Author: Darryl Chamberlain

Fairview New Homes tries again to add convenience store to Victoria Way development

Darryl Chamberlain
40 Victoria Way
The Bowen Drive development in its marketing pomp: The proposed store would be on the ground floor

The developer behind 330 new homes on Victoria Way is trying again to add a convenience store to the development – months after its first attempt was refused.

Fairview New Homes controversially won permission for the development on the old Thorn Lighting site in January 2018, and the first residents moved into Bowen Drive nearly two years ago.

Last summer it applied to Greenwich Council for permission to cut three floors of planned office space down to two, and to change the ground floor of the development’s northeasternmost building – the one nearest to the terraced houses on Victoria Way – to a convenience store.

But council planners refused the application. While there were 22 objections – on grounds ranging from traffic, pollution and noise to “concern that the development would bring non-residents into the estate” – planners blocked the scheme because Fairview had not provided adequate proof that it had marketed the office space within the development to potential occupiers.

Now Fairview is back with a new application. It said it had struggled to sell the office space and that there is “limited demand for office accommodation across [Greenwich] borough and the limited demand which did arise was focused outside of Charlton and primarily within the borough’s town centres” and the st.

Fairview added that its office space was also competing with The Gateway, the Greenwich Enterprise Board building opposite in Troughton Road, which is also “suffering continued vacancies”. (GEB’s website says there are no vacancies there.)

The developer says a convenience store would generate 14 jobs, compared with 18 for the office space.

As with the previous application, the convenience store operator is not named. The Co-op and Sainsbury’s have taken spaces in new developments in the area in recent years – a new Co-op opened in Greenwich Millennium Village late last year.

Residents can comment on the proposal and see more details on the Greenwich Council website.

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‘Affordable’ housing slashed as Charlton Riverside developer tries to please councillors

Darryl Chamberlain1 Comment
Aitch render
Despite the bus, this is the view from Westmoor Street

Local people waiting for housing could lose out after a developer submitted a new plan for homes on the Charlton Riverside, just a few months after Greenwich councillors threw out their first scheme.

Last year, Aitch Group’s plans for 188 homes on land between Eastmoor Street and Westmoor Street, close to the Thames Barrier, along with shops, workspace and a new green space were thrown out by Labour and Conservative councillors who objected to its height. It comprised two blocks of five to nine storeys.

The Coopers Yard development would have included 40 homes for London Affordable Rent – available to people on Greenwich borough’s 23,000-strong housing waiting list – and 10 for shared ownership, making a total of 30 per cent “affordable” housing.

Aitch render
Aitch says its scheme mostly conforms with the masterplan

Aitch has now appealed against that decision, but has now returned with a new application to build 149 homes in blocks of up to eight storeys as well as retail and business space.

In the new scheme, just 11 homes would be for affordable rent, and four for shared ownership with the new application – making just 11 per cent “affordable” housing.

Aitch render
A view of the new proposals, looking towards Woolwich Road

Local lobby groups, including the Charlton Society and the Charlton Central Residents Association, were enraged by the original plans for buildings of up to nine storeys, believing this broke the terms of a masterplan they were closely involved in writing.

However, they are unlikely to be won over by the new plan, which is just one storey shorter.

Eastmoor Street
Eastmoor Street as it is now. The flats would overlook Barrier Gardens on the right

A four-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.

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.

Similar concerns also led to a second scheme on a site next door, from the housing association Optivo, also being rejected, with councillors voting down 67 affordable-rent flats. Optivo has also launched an appeal.

Eastmoor Street
This site could be transformed if Aitch gets its way

Apart from the lower heights and lack of “affordable” housing, the revised Aitch scheme is largely the same as the one rejected last year, with a “green link” to Barrier Gardens between the two blocks of housing, and an eight-storey tower on the corner of Mirfield Street and Westmoor Street.

The entire area is currently industrial land at present. With the exception of a single flat behind the derelict Victoria pub, no proposals for the Charlton Riverside have been approved since the masterplan was approved in 2018. Plans for a second flat are awaiting a decision.

Read full details about the proposal: Design and access statement and planning statement

More details and comment: Greenwich Council planning website

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Charlton Conservative Club: Seven flats to replace scrapped mega-bedsit scheme

Darryl Chamberlain1 Comment
Google image of the Charlton Conservative Club
The old Charlton Conservative Club (image: Google)

A property developer has applied to build seven flats at the former Charlton Conservative Club, a year after plans to build 26 bedsits there were scrapped.

Permission was given in 2015 for flats and a terrace of three houses on the site, but work was never completed and in 2020, a new application was submitted for the bedsits, to accommodate 49 people, as part of a “co-living” development.

That scheme was quickly dropped, and now developers have scaled back their original plans to just seven flats – three of which have already been built as part of the first proposal.

While the club’s former billiard hall would have been demolished, it is now to be retained and converted into homes. Developers say: “It is not sustainable to remove the rear building to build another almost identical one. Therefore, it is proposed to retain the rear building and to simply convert it. There would be no terrace houses proposed in the back garden and the submitted plans show communal garden space with cycle stores.”

In September 2020 plans to demolish what is left of the Charlton Liberal Club were refused by planners, who said there was no evidence that the club was unviable as it had only been on the market for one month.

Plans to build a “luxurious” 49-unit co-living development at the old Antigallican pub further down Charlton Church Lane were withdrawn in March, just weeks after plans were submitted.

The latest Conservative Club plans can be seen on the Greenwich Council planning website.

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Shisha restaurant and music venue plan for Euro Car Auctions building

Darryl Chamberlain
The restaurant and music venue would occupy the east end of the building

A car auction house on the Woolwich Road could be joined by a shisha restaurant and music venue if its plans are approved by Greenwich Council.

Part of the Euro Car Auctions building, close to the Victoria pub, could be revamped to include a nightspot in space at the east end of the building.

Euro Car Auctions plan
The real-life building is unlikely to include palm trees

The application is brief and only mentions a shisha restaurant and alterations to the exterior of the building to include an open ventilation screen and floral wall, but plans submitted to the council include a music venue and recording space. Images supplied with the application, rather oddly, show palm trees surrounding the site, which is on industrial land but is opposite houses and flats.

Euro Car Auctions, which is behind the plan, hopes that a recent change in planning laws means that permission will only be a technicality, as auction houses and restaurants now fall under the same category.

However, the council may take a greater interest in what goes on as it owns the freehold to the site, having bought it as part of its long-term plans to transform the Charlton riverside into a residential area.

More details can be found on the Greenwich Council planning website.

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Can you help the Old Cottage Coffee Shop bring Christmas cheer to older people?

Darryl Chamberlain
Old Cottage Coffee Shop
You can also pick up some Christmas cards in the Old Cottage Coffee Shop

Last year, during what was a bleak Christmas when most of us were obeying the pandemic restrictions, the good people at the Old Cottage Coffee Shop in Charlton Park delivered cards, gifts and Christmas meals to older people on 25 December. Some 120 local people helped out by chipping in with cards, gifts and donations.

They’re doing it again this year. Can you help the cafe’s Mimi and Michael by donating gifts and writing cards? If you can, drop in at the cafe (open Wed-Sun, 9am-4pm) or drop them a message on Twitter (@oldcoffeeshop).

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Charlton Neighbourhood Forum: Now it’s your chance to have your say on the idea

Darryl Chamberlain
Charlton riverside
The forum aims to involve local people in the redevelopment of Charlton’s riverside as well as the rest of SE7

Plans for a neighbourhood forum for Charlton – which could allow local people to have a greater say in new developments in the area – have taken a big step forward with Greenwich Council launching a consultation into the idea.

Residents can now have their say on the idea, put forward by the Charlton Neighbourhood Forum, that a neighbourhood plan should be put together for the SE7 area.

Only two other neighbourhood forums exist in Greenwich borough at the moment – the Moorings forum, which covers a small part of Thamesmead, and the Lee Forum, which extends into Lewisham borough.

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

While both groups have received town hall recognition, neither have yet had a plan approved.

There is also the question of just how seriously Greenwich will take any forum at first. At last night’s full meeting of the council, Conservative opposition leader Nigel Fletcher wrongly thought that the Charlton forum was the first in the borough. (Fletcher has been in touch to say that he misspoke, and meant to say that Greenwich had not yet approved any plans.)

Then the council’s deputy leader, Denise Scott-McDonald – who wasn’t listening to his question and had to have it repeated to her – seemed unaware of the Thamesmead forum, despite it being the only one wholly within the borough.

But if a forum can get a neighbourhood plan together, then by law the council and developers have to abide by it. And while there is a masterplan for the Charlton Riverside, there is nothing at all for the rest of the area, apart from the borough-wide commitments in Greenwich’s local plan.

And if you’ve ever listened to the average Greenwich councillor bumble around issues of planning or public realm (like the exchange above) and thought you could do better… this is your chance.

The proposed area would cover all of Charlton as well as very small parts of east Greenwich (industrial and retail sites off Horn Lane) and Woolwich (the old Siemens site which is due for redevelopment as Faraday Works), which come under the Charlton Riverside masterplan.

You can find the consultation on the Greenwich Council website until January 14. And if you have any questions, then you can ask the Charlton Neighbourhood Forum at its meeting on Saturday.

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Charlton parking permit zone plans announced: is your street included?

Darryl Chamberlain
Wonky CPZ sign
Many residents are frustrated with the council’s lack of action on bad parking

Many households in Charlton will have had a thumping great envelope thwack onto their doormats last week – Greenwich Council has finally got around to unveiling its plans for extending Charlton’s controlled parking zone (CPZ), two years after carrying out a survey into it.

Most of Charlton is already in the CPZ – but much of the area still permits free parking regardless. That will change if the council’s plans go through, with drivers in most streets between the A102 and Maryon Wilson Park set to need £107 annual permits.

With the growth in back-street traffic over the years and complaints about retail park customers parking up in side streets, much of this was probably inevitable, although some streets close to the A102 – where finding a space is less of a problem – may feel a little hard done by.

But if you regard lots of parking as a problem, there are some baffling omissions. Most of Victoria Way, home to vans which don’t move for weeks or even months at a time, would remain free for anyone to dump their old bangers on. As would nearby Tallis Grove, Highcombe and Bramhope Lane, which would find themselves squeezed between streets gaining restrictions.

Nor are there plans for permits in Charlton Park Road, where drivers frequently leave their motors where they like, with little enforcement. You may know of other omissions.

If you want to check whether your street is affected, download the maps at royalgreenwich.gov.uk/charltoncpz – the consultation lasts until 13 December.

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