Subject: Subject: URGENT Land East of Montford Place, Lambeth SE11 5DE. Ref 20/01086/FUL
To: <Florence.Eshalomi@london.gov.
Florence Eshalomi MP - Assembly Member
Dear Florence
Re: URGENT Land East of Montford Place, Lambeth SE11 5DE. Ref 20/01086/FUL
We met when you joined us for the Tree of Hope Lighting ceremony in November 2019 at Kennington Cross, bringing your children with you
I’ve also tried to reach out to you as our MP since; however, you have been too busy to respond
I write to you now, in some desperation, as our GLA Representative asking for your support as we oppose another very large and damaging development here in Kennington. I was encouraged by your words in the House last October. We need you now to follow through and take action to do something about this problem
I have sent the below letter to Mayor Khan, and ask that you do stand up to represent your constituents. Please ensure that he is made fully aware of all the public objections made, the expert reports commissioned and that he questions how the Officers reached their decisions in the face of all these. The reasoning that 'on balance it's fine' is extremely difficult to understand when you actually look at the evidence. For 90% of local residents - both current and future - it is not fine. Is this the legacy that you and Mr Khan want to your names?
We are threatened with high rise developments surrounding us that fill me with foreboding. Kennington Lane and Montford Place will be turned into darkened 'canyons'.
Will you please use all avenues available to encourage the Mayor to reject this application in favour of a more suitable proposal that is in keeping with the area, that is less damaging to light and heritage, and provides good quality housing?
Yours sincerely
Cathy Preece
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2021 at 13:00
Subject: URGENT Land East of Montford Place, Lambeth SE11 5DE. Ref 20/01086/FUL
To: <mayor@london.gov.uk>
Dear Mayor Khan
The above application is being referred to your office. I write to ask you to understand how damaging it would be to the local area, and also the poor standard of housing it would provide. I urge you to exercise your powers to direct a rejection of this application and the bringing forward of a more suitable proposal.
I have lived in Kennington since 1986 and the main living room of my basement flat faces this site, as does the kitchen. If this development goes ahead, I stand to lose over 50% of the daylight to my living room and over 60% of the light to my kitchen. I would lose over 50% of my annual sunlight with the loss being 100% during the winter, when it is most important to receive light.
Please consider how you would like an enormous 11-storey building in front of your living room, blocking the only source of daylight. The impact is classified as ‘major adverse’ on my dwelling, and on many others in Kennington Lane, Imperial Court, and in the flats being built across Montford Place at Tesco Kennington.
The building on this site before it was cleared was nowhere near as tall as the one now proposed. I am no fan of living next to a derelict site and wish to see the site suitably and responsibly developed. But the applicant, TfL and Grainger, has totally lost sight of the bigger picture and is only concerned with cramming the maximum number of units on to the site, no matter the cost to surrounding buildings and how bad the standard of the dwellings in the development itself. A reasonable and sustainable development, lower in height and scale, could provide business space with flats above, a proportion of which could be affordable, and the flats could either be rented or sold off in a normal manner. This would avoid the damage that this scheme does to neighbouring properties and provide a much better standard of housing on the site itself.
I am already made unwell by the narrow vote of the Lambeth Planning Committee to Approve this proposed development; this after months of exhaustion trying to get the local community’s concerns taken into account to avoid things reaching this dreadful and frightening stage. The prospect already has me struggling to eat and sleep, so that my wellbeing is at risk, even before any works start.
I suffer from an enduring lifelong mental health condition named Recurrent Depressive Disorder, diagnosed after I was sectioned and hospitalised for four months in 2000, and receive Benefits, including Pension Credit (Guarantee Credit) and Personal Independence Payment. Please have no doubt that this application has an actual effect on my health, and will do also on the health of other local people who stand to lose their daylight. In 2018 TfL served Light Obstruction Notices on some people living around the site, many of whom are those who would be most badly affected. I find this action by a public body highly unsavoury. And this from a Labour Mayor, I thought Labour was supposed to represent the interests of normal people, not big developers!
The development makes a mockery of the conservation area within which it is sited. It is set to be more than double the height of any other building that was ever on the site or any of the listed buildings around it. Who in their right mind could say that it would enhance their setting, as it looms over them? Londoners have been able to admire and enjoy the architecture of the Georgian terrace (of which my flat is a small part) in the same context for over 220 years since they were built in 1796. Are you happy that on your watch this will now be ended?
In 2002 I was a founder member of the Kennington Association and the Friends of Kennington Park. I devoted ten years to the KA, retiring in 2012 but have remained active in the community, for example raising over £1,000 selling books to raise funds for the Friends of the Durning Library, and most recently getting the lights back up in Kennington’s Tree of Hope after the wires were cut to shreds when TfL pruned it. I have devoted considerable time and effort to improving the local area, defending London’s attributes as the greatest city in the world in which to live. It is extremely distressing to see development proposals that are so damaging to the heritage and housing standards in this place that I love.
Please STOP this enormous, bulky building killing our neighbourhood's charming heritage and conservation area and blocking nearly all of my daylight, plunging us into darkness forever.
I’d love the site to be developed and to welcome many more into our neighbourhood, especially with affordable housing; however, it must be of good quality for them as well as those of us already living here. Surely you must instruct the developers to come back with a more humane proposal, in keeping with the local heritage, conservation area, and offering a healthy quality of life for us all.
It has been such a terrible year. Apart from Cllr Philip Normal, no other Oval Ward Cllrs (one of whom is even Leader of the Council), nor our MP, nor our GLA rep - NONE have responded to my pleas, so my only hope is you!
Please will you stand up for Londoners and direct a rejection of this extremely harmful and substandard development?
Yours sincerely
Cathy Preece
235B Kennington Lane SE11 5QU
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