Reports on the 4 Peckham NSP sites walk

This post is a collection of several Peckham Vision Facebook posts reporting on the walk on 1st April 2017 around the 4 Peckham town centre sites designated for redevelopment in the Preferred Option of the New Southwark Plan (NSP). Links to the original posts and their photos are in each heading and also here: http://www.peckhamvision.org/wiki/Peckham_Town_Centre_Forum/meetings#1st_April_2017_4_NSP_sites_walk

Start of the walk

Nearly 40 of us went on our Peckham Vision 4 sites walk last Saturday to the large development sites in the Council’s draft New Southwark Plan (NSP). In spite of forecast rain showers, it was a lovely day to explore from a new angle Peckham town centre. See the map attached. We encourage you to visit the sites to prepare your comments. We are developing some notes for the issues raised by each of the sites, which we will publish on this Facebook page. The deadline for comments is 28th April 2017.

The 4 sites are:
• the Aylesham Centre, Bus Station & Petrol Station,
• PeckhamPlex cinema & multi-storey car park,
• Choumert Grove car park
• CopelandRd/BlackpoolRd industrial site.

Details from the Council’s draft NSP are here: http://www.peckhamvision.org/…/2/…/NSP_AV%26SA_-_Peckham.pdf

Aylesham Centre & Bus Station

The Peckham Vision walk last Saturday started at the Aylesham Centre – the major redevelopment of the town centre. The map and aerial view attached show the scale of it, including the bus station, car park, Morrisons, the petrol station, the Arcade and all the 1980s built shops on the east side of Rye Lane. You can find the Council’s proposals for the site on pages 208-210 in this pdf extract from the New Southwark Plan (NSP): http://www.peckhamvision.org/…/2/…/NSP_AV%26SA_-_Peckham.pdf

We are compiling a list of points to publicise. Please email info@peckhamvision.org if you have any ideas or issues to draw to others’ attention. Or you can post them as a comment in this Facebook post. Further background info we have compiled here: http://www.peckhamvision.org/wiki/Aylesham/Morrison_site

At the same time as this Council NSP consultation the developer is working on the designs for the site. They say they will be holding more consultation sessions and exhibitions. To keep informed please JOIN THE DEVELOPERS NEWS LIST by emailing: info@ayleshamcentrepeckham.co.uk .

From the Aylesham along Cicely Rd to the Cinema & Multi Storey car park

Our walk of the 4 sites in the New Southwark Plan (NSP) at the beginning of April took us along Cicely Rd between the development sites Aylesham Centre and the Peckham Multi Storey in Moncrieff Street. At the Moncrieff St end of the Multi Storey we met Luds the Site Director of Peckham Levels the new use of the empty levels in the car park. Luds brought us up to date on the conversion work in the building. It will be complete by August and open to the public in September. They have a lease until 2023. It makes sense to have a review before then of the building’s future using that experience instead of a decision in the NSP now for comprehensive redevelopment which means a decision for demolition. There are 7 more days to get your letter in to give your views. You can use the letter here:  https://peckhamvision.wixsite.com/peckhammultistorey

From the back of the Multi Storey along the passage to the Peckhamplex cinema.

Next on our walk of the 4 sites in the New Southwark Plan (NSP) was along the passage beside the Peckham Multi Storey where the work is now in full swing to convert the empty levels into Peckham Levels. One of the photos shows some windows now in place. At the front, where the entrance to the PeckhamPlex cinema is, we were met by Simone Brown the cinema manager. She told us about their policy of providing films for the wide diversity of the local community, and also how their low price ticket policy was intended to be a short term exercise but was so successful it has remained long term.

Amongst the over four thousand people who have sent in their views to the Council through our web portal are many who use the cinema and are very concerned that it might close because of the Council’s plan. The Council are saying that there is no need to worry as there is no plan to close the cinema now. This of course neglects to explain that the NSP is a policy for what happens after 2022 when the leases of the temporary uses end in the car park levels. If the Council’s ‘comprehensive redevelopment’ plan is approved next year there would be no way to query or object after that to the plan to demolish and redevelop.

So if you support the view that there should be a good review of the potential of the building before that final decision is taken, get your views in before next Friday 28th April. You can use the letter here:https://peckhamvision.wixsite.com/peckhammultistorey
The more voices the better. Put some words of your own in to the letter if you have time.

Choumert Grove car park.

On our 4 sites walk earlier this month we left the PeckhamPlex and walked along Rye Lane under the railway bridges, past the iconic 133 Rye Lane (entrance to the Bussey and Copeland Park where Peckham Vision was born in 2006). We next stopped at Choumert Grove town centre car park. See the photos from the walk. Over the last 10 years the Council has tried several times to remove the car park and build housing. Each time there has been a local uprising from residents and traders alike. Finally the Council said in 2012 that they would cease this plan and took it out of the Peckham Area Action Plan. Now it has resurfaced in the New Southwark Plan but this time it is to retain the car park but build even more homes (50) inside the car park!

On the site visit in the walk we were met by local residents who live in Quantock Mews overlooking the site, and other nearby residents, who explained their concerns that to get so many new buildings on the site would need either tall buildings which would block their light or underground car parks which would be unpleasant to have in a residential area. As a result of that visit, we arranged a meeting last week on site for local residents with the planning officers. Nearly 30 people gathered with a strong consensus that the last remaining open sky and space there was very precious in that part of the neighbourhood, and that a housing development inside a busy town centre car park would have seriously adverse effects. A summary of the issues for this proposal is here: http://goo.gl/z7BvZC

If you are familiar with this site, do add your voice to the comments to the Council. We have discovered today that comments submitted over the weekend will also be accepted (they don’t HAVE to be there by 5pm on Friday!). HOW TO COMMENT: email – planningpolicy@southwark.gov.uk, quoting the site name and your name and address.

Copeland/Blackpool Roads industrial site.

The final visit on our walk around the 4 NSP development sites was along Bournemouth Road from Choumert car park to the industrial site on both sides of Blackpool Road. Currently on one half of this site is the bus garage run by Go Ahead Bus Company for buses from some Peckham routes. The other half is taken up by Buildbase the builders’ merchants much used by many in Peckham. Other users of the site are the Council’s own depot for its street works department, and the old large Victorian mill building now used by a Church.

The council propose to turn both halves of this into a site for a mixed development of housing and small office type business. A key issue here is that London is losing small industrial sites like this for housing at a very alarming rate and much faster than envisaged in the London Plan. It is alarming as the London economy and social structures need land like this all over London for necessary functions. So there is a case for saying that this land should continue to be allocated as light industrial space and not given over to housing. This is about land use designation preserving it for light industrial uses into the future There is also a case for keeping the Victorian mill building as it is part of Peckham’s industrial heritage and a good solid building with potential for many uses in the future.

* More information about this site is available here: https://goo.gl/bZwHGo

* More info about the other 3 sites is here: http://www.peckhamvision.org/wiki/Planning#2017

Pictures from the site visit are attached.

Comments are supposed to be submitted by 5pm 28th April, but we have been told that they will be accepted over the weekend till the office opens next week. HOW TO COMMENT: by email – planningpolicy@southwark.gov.uk, quoting the site name and your name and address.

Peckham Vision studio discussion

On the 1st April, around 40 of us walked around the 4 Peckham town centre sites designated for redevelopment in the New Southwark Plan (NSP). The walk for each site was reported through the Peckham Vision Facebook page shown above. This post concludes the reports and photos from the discussion in the Peckham Vision studio with those who had stayed the course for two hours! In that discussion we worked through some of the main issues raised by each of the sites and how to write and submit the comments to the Council. Submissions reflecting them and comments made in several other discussions were submitted by the original deadline of 28th April. A copy of those can be seen here: http://www.peckhamvision.org/wiki/Planning#May_2017_submissions_on_Peckham_4_sites

The Council has now extended to 7th July the deadline for submitting comments. So if you missed the original deadline you can still send in your comments. HOW TO COMMENT: by email – planningpolicy@southwark.gov.uk, quoting the site name and your name and address.

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