Month: July 2019

Hyde Housing to reveal more about its Charlton Riverside plans

Darryl Chamberlain
The Hyde scheme would see plots A and C built first, followed by D and E, according to papers filed with Greenwich Council earlier this year. The rejected Rockwell scheme is to the left, the Flint Glass Wharf proposal is the other riverside project

Hyde Housing is to reveal more about its plans to build new homes on Charlton Riverside at an exhibition to be held next week.

In May, the housing association filed documents with Greenwich Council stating that it wanted to build 1,350 homes on a series of plots close to the Thames Barrier, including Maybanks Wharf, currently home to a paper recycling site.

Now Hyde is to hold an exhibition on Thursday 11 July (4-8pm) and Saturday 13 July (10am-2pm) about its plans. It says it plans:

  • Circa 1,250 new homes, with a target or delivering 50% of homes as affordable (it does not elaborate on what “affordable” means)
  • The provision of new commercial space, including maker, retail and wider employment uses
  • Delivery of new pedestrian and cycling routes and a comprehensive programme of public realm improvements
  • The opening up and activation of the riverfront so it can be enjoyed by local people

The documents filed to Greenwich Council’s planning team in May state that the blocks will be between one and 10 storeys tall, and that it hopes to begin eight years of construction next year, starting from the river and moving inland.

The exhibition will be at St Richard’s Church Centre, 40 Sundorne Road SE7 7PP. Coincidentally, it will be held on the same days as the exhibition on the Faraday Works scheme on the old Siemens site the other side of the Thames Barrier, hosted by developer U+I.

Saturday 13 July will also be the first public meeting of the Charlton Neighbourhood Forum, which is hoping to secure a greater say for locals in schemes of this nature.

As well as the Hyde and U+I schemes, two other major schemes are at different stages in the planning process.

They are:

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Charlton Neighbourhood Forum: Play your role in Charlton’s future

The Charlton Champion
The forum aims to involve local people in the redevelopment of Charlton’s riverside

With Charlton about to see huge changes over the next 20 years, a group of residents want to set up a neighbourhood plan – a legal planning document which ensure local people have a genuine say in the future of the area. JODIE COUGHLAN, one of the organisers, explains more, and invites you to its first public meeting on Saturday 13 July.

Since its inception in November 2017, Charlton Together – a collective of local groups in Charlton (including Charlton Central Residents’ Association (CCRA), Derrick & Atlas Residents’ Association (DAGRA), SE7 Action Group, The Charlton Society, Valley Hill Hub, and the Charlton Parkside Community Hub) have worked tirelessly and campaigned ceaselessly as a voice for residents and businesses on planning and development issues in Charlton and Charlton Riverside.

There have been ups and downs along the road, the down being the Fairview development on Victoria Way being approved by Greenwich Council’s planning board in January 2018, the up having successfully fought the Rockwell development on Anchor & Hope Lane at City Hall a year later.

More recently Charlton Together has been working on a more proactive approach to planning and development, by becoming a neighbourhood forum. We would like as many people who live and work in the area to get involved, to help create a Neighbourhood Plan for Charlton.

In order to get the project off the ground, Charlton Together have had a stand at Charlton Station, and several local outdoor events. We’ll also be at the Sherington School Summer Fair tomorrow.

What’s it all about?

In order to produce a neighbourhood plan, we first need to set up the Charlton Neighbourhood Forum, which is a group of local people that live and work in the area.

A neighbourhood plan (supported by the Localism Act 2011) gives the community the right to influence the form of development locally, and is a formal planning document, written by local people and businesses, and forms a material consideration when the Council decides planning applications. (See more detailed background.)

For a forum to be established, there needs to be at least 21 people from across Charlton, and it must be representative of the area. Membership of the forum is free and is open to anyone who living or working across Charlton (all the way from Charlton Riverside, Charlton Central, across Charlton Slopes (Victoria Way, Bramhope Lane, Wyndcliff, Mayhill, Hopedale, Sherington Roads to Eastcombe, Bramshot Avenues, Tallis Grove and Highcombe) across Charlton Road, up towards the Lido, including the roads around near to Charlton Park, Maryon Wilson Park and Maryon Park.

The proposed forum area – which covers the entire SE7 postal area plus areas included in the Charlton Riverside masterplan

Do I need planning & development expertise?

There will be many different roles in producing this plan, so tell us where you can help, whatever your skills they will be welcome. We believe that it will take time to create the plan, but think it will be well worth the effort.

How do I join the forum?

For more information, visit www.charltonneighbourhoodforum.com and click on ‘’Contact’’ to get in touch.

You can also come along to the forum’s first annual general meeting at the Assembly Rooms, Charlton Village, at 4pm on Saturday 13 July. At this meeting a committee will be formed, and officers elected. A constitution will also be agreed and the boundary of the plan area finalised.

After the AGM, an application to Greenwich Council will be made for formal designation.

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What happened at Maryon Park’s Big Picnic 2019?

The Charlton Champion

A group of neighbours who live near Maryon Park held a big picnic there last Saturday. HELEN JAKEWAYS, one of the organisers, explains what happened…

This was our fourth Picnic and once more we were extremely lucky with the weather. We were able to put on many more games and activities this year thanks to funds raised from Greenwich Council’s ward budget, Tesco Bags of Growth and sponsorship from Lovell.We were also kindly supported by the council’s Park Rangers team.

We hosted about 500 people over the course of the afternoon, including all the performers, group leaders, stall holders and our 30+ strong volunteer team and the main field in Maryon Park was bustling with activity surrounded by people enjoying their picnics in the shade provided by the trees round the edge of the park.

We enjoyed a couple of lovely dance performances and workshops run by Greenwich Dance, football sessions run by Charlton Athletic coaches which were enormously popular, non-contact boxing taster sessions with St Peter’s Amateur Boxing Club and late-arriving roaming hula hoops and basic circus skills sessions from Aircraft Circus.

There was a busy programme on and around the small stage including a set from Charlton based DJ Ed Simmons and performances from the Brass Band, the Woolwich Singers, The Tuesday Morning Recorder Group and Creative Generation Dance and Gymnastics, all kept in order by MCs Christopher Seaden and Justine Bennett from Charlton Parkside Community Hub.

We were delighted to have our stage powered entirely by the sun and can highly recommend the Solar Roller, run by the Minesweeper Collective (enquiries to minesweepercollective[at]gmail.com) – this comes complete with a sound system and lovely technician Camden, who has attended our event for three years now.

We had a broad range of games for smaller children to play with and on including our stable of pink space hoppers and a very busy creative making tent hosted by Liz Buck from St Luke’s Church. A more sedate guided tree walk was hosted by the Friends of Maryon and Maryon Wilson Parks. Community stalls included the 38th Woolwich Scout Group, the Brownies, Friends of Maryon and Maryon Wilson Park, Charlton Athletic Community Trust Youth Services, Riverwood (a Mencap-funded carpentry project), Friends of Windrush School, Neighbourhood Watch, Greenwich Dance, the St Thomas Church Tuesday Group and the local Neighbourhood Forum. Woodhill Brewing Collective (Simon, Dan and Owen) were on site selling their very popular homebrew, the profits from which they generously donate to the St Thomas Church Night Shelter project every year and there were soft and not-so soft drinks on sale organised by Andrew Donkin from Valley Hill Community Hub.

The Community Garden was open for the afternoon so the whole park really was busy. The event was rounded off by some very competitive sack, egg and spoon, three-legged and space hopper races, the tug-of-war and raffle, proceeds from which will be used to support the St Thomas Church Night Shelter project. This free local event aimed at families is growing in confidence every year, but we aim to keep it small and manageable so there is plenty of space and opportunity for everyone to enjoy the afternoon.

Huge thanks are due to all those who pitched in this year – volunteers, performers, groups running the activity sessions, stall holders and of course the audience who turned up to help make it all such a special afternoon. We are always looking for local volunteers to help especially with fundraising, planning and stewarding on the day – if you’d like to be involved next year please contact Charlton Parkside Community Hub Admin on cpchadm[at]gmail.com.

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Greenwich Council set to finally approve Morris Walk Estate demolition

Darryl Chamberlain1 Comment
Morris Walk Estate
Morris Walk Estate was constructed in the late 1960s

Greenwich Council’s cabinet is poised to approve the demolition of Morris Walk Estate next week – a year after the next stage of the redevelopment of three estates in Woolwich was due to begin.

Morris Walk, on the Woolwich/Charlton border, along with neighbouring Maryon Road estate and Woolwich’s Connaught Estate, are being redeveloped by developer Lovell as part of the £269 million council-backed One Woolwich scheme, agreed under former leader Chris Roberts. The Connaught has already been demolished and the Trinity Walk development has risen in its place.

Remaining tenants and leaseholders have been left in limbo by delays to the scheme, with Greenwich Council denying last year that the project had been delayed until 2027. Demolition had been due to start in autumn 2018.

Papers to go before the cabinet next Wednesday recommend approving the demolition of the estate. However, there is still no date set for new buildings to be erected on the site, with the cabinet report stating “without this instruction, the site would remain derelict and subject to flytipping and antisocial behaviour activities with concerns of security and health and safety”. The cabinet is the council’s main decision-making body, made up of councillors picked by its leader Danny Thorpe.

The redevelopment of the estates had originally been billed as being at no cost to taxpayers. But there has been frustration within the council at the slow pace of the project. Greenwich is exercising an option to underwrite Lovell’s costs of £14.3 million to knock the estate down.

Legal advice states that there is only a “remote risk” of Lovell’s development not going ahead, noting that if Lovell did walk away, the council could develop housing on the site itself or sell the land for profit. “The risk is that the demolition takes place and the developer walks away,” a note states. “[Greenwich is] required to pay the costs of the demolition. However, if the site is clear [the council has] a saleable asset in terms of a fully demolished site, along with outline planning.”

Morris Walk Estate
Many of the Morris Walk buildings are now in a poor state of repair

There is also a second set of papers reconfirming a compulsory purchase order on the estate, with improved terms for leaseholders who are being bought out, who will now be given help to buy a home worth up to £550,000 within the borough of Greenwich.

This follows a ruling against Southwark Council in 2016 when the Westminster government refused to sign off the compulsory purchase of homes on the Aylesbury Estate in Walworth, where it was judged that Southwark had not offered enough money for leaseholders to buy a new home in the area. There are 24 leaseholders left on Morris Walk and Maryon Grove, with 91 council tenants.

Built for the London County Council by Taylor Woodrow Anglian from prefabricated parts in the mid-1960s, Morris Walk’s construction can be seen in some shots in the cult film Blow-Up, which featured scenes shot in and near Maryon Park. It was built in a similar fashion to the ill-fated Ronan Point tower across the Thames in Canning Town, which partially collapsed in 1968 after a gas explosion, killing four people. Morris Walk’s gas supply was removed soon after. Half a century on, many of the buildings are now in a poor state of repair as they await demolition.

Across the Connaught, Morris Walk and Maryon Road estates, 1,064 homes originally built for council rent will be replaced by 1,500 homes with 35% as “affordable”, a catch-all for a range of tenures from shared ownership, through proportions of market rent to social rent. Of the total number of homes, Greenwich Council says 25% will be for social rent. A topping-out ceremony took place at phase 3 of the Trinity Walk development on the Connaught site last week. Despite Greenwich Council’s press release boasting that 239 of the 684 homes – 35% – would be “affordable”, only 25% of the homes are for social rent, with a further 10% available through shared ownership schemes, according to papers filed in 2014.

The scheme follows the demolition of the Ferrier Estate in Kidbrooke, which had 1,910 council homes when completed in 1972, and its replacement with Berkeley Homes’ Kidbrooke Village development, which will have 738 homes at social rents when finished, along with a further 787 “affordable” homes.

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The Boys from the Village: Charlton Athletic at War walk and seminar

Darryl Chamberlain

Charlton Athletic museum
The event begins at the Charlton Athletic Museum

Thanks to Charlton Athletic fan and war historian Steve Hunnisett for letting us know about an interesting event on Tuesday 6 August exploring the history of the Addicks during both world wars. The Boys from the Village starts off at the Charlton Athletic Museum, and includes a walk up the hill led by Steve and the museum’s Clive Harris to the White Swan, where there will be talks about the club and its players during both wars, including the youths from some of the earliest Addicks sides who were conscripted into the First World War. The event is free, so you can dip in and out of it as you please, and it is also a chance to visit the fantastic volunteer-run museum inside The Valley, which has flourished despite the ownership problems surrounding the club.

Poster for Charlton Athletic at War event

The museum is open to visitors from 4pm, the walk starts at 6.15pm, and the talks at the Swan begin at 7.45pm.

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