites are safeguarded for waste uses through Lambeth’s Local Plan and are identified in Lambeth’s Policies Map and the Waste Evidence Base.

As required by Lambeth Local Plan policy EN7 (Sustainable waste management), redevelopment of safeguarded waste sites for other uses will only be supported if compensatory waste capacity is provided elsewhere within the borough or if waste capacity is re-provided on-site. This is to ensure that Lambeth is able to continue meeting its waste needs.

As you note in your correspondence, planning permission exists for the redevelopment of the site for residential use . This planning permission was granted on 21st December 2021 for ‘Demolition of existing waste transfer station and re-development of the site to provide a residential development comprising of three blocks ranging from 5 -11 storeys in height to provide 218 residential units (class C3) with associated landscaping’.

This permission was granted subject to a planning obligation requiring the applicant to provide replacement waste capacity elsewhere in the borough, with a potential location being another safeguarded waste site at Windsor Grove in West Norwood, as noted in your correspondence.

Notwithstanding the recent fire damage, the Shakespeare Road site remains a safeguarded waste site in land use planning terms and the obligation referred to above is still binding and runs with the land.
Planning officers have confirmed to me that a number of pre-commencement planning conditions require discharge before works can begin on the Windsor Grove site. At the time of writing no application submissions have been received seeking discharge of these conditions.

I can advise you that there is no right to re-build the premises and the erection of any replacement building at the site would require planning permission. Any such application for planning permission would be assessed against the planning policies of the Council’s Development Plan and other material considerations.

The proposed use of any new building and its environmental impacts would be considered as part of the assessment of a planning application seeking permission for new development. Considerations would include matters relating to air quality, noise, transport and fire safety amongst other matters. The former lawful use and operation of the site for waste transfer would be a material consideration when assessing a planning application.

Importantly, were a planning application to be received, there would be consultation of adjoining and nearby residents and businesses in accordance with statutory requirements and the Council’s Statement of Community Involvement.

Therefore the council, as the Local Planning Authority, would need to consider the acceptability of any proposed development, including any replacement waste transfer facility, by assessing a planning application once submitted, meaning that it is not possible to pre-emptively outrightly prohibit such a use.

I hope that this response is helpful but please don’t hesitate to contact me if there’s anything further I can be of assistance with.

Best regards,

Danny

Councillor Danny Adilypour
Streatham Common & Vale
Deputy Leader for Sustainable Growth and New Homes

Environment, Events, Herne Hill

Shakespeare Road waste site – the future?

16/09/2023 letterbox 3 Comments

There is, I suppose, a theoretical and legal possibility that when the site is cleared and the investigations all completed (which I assume will take at least a couple of years), the operators might claim the right to reopen the site.

I am sure that this would be bitterly opposed by all residents. It scarcely needs to be emphasized, but I have written to the Leader of the council to put in writing the quasi-certainty that this would be incomprehensible to residents. Following is the text of my letter:

“Dear Cllr Claire Holland

I am addressing this message to you in your capacity as Leader of Lambeth Council.

You will of course be very familiar with the serious fire that occurred at the waste services depot on Shakespeare Road earlier this month, and with the worrying smoke and pollution issues that caused alarm to many residents in this part of Lambeth. We have heard much from your colleague Jim Dickson and from our MP, Ms Helen Hayes.

This note however is about the issue going forward. Clearly there is going to be an enquiry about how the fire started, what fire safety measures were in place and whether they functioned properly and why the water supply being used by the London Fire Brigade failed. It will be vital to understand also what the owners and operators of this site have to say about their apparent negligence and inaction.

We understand of course that the Shakespeare Road site is privately owned and operated, but licensed by the Environment Agency. No doubt that Agency will be alerted to this incident and invited to consider their licensing policy in the light of possible negligence on the part of the owners.

I’m sure you will be aware that the incident has reinforced local resentment about the operation of such a site in the middle of a heavily built-up residential area and near some schools. This obviously raises questions about the future of the site.

As you of course know, the Shakespeare Road waste transfer station does have planning permission for residential development, which would be a major improvement, but you will also know that this supposedly can only be implemented once replacement waste capacity has been provided on another site.

We realise that it was the intention of the developer that the replacement capacity should be provided at the Windsor Grove site in West Norwood. Despite powerful and united opposition from the local community in West Norwood, and Lambeth Council’s decision to refuse permission for a waste facility at this site, the Secretary of State shockingly allowed the application on appeal. Meanwhile we understand that there are a number of planning conditions which must be discharged before work can begin on the replacement facility at Windsor Grove, and that this has not yet happened. Possibly the owners can be persuaded to look at a different location, and perhaps to revise their planning application.

Meanwhile you will naturally understand that the hundreds of Lambeth residents who have been affected by this incident will scarcely understand if, following this major incident and all the subsequent enquiries and investigations, the owners are permitted and licensed to simply rebuild the waste operation on the same site, pending the resolution of the planning conditions referred to above. I think it would not be an exaggeration to say that the neighbourhood would be, indeed, outraged if this was allowed to happen, whatever new and improved safeguards and precautions might be offered by the operators.

Of course these are early days: the Council and the Environment Agency have much work to do in the weeks and months ahead.

But I believe I am speaking for many residents in strongly urging the Council not to allow the rebuilding of this waste site on its present location, under any circumstances.

We would all welcome some reassurance from the Council on this point.

I am copying this message to our local Councillors and to Ms Helen Hayes MP.”

Environment

Sydenham Hill Wood under pressure

20/04/2022 letterbox Leave a comment

Yes, it’s not in Herne Hill, and certainly not in Fawnbrake Avenue, but many of us know and treasure Sydenham Hill Wood, and it became a precious haven during successive lockdown periods.

In inevitable consequence, however, the paths and neighbouring areas got heavily trampled, and are now being restored by volunteers. Some vulnerable species have been put under real pressure, and without this vital work, they may not recover.

The wood is a rare remnant of the renowned Great North Wood which stretched in ancient times from beyond Croydon, over the Norwood Ridge (now Crystal Palace) right down to Dulwich and Herne Hill and even to Deptford. It is cared for by the London Wildlife Trust (LWT). The adjoining Dulwich Wood is cared for by the Dulwich Estate, but with support from the LWT.

There is currently an appeal, where public contributions will be matched by larger donors, to raise the money towards the restoration task.

In these tense times there are so many calls on our generosity, but this appeal for Sydenham Hill Wood feels hugely worthwhile. Click here to read about the appeal.

Environment, Herne Hill, John Ruskin, Local History, News, Our People

“Sunset over Herne Hill”

31/10/2021 letterbox 1 Comment

A new and deeply interesting book about John Ruskin and Herne Hill has just been published by the Herne Hill Society (as members of the HHS have just been told).

John Ruskin spent his childhood and most of his working life here in Herne Hill. When he died in 1900 just a year before Queen Victoria – about the same time as many of the houses here on Fawnbrake Avenue were built – he had become one of the most original, controversial and globally influential thinkers and writers of the 19th century.

Despite the cascade of studies and biographies of Ruskin over the last hundred years, this is the first book to look with authority and in depth at the importance of South London in shaping Ruskin’s thinking.

Despite all his foreign travels, public lecturing, the academic posts at Oxford, his work for London’s museums, and those messianic forays into the new industrial regions of England, Herne Hill was the place where Ruskin spent his childhood and most productive years. Here he wrote the increasingly passionate books, articles and speeches that made him nationally and indeed globally celebrated.

It was also from here, and well into his old age, that he studied and pronounced upon his shifting world.

A witness to a degrading environment

Even from his early age a precocious and acute observer of nature, Ruskin loved the then unspoilt hills, skies, rivers and fields of Herne Hill, Dulwich, and Norwood .

But his affectionate memories of this unblemished (but as he discovered, all too fragile) environment also turned out to be a painful benchmark for what developed in later decades. So it was also in Herne Hill, as the years passed, that Ruskin witnessed and described, with increasing horror, the destruction of the natural environment through railway building and uncontrolled suburban growth.

Sunset at Herne Hill through the Smoke of London 1876 (The Ruskin Museum,Coniston)

A prophet of climate change?

As early as 1860, he had written “Whenever I look or travel in England or abroad, I see that men, wherever they can reach, destroy all beauty.” (Modern Painters V). His vivid 1876 watercolour “Sunset at Herne Hill through the Smoke of London”, featuring on the front cover of the new book, is a melancholy and prophetic attempt to illustrate this change

Published by the Herne Hill Society, this important new book by local historians Jon Newman and Laurence Marsh, based on meticulous research, brings sensitive and original insights into the development of Ruskin’s distress about the world and the environment, as he prophesied how manufacturing and hasty urbanisation was damaging society and the climate across England, and especially, from his own bedroom window, in the world metropolis that his native city had become.

“Sunset over Herne Hill” concludes with a rewarding examination of the social and historical context of Herne Hill and Denmark Hill during Ruskin’s lifetime and his family’s place within South London as the 19th century progressed, when London was becoming the most prosperous and populous city in the world, as well as probably the most polluted.

“This illuminating and touching book restores John Ruskin to South London… the authors of ‘Sunset over Herne Hill’ take us back to the neglected roots of the great Victorian romantic’s creativity” – Andrew Saint, Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, general editor of the Survey of London, and author of the newly-published “London 1870-1914: a City at its Zenith”

The book has 160 pages with 80 colour & b/w illustrations, with a map by David Western.

£17.00 (including delivery) by mail order from the Herne Hill Society
or from Herne Hill Books.

Environment, Parks

New Lives for Fallen Branches

21/01/2021 letterbox 2 Comments

Yes, Brockwell Park is bigger and offers perhaps more scenic variety, but Ruskin Park is closer. Those of us who live in this quarter of Herne Hill are doubly blessed.

But Ruskin Park has one (so far) unique detail. The massive fallen branch of the Turkey Oak which looms at the bottom corner of the park near Finsen Road has been granted a new life by the Friends of Ruskin Park, who engaged the artist Morganico to work on it, producing a wealth of carved three-dimensional designs – a whale, squirrel, acorns, oak leaves and even a seat and a recess for your coffee cup (though of course we are not supposed to sit down anywhere in public parks at the moment). Children love it, everyone stops to admire it.

You can read a full article about this project, which also features the artist, in the next issue of Herne Hill magazine hopefully out next month. Covid permitting, those joining the Herne Hill Society now (a mere £10) will be sure of getting a copy delivered to them.

Meanwhile the Brockwell Park urban forest are not far behind.

They too have a great and ancient oak tree, albeit of a different species, which has also lost a significant branch. There are now plans to make that branch, too, come alive with carvings by the same artist – all subject to a host of necessary permissions and approvals of course. Undoubtedly some money is needed.

When complete, this new carved bench will be dedicated to all those we have lost during the pandemic & work towards improving mental health for the local community and all visitors to the park.

There is now a funding campaign to help this project along, which can be seen at GoFundMe.

Environment, Herne Hill, Parks

Festivals in Brockwell Park, Summer 2021 – here we go again

02/12/2020 letterbox Leave a comment

Lambeth Council’s plans to allow music festivals again in Brockwell Park are already well advanced, all subject of course to Covid-19.

At this stage,we have until 8 December to make our views known to Councillors (see below).

Published documents envisage a Summer Event Series 2021 with up to six Large / Major event days taking place over two consecutive weekends, with medium/ small community event days taking place in the weekdays between.

Final decisions will supposedly be made next spring. But the council has naturally been in discussion with the operators already, and appears disposed to grant permission. So, pandemic permitting, the park will again hold a major event organised by Mighty Hoopla plus other events.

Areas blocked off for weeks

The occupation of major parts of the park area would start on Wednesday 26 May (when the contractors begin the build) lasting until Sunday 20 June 2021 when the derig ends. Allow several more weeks for repairing the damage done to the ground and fixtures of the park.

Quite a lot of people

On ‘Major Event Days’, planning will be in place to accommodate 25,000 on site each day. On ‘Large Event Days’ (mid-week community days), planning will be in place to accommodate up to 10,000 on site.

The detailed timetable, and other details, are in a densely worded Lambeth document: see Brockwell Park 2021 summer events

Divisive?

As in previous years, the prospect of such events provokes controversy.

Some people are content to see the park used in ways that brings fun to mainly young people, and some financial benefit to the council and some local businesses. Others are bitterly opposed to offering this public amenity to what are, in effect, fiercely commercial operators whose events can damage the park, create massive noise disturbance, disrupt local streets and prevent local people and visitors having access to and enjoyment of many areas of the Park .

According to a recent Brixton Buzz article, The Friends of Brockwell Park, in particular, are leading the outcry and inviting people to protest to our Councillors by 8 December. We can also send comments direct to Lambeth via events@lambeth.gov.uk

Our Herne Hill Ward Lambeth Councillors’ contact details are as follows:

Cllr Jim Dickson (Labour Party) jdickson@lambeth.gov.uk

Cllr Pauline George (Labour Party) pgeorge@lambeth.gov.uk

Cllr Becca Thackray (Green Party) BThackray@lambeth.gov.uk

Environment, Herne Hill, John Ruskin 200

A view sublime?

23/11/2020 letterbox Leave a comment

Living in Herne Hill brings many advantages and pleasures, not least because we are, er, living on an actual Hill. So we have views.

When John Ruskin and his family lived in their houses near the top of Herne Hill itself, there were more views, because there was so much less housing. Much of the time he found them blissful, but in 1854 the translation of the Crystal Palace from South Kensington to the summit of Sydenham Hill spoilt his view southwards. He described the Crystal Palace as “possessing no more sublimity than a cucumber frame between two chimneys”. (Sublimity was a big thing for him; he was not normally seduced by modernity.) Anyways it’s gone now, burnt down in 1936.

But we have other views, particularly to the south-west, and they show a world city which is still evolving. When we looked in that direction a few years ago, we would have seen the four iconic chimneys of Battersea Power Station. Though they are still there, they are dwarfed and hidden from our view by the gleaming towers of the new South Bank development generally known as Nine Elms.

Nine Elms / Embassy Quarter from Ruskin Park

This 561-acre space between Vauxhall and Battersea is transforming at a pace seldom seen in an established world city, with £15 billion total investment, 20,000 new homes and reportedly 25,000 new jobs. The Northern Line Extension with two stations is scheduled to open in 2021. There will still be the vegetable and flower market, tucked among the skyscrapers and the new US Embassy.

Poor Mr Ruskin would probably have hated it, and many of us would not actually want to live there. But we might be happy to view it from a safe distance, across Ruskin Park. In its own dramatic way, the view is perhaps sublime.

Environment, Our Street

Opting out of council weedkilling – can we do it?

22/07/2020 letterbox Leave a comment

This is the text of a letter from our neighbour Christina Rogers at no 88. Everyone in the street should have received a copy through their door this week.

19th July 2020

Dear Fellow Fawnbrakers,

Do you want to opt out of council weedkilling?

At the moment, Lambeth Council sprays glyphosate weedkiller to keep our pavements and road gutters weed-free. As you may know, over the last few years there have been health and environmental concerns about the weedkiller glyphosate. A US court has awarded large damages in a case of lymphoma in a man who sprayed it professionally. A WHO committee has said it’s ‘probably carcinogenic’. There is evidence of an effect on the soil, the water table, and bees and other pollinators, and several European countries have already banned it. Although it hasn’t yet been banned here, Lambeth plan to stop using it in October next year, and they are trying out a range of alternative ways of keeping the weeds down.

One option would be for us to weed our own road and pavements. If there were enough of us, it wouldn’t take long – all you need is gloves and a knife. According to the council webpage if roots and accumulated soil are removed in Spring it takes longer for weeds to grow back after hand-weeding than after weedkiller, so three times a year would probably be enough.

We already have 16 Fawnbrakers who are interested in helping. The more of us there are the quicker it would be for each person to do.

Tell us what you think

So, if you would like to HELP WITH WEEDING, or OBJECT to opting out of spraying, please contact me on 07952-956-551, or drop a note through the door of number 88. To join the what’s app group please give me your mobile number.

The council deadline for opting out is coming up soon so please respond before 31st July.

Christina Rogers @ no.88

Environment, Herne Hill, Parks

‘Local History in Lock-down’ talks – first one this evening

16/04/2020 letterbox 1 Comment

The small but excellent team at Lambeth Archives have announced a series of on-line talks delivered live via Zoom.

The first one is happening this evening when Jon Newman, one of the two Archives Managers, will talk about “Why Parks Matter”. Scroll down for log-in details.

Jon is a first-rate speaker, writer and historian. He will be telling the story of local campaigns in the 19th century to preserve common lands and to create public parks.

We must all be grateful for the pioneering work of those socially aware and determined campaigners, now that in our crowded city parks and open spaces are even more vital.

Log-in details, as given by Lambeth Archives

Meeting ID: 919 3951 6549. Password: 031172

Otherwise, and perhaps to get a more robust link, email archives@lambeth.gov.uk now for login details

You do not have to have a Zoom account to join these talks. You will be prompted to download the software once you have clicked on the above link. You can also create an account, but it is not essential. If you are a first-time Zoom user, please allow yourself time to do this before the talk starts.

Environment, General, Herne Hill, Parks, Planning, Transport

Onslaught on the twin towers

16/03/2020 letterbox 2 Comments

Plans for the twin tower development proposed for Loughborough Junction, featured in our last post, have been comprehensively rubbished in a formal objection now tabled on behalf of the Herne Hill Society.

The main thrust of the Society’s objection is that a decision to allow the proposed development would go against the Lambeth Plan for new developments, as well as the London Plan and indeed the 2019 National Planning Policy Framework.

This sounds academic, but demonstrating how the proposal is fundamentally inconsistent with the Council’s own planning guidelines makes it very difficult for the Lambeth planners to give it the green light – though of course there’s no guarantee that they won’t find a way to wriggle out of this.

The draft new Lambeth Plan lays down many requirements that new developments must respect, including the principle that the design of a new development must be a response to the good aspects of the local context and historic character in many detailed ways.

The proposal flouts Lambeth’s own standards

As the Society’s magisterial demolition of the proposal states, the architects have signally failed to meet these policy criteria. “Two towers rising to 29 and 20 stories are not a positive or contextual response to the character of the area. On the contrary, they are wilfully antagonistic to the character, creating densely congested structures with an overbearing presence out of any reasonable scale with neighbouring buildings.”

They go on to say: “The rationale of the designs stems solely from the maximisation of housing capacity on a small site, not from any response to local context.”

Rules for tall buildings

There is more. They note that the London Plan and the Lambeth Plan emphasise that tall buildings require excellent design and should be of “exemplary standard”. But as the Society points out, “the towers stand out for their gross incongruity in the local context not for any outstanding design quality or distinct architectural expression.”

They also flag up the proposed towers’ harmful effect on heritage assets, particularly views from Ruskin Park and Brockwell Park where what is proposed is a “markedly intrusive, permanent alteration to views from the park, one that makes no positive contribution to the park and its local context.”

The proposal’s airily dismissed references to potential bottlenecks in public transport (mentioned in our last post) are also painfully exposed and politely savaged in the Society’s response.

There is more: it’s well worth a read, and shows the importance of having a strong local Society, supported by experts who know their stuff. The upshot is that their demolition of the tower development proposal, while elegantly written, is comprehensive and enough to make its architects blush. (Don’t count on it.)

Read it all

The full text of the Objection can be read in a PDF found via a new page on the Herne Hill Society’s website, through this link.

Fawnbrake News