Faircharm Development in Deptford People Before Profit letter to press on Planning issues.

Why does Lewisham planning committee keep voting through unpopular, unsightly residential developments which offer precious little social housing? The dispersal of the artists’ community round Faircharm will reduce local incomes, remove a distinctive feature of Lewisham’s economy and replace it with another featureless development. On Thursday 18^th April the same committee nodded through detailed planning permission for the development of a parcel of land by Lewisham roundabout currently occupied by the bus layover next to the main train station together with the area of rough grass.  The scheme will build two blocks of 25 and 15 storeys consisting of 193 residential units and 518sq m of retail and cafe space. A tiny plot of land in the middle of these skyscrapers will form a new ‘park’. The bus layover will move to the former travellers’ site on Thurston Road (adjacent to Carpet Right) causing traffic chaos at junctions along Loampit Vale. There is NO affordable housing, NO social housing, NO guarantee that the developers will not seek buyers abroad (as they did for the Loampit Vale development) and NO additional medical facilities, schools or other infrastructure for the additional population.

Sensible concerns put forward by objectors get drowned in subjective opinion that such schemes will ‘improve the public realm’.

Why do these councillors decide to destroy local communities, worsen air quality with more congested public transport and imperil still further the capacity of the area to care for the health and education of its residents? Do they really believe it will ‘improve the public realm’ or are they terrified that the developers will find a means of suing if they don’t pass these money-grabbing schemes? If the latter is the case, it means that they are prepared to make us the victims of brute financial power. Shame on them.

Helen Mercer

People before Profit


Lewisham People Before profit lead the fight in Lewisham on planning issues, we have just set up a new working group on planning to further insure social housing, Jobs for  local people, community and environmental concerns are at the very centre of planning, instead of at present a Labour Council in bed with the Developers for cash and no benefit to the people of Lewisham, which is why Lewisham People before Profit is growing so fast as a political movement,  with Councillors we hope elected across the Borough in 2014 Local elections.
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