Dear Neighbour
More from Redrow’s Brief to Architects (above) competing to design a development of 1500 to 2000 dwellings at Kempton Park.
The plans above show some of Redrow’s conceptual thoughts about how the site will be divided up. Note the high density blocks of flats pencilled in for the area bordering the racecourse. Shops and community buildings will be in the south near the present entrance to the western part of the Kempton Park estate. Substantially more money will buy you “larger properties set within generous plots” to the north of the site.
But take a look at that northern area, and compare it with the initial plan of the site (below) included in the one of the many presentations that The Jockey Club made to Spelthorne Council in 2013.
The yellow area on the 2013 plan labelled the “Area of Research” stops just south of Half Moon Covert and the small lake immediately to its north. The hatched area in the middle of that green area is labelled “Site of Nature Conservation Importance”.
The Brief to Architects from 2014/2015, however, shows dwellings more or less enclosing that “Site of Nature Conservation Importance” on three sides. Short of bulldozing that Covert, we can’t think of anything more likely to drive into exile whatever wildlife lives there.
Meanwhile, in another part of the Borough, three councillors have been helping the police with their enquiries into the potential sale of the Bridge Street car park in Staines. Click here and here .
Kind regards
Keep Kempton Green
From the Surrey Advertiser 15 May 2015
From Private Eye No 1392
Dear Neighbour
You may remember that in January this year we attended a meeting of the Runnymede Borough Planning Committee at which the Terms of Reference were discussed for the SHMA Joint Member Liaison Group – a joint Spelthorne/Runnymede committee to discuss the Strategic Housing Market Assessment which is required as part of the Review of our Local Plan. The Terms of Reference were openly debated at that meeting. That same evening, however, Spelthorne considered exactly the same document in a closed-to-the-public meeting of the Local Plan Working Party, and the document itself was marked CONFIDENTIAL.
Well, surprise, surprise, it’s happening again. A firm of consultants – GL Hearn – were engaged by both Boroughs to produce this Strategic Housing Market Assessment. A draft report was made public at the Runnymede Planning Committee on 17 September last year (click here and here). Since then, update reports on this issue have been made regularly to the Runnymede Planning Committee by Runnymede Planning Officers.
At Spelthorne? Effectively, nothing.
The subject has been mentioned at two Spelthorne Cabinet meetings. But nothing more than mentioned. The Cabinet, by definition, is made up solely of the ruling party at Spelthorne, and so there was no debate – at all. Click here to see the Timeline.
We asked the Head of Planning at Spelthorne whether the draft GL Hearn report had been discussed by any Spelthorne body involving Spelthorne Councillors. He confirmed it had not.
Why is it that we have to go to a neighbouring borough to find out what is going on?
Kind regards
Keep Kempton Green
Dear Neighbour
Above is a plan showing an initial concept for the development at Kempton Park. It is from a Brief to Architects competing to design the new suburb that the Jockey Club wants to build on this stretch of Green Belt. The document is part of a masterplan from the Redrow era – the latter half of 2014 onwards. Redrow is the Jockey Club’s preferred developer for the site.
The numbers in bold around the image show the conceptual number of dwellings in each area of the site. Adding them all up gives a range of between 1365 and 1967 dwellings. Other drawings from the document can be seen by clicking here and here.
Preparing the way – clearing the air, as it were – Kempton Park gave the Kempton Park Model Flying Club notice to quit late last year, after 26 years at Kempton Park. They now have a year’s tenure at a cricket ground closer into London, during which they will have to find a more permanent home. A rather melancholy last flight took place on Thursday last week.
Our guide to the local and parliamentary elections is available by clicking here. The Spelthorne Liberal Democrats have sent in their response to the Spelthorne Conservative candidates’ collective answers to our three questions – click here to read it.
Kind regards
Keep Kempton Green
Keep Kempton Green 