Dear Mr Austin

Dickens Yard Planning Application:   P/2008/0156, P/2008/0157, P/2008/0158

Thank you for your letter dated 18^th April, asking for my views in response to the Dickens Yard planning application.

I wish to object to this application. In my view the proposals would lead to a development that would be vastly in excess of what should be built on this tightly constrained site. While I support using the site for more useful purposes than as a commuter car park it is essential that there must be a high quality development that complements this historic part of central Ealing.  

The current proposals will not produce a development of the quality that is required. Its sheer size will overwhelm both the Town Hall and the Church of Christ the Saviour which are two of Ealing’s most iconic buildings. The development’s bulk is out of keeping with and will cause serious harm to both Ealing Town Centre and Haven Green Conservation Areas.   Its height is totally out of context with heights of nearby buildings, which it will dominate visually. If it goes ahead it will set an important precedent for high rise buildings in our suburb which up to now has been valued for its human scale architecture featuring family homes and low rise flat developments.

As constituted, I do not believe that the plans will contribute to the regeneration of Ealing Town Centre as the Council has been claiming. It is primarily a residential scheme with a few additional shops that, with the current contraction in retailing in Ealing, are unlikely to be occupied in the foreseeable future. 

I also refute the suggestion that the development would emulate others in Kingston or Putney which the applicants compare it with. Both of those developments occupy sites that open onto the Thames which affords them a spaciousness entirely lacking in Dickens Yard; and yet even so they provide a far less intense level of development than would occur in Dickens Yard. 

Another consequence of the development is that it will stretch all categories of infrastructure beyond their capacity to cope. Our transport, education and health services are all operating at or above capacity and with so much development planned and in the pipeline in Ealing there is insufficient slack to absorb the demands that are being made on them.

For this reason I am also very concerned that the planning application has been submitted at a time when Ealing has yet to complete its town centre, transport and tall building strategies. Redevelopment of this and all other major sites in Ealing Town Centre should be led by planning and development strategies that have been prepared and adopted following consultation with affected parties, including residents. There have been demands for many years for the Council to undertake a proper overview of Ealing’s future and I am very disappointed that this has not yet been done.

I object to the proposals because they do not meet the requirements of the Council’s UDP, nor of the site’s planning brief that the Council adopted in 2004 after an extensive process of public consultation. Amongst UDP policies that they would breach are those for high buildings in Conservation Areas, car parking and access to the site through residential streets. Essential elements of the site brief that are ignored include the height of the buildings, plot ratio, the number of homes provided, car parking and access arrangements. I am particularly disappointed to see that the development proposals appear to have been drawn up with no reference at all to the site brief or to the comments the community contributed to it.

In summary, this development will lead to a serious over-development of what is a tightly constrained site. I ask you to reject it on the grounds of ill-thought out scale, design and failure to meet the existing UDP or Site brief.

Ealing needs to emulate areas of London such as Westminster or Richmond that have evolved with the support of policies based upon an understanding of the spatial characteristics that makes these places special, creating locations where people wish to visit, live and work. To achieve this it is important that the Council secures an appropriate urban density that maintains the uniqueness and established scale, character and identity of Ealing Town Centre.

Yours sincerely,

Name:

Address:

Date: