Charlton has long had historical links with Greenwich
This weekend is your last chance to make sure that Charlton continues to share an MP with Greenwich & Woolwich, as a consultation into new constituencies comes to an end.
The Greenwich & Woolwich constituency – currently represented by Labour’s Matt Pennycook – has so far come out of a boundary review largely unscathed.
But neighbouring Eltham is due to expand to take in Chislehurst, something which has caused disquiet among Labour activists in the seat, who fear this would mean curtains for its local MP, Clive Efford.
A handful of streets in the south of SE7 already come under the Eltham seat, and The Charlton Champion understands that party activists are lobbying the Boundary Commission to change its plans so the seat includes the Charlton ward too – bumping up the Labour vote while separating this area from its neighbours.
This latest review is the third attempt in a decade to redraw the parliamentary map to take into account changing populations. While past reviews tried to cut the number of MPs, this one keeps the figure at 650 – meaning London gains two new seats. In addition, most seats must now have between 69,724 and 77,062 electors – a significant change from more flexible rules in the past.
Under the plans, Eltham would lose the strongly Labour Shooters Hill ward but gain two Bromley wards – the marginal Mottingham and Chislehurst North, which has two Tory councillors; and the staunchly Conservative Chislehurst ward. The seat would be renamed Eltham & Chislehurst and have 74,179 electors.
Greenwich & Woolwich, however, shrinks to take into account the area’s growing population, losing Glyndon ward, leaving it with 69,824 electors – just 100 more than the minimum. Glyndon goes to Erith & Thamesmead along with Shooters Hill, uniting most of Plumstead under that seat.
Charlton has few links with Eltham and its high street
Past reviews would have Greenwich & Woolwich split up altogether – with one proposal suggesting an “Eltham & Charlton” seat, separating Charlton ward from its two larger neighbours altogether.
“It’s understandable that people in Eltham are deeply unhappy about the proposals, but keeping Greenwich, Charlton and Woolwich together is for the best, as is uniting Plumstead in Erith & Thamesmead,” one Labour activist told The Charlton Champion.
“There are close historic and present links between Greenwich, Charlton and Woolwich which there simply aren’t with Eltham – it makes sense to keep the riverside communities together.”
There are no direct public transport links between the Charlton ward and Eltham, while links for shopping and leisure are with the Charlton retail parks, Woolwich and Blackheath rather than Eltham High Street. Commuter links are with the Greenwich-Woolwich rail line and North Greenwich tube rather than the Bexleyheath line which serves Eltham.
Historically, Charlton was always linked with Greenwich for local government, while much of its early development was connected to the barracks at Woolwich.
Furthermore, keeping Charlton linked with its two bigger neighbours opens up the likelihood that the streets currently marooned in the Eltham constituency (these streets are known as polling district KH1) would be returned to Greenwich & Woolwich in the future. This is a separate process from the review of council ward boundaries, which places most of the SE7 area in two wards.
If you live in Charlton ward and want to stay in Greenwich & Woolwich – or if you live in the streets that come under Eltham and want polling district KH1 to come under Greenwich & Woolwich instead – tell the Boundary Commission for England at www.bcereviews.org.ukby Monday.
But they need lots of volunteers when the show takes place in November. They need people to help as stage workers (they have a stage manager), putting up the lighting, make-up, costumes, arranging chairs, providing refreshments, making bookings, collecting tickets at the door, showing customers to their seats, and more besides.
Once the volunteers are in place, auditions will take place so rehearsals can begin.
Can you help? Email Gwen on gwenzammit[at]yahoo.co.uk.
News in from local amateur dramatics group THE ALEXANDRA PLAYERS as they return to the stage this week:
Come and support your fabulous local amateur dramatics group on their first show post-lockdown!
From Wednesday 28th – Saturday 31st July 2021, we will be bringing to you 4 fabulous evenings of entertainment. Tickets £10 and will include a drink for your refreshment and a programme. Curtain up at 7.45pm (Doors open at 7.15pm).
CAST INCLUDES ALL YOUR REGULAR FAVOURITES
Keith Hartley, Sue McGeehan, Jackie Hartley, Alex Parker, Adam Alexander, Roy Moore, Mark Higgins, Emma Hickey, Liz Moss, Deborah Pike, Janet Sweet and Louise Gaul
Although Covid restrictions have been eased, for your comfort and safety – the hall will be at half capacity (only 40 tickets will be available for each performance) and we will unfortunately be unable to accept cash or sell tickets for this production on the door. Seats in the hall will be arranged to accommodate bubbles and so tickets must be bought online and in advance so that we know exactly how many people will be in attendance.
The box office is now open – call 07889 782 819 to book your tickets.
Charlton Park is due to get an all-weather cricket pitch
Charlton Park is getting a new cricket pitch, and you’ll be able to find out more about the plans at the Friends of Charlton Park’s regular Zoom meeting this Tuesday.
Stephanie Turner from Greenwich Council will be outlining plans for the non-turf pitch at the western end of the park and answering any questions from users. To find out how to join, visit the Friends of Charlton Park website.
There are also limited places for a bat walk in Charlton Park at 8pm on Friday night led by bat expert Les Clark. More details are on the Friends website.
The Aitch development site as it is now, viewed from Eastmoor Sreet
Greenwich councillors dealt a blow to their own town hall’s plans to redevelop the Charlton Riverside after they rejected a second housing scheme for a site near the Thames Barrier.
The developer Aitch Group had hoped to build 188 homes land behind the derelict Victoria pub, between Eastmoor Street and Westmoor Street, along with shops, workspace and a new green space. But Labour and Conservative councillors objected to the height of the development on Coopers Yard, which had been recommended for approval by their own planning officers.
A three-year-old masterplan for the Charlton Riverside – which both Greenwich Council and City Hall have long earmarked for thousands of new homes – suggests a maximum height of ten storeys for buildings, with guidelines of three to five storeys in that particular area.
But Aitch wanted to build up to nine storeys – insisting that the masterplan provided guidance, not strict rules – enraging local lobby groups, including the Charlton Society and the Charlton Central Residents Association, who believe this breaks the terms of a masterplan they were closely involved in writing.
The situation is complicated by the Environment Agency objecting to ground-floor housing close to the Thames Barrier because of the risk of flooding – an objection which calls parts of the masterplan into question.
Aitch wants to build 188 homes close to the Thames Barrier
Labour and Conservative councillors sided with the lobby groups for the second time in three weeks, rejecting Aitch’s plans – leaving Aitch to decide whether to appeal to a planning inspector or try to rework the proposal with council officers.
Tuesday’s vote saw the rejection of another 40 homes for London Affordable Rent that would have been included in the Aitch development along with 10 shared-ownership homes, making 30 per cent “affordable” housing.
The two refusals now plunge the Labour council into a high-stakes gamble on the future of its own masterplan – successful appeals from Aitch or Optivo would take much of the decision-making out of the hands of local officials and could result in less money being spent on local infrastructure to support the new developments and their neighbours.
With other developers waiting to present their plans for the riverside to councillors – some much bigger than Aitch’s scheme, like the Faraday Works project on the old Siemens factory site, the decision is a significant setback for the Charlton riverside’s transformation into a new neighbourhood.
The meeting was split into two parts because of Covid-19 restrictions – Woolwich Town Hall’s only meeting space fitted with cameras is its cramped council chamber – with the first meeting two weeks ago seeing planning chair Stephen Brain clash with local lobby groups.
Tuesday night saw Aitch’s associate planning director, Luke Cadman, tell councillors that the scheme would be of a “human scale and very much in contrast to Greenwich Peninsula and Woolwich town centre”, adding that there would be a net increase in jobs and that existing businesses would be given help leaving. Feedback from residents had resulted in changes to the scheme including a reduction in height, he said.
Referring to his company’s own proposals, Optivo’s scheme and others in the pipeline, he warned: “These proposals, many developed over years of discussion, could result in 5,000 new homes and 1,500 jobs. By not supporting [your] officers’ recommendation tonight, and reiterating an absolute test of heights and density, this potentially jeopardises the delivery of the [masterplan] vision, and thousands of new homes and jobs.”
Failing to permit development could see “pressure for housing development shift to other more sensitive parts of the borough”, he added.
Pointing out that Greenwich Council itself is the largest landowner on the riverside, with its he said that refusal would have “far-reaching ramifications for the council and its redevelopment aspirations, and for the ability to deliver new homes and jobs”.
Optivo’s plans for Eastmoor Street, with the Aitch scheme in white next door to it. Both plans have been rejected
Challenged on this by Abbey Wood Labour councillor Clive Mardner, Cadman said: “There are a lot of developers that are seeking planning approvals to deliver on the [masterplan] vision – I’ll just leave it there. It’s not really what anyone wants to see.”
Mardner – who chairs the council’s housing scrutiny panel, so may have been expected to know the answer already – also asked who would be eligible for the London Affordable Rent homes, which charge half market rates and are for people on the council’s waiting list. The rent level is an initiative of Labour mayor Sadiq Khan.
Optivo’s site as it is now with the Aitch site to the right. Both proposals have been rejected. The cash and carry warehouse to the left is not part of any scheme
Charlton councillor Gary Dillon said he was “disappointed that height and density is not important to the project”.
“If every developer walks into this room and says the same thing, we’re going to get 20,000 dwellings in an area earmarked for 8,000, and that throws the transport and infrastructure out,” he said. “Every part of the [masterplan] has been calculated. To dismiss it is pretty disappointing.”
Cadman insisted that Aitch had not ignored the masterplan, saying that there was more to it than height and density, and that the scheme fitted Sadiq Khan’s London planning policy. “When you weigh it all up, on balance, as your officers have done… we’ve done a huge amount to meet its aspirations and we haven’t just ignored the height, the heights and density have all been a consideration in what we’ve done.”
Dillon sits on the committee of the Charlton Society, one of the groups that objected. He declared at the start of the meeting that he was a society member and had not taken part in its discussions on the proposals.
Woolwich Riverside councillor John Fahy, whose ward includes the development site, repeated a question his two Labour colleagues had put to Cadman, asking if Aitch had “had any regard for the masterplan” when drawing up its proposals, accusing the company of ignoring residents’ views.
“I’ve answered that a few times, the masterplan required a few things,” Cadman said, pointing out that the plan also allowed for a new road and green space which were set out in the plans. He added that the company had spent two years consulting local people and had recently made changes as a result of local lobby groups’ feedback.
Conservative Nigel Fletcher said that it was clear that the masterplan had divided the riverside into plots, and the maximum for that plot was five storeys.
Simon Camp, from Alan Camp Architects, said that the masterplan did not take into account the risk of flooding and that homes had to be above a certain height. “The town houses in the masterplan are impossible due to the constraints,” he said.
“We’ve taken that on by maximising the commercial and maker spaces, and the community facilities, we’ve expanded the green link [open space] – so we’ve taken into account other aspirations in the [masterplan] and then we’ve looked at the height.”
The masterplan showing lower-height buildings around Eastmoor Street, the white gap to the east. (Click to enlarge)
A view from the Barrier vets’ clinic. Red lines represent storeys lopped off the scheme after lobby groups’ objections
Fahy complained that the riverside, where land ownership is split, was “being developed piecemeal” and that the planning board had a duty to ensure that developments there reflected the area’s heritage.
Allowing the Aitch scheme would allow other developers to build tall buildings, he said, adding: “If that’s the case, we might as well chuck the masterplan in the bin and allow developers to carry on regardless. The applicants were well aware of the requirements to meet the masterplan. It’s not something you pluck out of the air – it’s a legal document and we have to have some principles that guide us in our decision making.
“They say they got the green light from our officers – I find that hard to believe.”
Fletcher said he did not believe it was a straightforward refusal, but said the developer had not justified why it wanted to build higher than suggested in the masterplan.
“We see this masterplan as being very important. We think it’s important, the heights and density are important,” he said. “We have a different reading of [the masterplan] than the applicant and it should be something we are prepared to defend.”
A view of the Aitch scheme looking east from Penhall Road
But planning chair Stephen Brain spoke up for the proposal, criticising “emotive terms” made by local lobby groups at the last meeting. He said it was possible to be flexible with the masterplan “if a balance is achieved across the area”.
“It has 30 per cent ‘affordable’ homes, which we need for Londoners, it has designated play space – there’s very little in the area. I do know the area – I’ve had my car serviced down there for 32 years, I’ve walked around that site a lot,” he said.
“One speaker said that children could cause noise – it’s what children do. It provides green space, and retail – the area desperately needs retail, the only thing you can buy down there is a burger from a dodgy van and you wouldn’t be wise to do such a thing.
“It’s an area where people work but don’t live. You can see from all the Range Rovers down there – they drive down there and go back to Kent in the evening.”
Referencing the Environment Agency’s objection to ground floor homes, Brain referred to last week’s flood disaster in western Germany, which left scores dead, saying it had brought the issue into “sharp relief”.
“One of the main German newspapers said all of the people living on habitable spaces on the ground floor were dead. That’s why the Environment Agency makes these guidelines, it’s in a flood plain and the heights may have to be higher.”
Brain mocked the notion put forward by one of the local lobby groups, who spoke of “protecting Charlton from the river to the slopes and into the village – they didn’t say how far it went, does it go beyond the village to Charlton [sic], or to Bexley? I couldn’t understand that at all.”
“I can’t see what turning this application would do for the area. It’s an area that is industrially blighted and I can’t see many bungalows being built down there.”
But the vote was lost and the plans rejected on grounds of height and massing – leaving the immediate future of the Charlton riverside up in the air, and possibly out of the hands of local people.
More than 20,000 people have had Covid-19 jabs at Charlton House
Charlton House needs £1.2 million to fix its leaking roof, the chief executive of the trust that runs the Jacobean mansion has told Greenwich councillors.
Tracy Stringfellow, the chief executive of the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust, said that she would soon be launching a fundraising appeal to mend the roof, and that the issue had delayed wider plans for a £25 million refurbishment of the house.
She also told councillors that local groups would be able to use its summer house after the end of the current phase of refurbishment works.
While over 20,000 people have visited the house for coronavirus vaccines since the start of the year, some have spotted the damage caused by water getting into its old library, she said.
Councillors on the regeneration scrutiny panel were told last night that Historic England had funded a detailed survey of the roof to examine the damage.
“The assessment of complete and replacement works has come back at about £1.2 million,” Stringfellow said.
“We will be carrying out some work over the next few months to identify how we will raise the funds, and we will be launching an appeal with the Big Give campaign, giving local people the opportunity to support the roof works as well.
“There was some significant water ingress during the lockdown period which runs the risk of damaging some of the most significant spaces on the second floor.”
Charlton House’s summer house is being restored
Asked by Woolwich Common councillor David Gardner about the broader future of Charlton House, Stringfellow said that a plan had been produced in 2018 that envisaged a £25m million refurbishment of the Grade I-listed building.
Stringfellow said that the plan had been to approach the National Lottery Heritage Fund for money to begin work, beginning with the ground floor, but the pandemic had forced a rethink, as the fund had changed its priorities.
“We will be looking at that strategy again,” she said. “We now need to prioritise the roof repairs and the rooms on the second floor as urgent. Those of you who have had your jabs in the old library might have noticed damage to the ceiling because of the water ingress – I’ve had lots of emails from people asking about the hole in the roof.”
The second phase of works to restore the summer house was coming to an end, Stringfellow added, with some of the original panelling being restored, ahead of a final phase where the ceiling would be restored.
Stringellow said that the trust would be interested in community groups using the summer house for exhibitions or other uses before the final phase of works started.
“If there are any local organisations who might want to come and have a look at that – a commercial hire might be at a later stage but for exhibitions or programming, we would be open to approaches from the local community,” she said.
A special dance project is coming to Charlton, and the people behind it would like you to share your thoughts, memories, pictures and more. BEATRICE, CORNELIS and ORLEY from THE COLLECTORS are here to explain more.
The Collectors are coming to Charlton and would like to invite residents to provide images and text significant to Charlton to help create a performance, called Picture Me There, that is specific to the area.
How can you get involved? There are three ways.
Anyone in Charlton of any age can share photos, images, text, maps, memories or anything else involving residents and drawing from the present or past. These items will shape our show. You can drop them here onto our Google Drive.
We’re looking for ten to 15 Charlton residents to work with us more closely. They would meet us for a first catch-up and material sharing on Sunday 1 August. They will then take part in a workshop on the Sunday 19 September as well as helping us decide where to perform. All ages welcome. We would like to have an intergenerational group. Venue and times to be confirmed.
Anyone can watch and enjoy the free performances on Sunday 26 September.
For more information and to register for the meeting and workshop, email us at thecollectorsprojects[at]gmail.com.
If you do not have do not have internet access and would like to participate or share anything, contact Greenwich Dance at Charlton House (020 8293 9741).
The Charlton Champion 