Recent Planning Decisions and Green Spaces

Bransbury Leisure Centre was approved in December and in February a Conditional Grant of Planning Permission, was awarded to Vistry Southern for 58 homes including 18 “Affordable Units”on the site of the old Harbour School at St James. It’s intended that 100% of the new homes will eventually be secured as “Affordable” through a Homes England Grant, like Kingston Prison. At the same Committee, PJ Livesey were granted rights of access for construction vehicles to St James’s along Moorings Way, Warren Avenue and Edenbridge Road.

Against the first two proposals, the Milton Neighbourhood Forum explained to the Planning Committee where the schemes conflicted with the Milton Neighbourhood Plan. With the third, we demonstrated the inadequacies of the local highway network.

In the December determination, the City Council were both the applicants and the decision makers. Whilst not opposing the principle of the new Leisure Centre, the Forum argued the loss of green space for the expansion of car parking wasn’t justifiable or acceptable. Nor was re-siting the children’s play-park nearer a public highway.

The Forum opposed the Vistry application because of unnecessary tree and habitat damage leading to on-site biodiversity losses. An earlier scheme by the same landowner, Homes England, was designed around the existing landscape features but provided three fewer new homes. Homes England and Vistry had engaged with the Council’s Urban Design Team to conceive what’s superficially an attractive scheme. We pointed out that since the initial scheme PCC, had created a Cabinet for Climate Change and Greening, Declared Climate and Nature Emergencies but somehow Officers were recommending a new scheme ripping out more trees. We were pleased with the Committee’s insistence on the Milton Plan’s parking standards of 82 rather than Vistry’s compromise with Officers of 87 spaces.

The application to use Moorings Way as an access route to the Hospital was restricted to two vehicles/day avoiding school opening and closing times.

The changes we had wanted towards retaining and enhancing green spaces in Milton is much harder than we’d thought. “Business As Usual” isn’t the right response but it was encouraging to see that the Committee were receptive to our arguments.

Rod Bailey