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The Decision Notice was issued on 12 November, refusing permission to extend to two storeys, on the grounds of overshadowing, being out of character and lack of a parking plan. The DN can be viewed here. 7 November 2020: Better late than never! Safety signs have now been attached to the newly whitewashed hoarding and shrubbery/trees around the building cut down, making the spectre of a second storey above what exists even more over-dominatng, due to its extremely close proximity to the Greenwood Centre - not even a metre between. It would reduce light into the hall from the front windows, which are the main source of natural light, apart from the glass fire exit doors at the side rear end. How can the second storey be built without access to the side adjacent to the Centre and how will the exterior be maintained? There is barely room for a man to squeeze between the boundary wall and the building, so neither a ladder nor scaffolding could be erected there. Since there is less than one metre between the two buildings, another query is how the public conveniences came to be built that close to the wall in the first place! Should not a second storey be at least one metre from the boundary? The building line in the High Street is not clear but houses from number 8 upwards have a much longer frontage and lie further back from the road, so it is questionable why the public conveniences were built extending twelve feet in front of the Centre. Surely now is the time to have this corrected, not exacerbated by allowing a second storey to be added? LBB's Planning Department have still not made a decision on the planning application but it is hoped that, should they not reject it, a Planning Committee will be allowed to consider it before a decision is finalised. Our local ward Councillor, Mike Botting, has made that request.
28 July 2020
Only four years later and now another planning application has just been submitted to increase the building by adding another floor and squeezing in four offices, a kitchen and a toilet. The plans and elevations are below. However, the site area indicated includes some land which is not owned by Malekos Estates Commercial Ltd (sic Georgios Malekos, sole director), including the front verge, which provides the only access to the site. Surely this would be an excessive overdevelopment which will overlook gardens in Manitoba Gardens. It is an unattractive design, totally out of character with the area and on that side of the High Street, it is completely residential. Having measured the building from the outside, allowing for the central staircase and wall thickness, the three larger offices will be approximately 12ft x 18.5ft, which converts to 51 cubic metres, assuming ceiling height is 8ft - this allows accommodation for 4 persons (11 cubic metres per person). The smaller office will be approximately 12ft x 9ft, converting to 25 cubic metres, allowing accommodation for 2 persons. The plans only show one desk for the smaller office and two for the others but it does not stop a user squeezing in more legally, which would mean there COULD be 14 persons regularly on the site. Bike racks appear on the plans but there is NO on site parking, regardless of the fact that there is no vehicular access to the site and the Council would not approve a new dropped verge at that location, due to the pedestrian crossing. The Association had a battle to prove that their and the resident at number 6's driveway and dropped kerb had been in position long before Orpington Urban District Council put in the pedestrian crossing in the 1960s. Due to this, the apparently incongruous entrance and exit from number 6 and the Centre is allowable. Local residents will, no doubt, object to this development on parking grounds, as well as overlooking Manitoba Gardens properties, overdevelopment impacting on the Greenwood Centre and being totally out of character for the area, as there are no other modern flat roof buildings in the High Street. There are also access/right of way considerations, which would need to be overcome before any development could begin and the fact that there is a fire exit route from the back of the Centre, coming out into the High Street, from the side of the former public conveniences building, which has been in use as such for nearly 40 years. This is essential, particularly for the pre-school, and must be preserved. The full documentation can be viewed on the Planning Portal here: Planning Applications (enter 20/02569) |
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