Hawks Road Clinic Consultation

 

 

 

Hawks Road Clinic Planning Consultation 

Hawks Road Clinic is  the place where many of us have just had our vaccinations. It was also the place where 39 years ago my  son was weighed and had all his health checks. In fact we have had virtually everything checked at some stage including podiatry, dental and eye checks.

 

A developer wants to build 122 flats on the site of the Clinic. The tallest building, near the corner of Hawks & Cambridge roads would be 13 storeys. Public consultation starts around 21 October, ahead of planning application expected in March. Lets remind ourselves of the environment before the site was made development ready.

The photo below is of cuckoo flower aka Jack in the hedge or ladies smock; the grass is often covered with it in the Spring. Cuckooflower, is a pretty,  perennial of  damp, grassy place. It likes wet meadows, ditches and riverbanks, as well as roadside verges and for the time being, it grows here. 

 

It grows on Ham Lands and there are small patches of it on Tolworth Court Farm. It used to grow at Coombe Wood GC before it became intensively managed, there were records of it at Holy Cross School and Worcester Park SW (before that was developed) and along the Hogsmill. Its pale pink flowers bloom from April to June and are thought to coincide with the arrival of the first cuckoo.

 

 

 

This is part of a stand of trees that was a landmark for many years along Hawks road. The largest was a 'Tree of Heaven', but there was the  substantial canopy of a Norway maple and several silver birches. The tree schedule is below and I have a copy of  the Tree Report.

 

 

This is a blackbird gathering earth worms and the longshot shows where the nest was (near the yellow railings. The bird is in the centre of the picture.

 

  

 

Then the land owner decided to get the site ready for development and six of the trees were felled. I wrote to the NHS Property Service in May 2019 under the Environmental Regulations Act and asked for the following information:

1. A copy of the tree report that informed these works.
2. The reason why these trees were felled.
3. Why they were felled in the bird breeding season? (I had only taken a
photo of a breeding blackbird the week before);
4. Was it necessary to stump grind the remains releasing the carbon that these trees
sequester?
5. When can we expect to see replacement trees?
6. Were the trees felled in order to remove constraints for the a sale of the property?

 

I was given a comprehensive response to my request Reference: PSC-30824-D6P5:

• A nest check was carried out before the trees were felled;
• The stump grinding process was deemed necessary for the health and safety of those that may access the site following the works.
• Replacement trees will be located appropriately on site as part of the healthcare led redevelopment of this site.
• We are progressing a scheme to provide a new health centre to serve the community to, which it is located in. This has been discussed with the CCG, both Kingston’s Planning Department and Cambridge Road Estate Regeneration Team, as well as the Greater London Authority. In discussions with all departments, having been provided with both the tree survey and proposed redevelopment, it has been widely known that these trees needed to be felled but were to be replaced by new trees where appropriate as part of the new scheme proposed.
  

But it doesn't look like they left any room for trees or a clinic in the proposed 13 storey development does it?   London Square asserts it acceptable to erect 123 dwellings where open space provision is  inadequate, in fact, in an Area of Deficiency of Access to open space. 

 

Barton Wilmore acting for Kingston Council on the Cambridge road estate regen circumvented this by attesting that Kingston Cemetery could be used for recreation. 

 

The consultants seem to think that being able to look from afar or intuit the open spaces unavailable to them as satifactory criteria for justifying this density as they have included Cambridge Grove Gardens green spaces; Winery Lane and Hogsmill Community Garden among the amenity  areas. They state that each resident will have access to their own private amenity space in the form of a balcony.

 

HAWKS ROAD CONSULTATION courtesy Sunflower Streets RA

Consultation	Claimed there was nowhere nearer to the actual site to hold the event on the occasions / times of their choosing, and wanted to avoid half term in case people were away. Said were happy to liaise with local residents’ associations, etc.
Deal	Options contract (which is pretty common with developers) so land still currently owned by NHS properties London Square therefore will use option period to apply for and secure planning permissions required for development to go ahead. Told by one person that it was a joint application with the NHS, but the architect then said this wasn’t true.
Housing plans	They guestimate that 123 apartments will correlate with around 325 people. Plans say they are committed to providing 50% of the homes on the site as affordable homes, of which 70% will be London Affordable Rent and 30% shared ownership. This means 61 properties are private (marked as blue on the plans, so the tower block) and 62 are affordable. The affordable are marked as yellow on the plans, and 18 are shared ownership. Will be emailing to get clarity on the affordable element as the architect claimed that the 18 shared ownership equated to social housing, but that doesn’t seem to match the UK government descriptions we’ve found (and surely RBK would be delighted to have 18 new social homes if that were the case) London Square has an in-house affordable housing division, Square Roots, who will be the housing association managing these apartments. They claim that even some of the flats currently proposed as private for the purposes of the planning application will be shared ownership - this is something they’ll change after planning, and is something they did with their recent Crescent Road application.
On-site facilities	No plans for extra health facilities Original intention was pure residential but RBK indicated they would like some community / commercial provision on the ground floor. No current indication of how - if community - this will complement the proposed CRE community facilities. Whilst the sale will help NHS Properties, that is the NHS real estate arm so there is no guarantee that any of the funds will be channelled back into Kingston.
Height & density	Only gone for 13 because of the CRE precedent and to “complete” the wall / edge effect of the regen plans. Architect felt this wasn’t too dense for the site space, but kept referring to how the site mirrors the CRE plans. Confirmed that the actual height of the two 13 storey buildings won’t be the same, and the Hawks one will be a few metres lower. We were told this is because the ground floor of the C1 CRE building - part of the community centre - is double height.
Planning	Have agreed with RBK that they won’t submit the Hawks Road Clinic plans until CRE has secured planning permission. This means that if the CRE gets approval with plans for a 13-storey building on the Hawks Road corner (C1), the London Square plan will continue to propose 13 storeys on their site. However, if C1 (or potentially the 12-storey C2 on the other side of the community centre) have to be lowered, the Hawks Road Clinic application will also have to lower the height to reflect the wider CRE height.
Working with CRE	London Square will be meeting with Countryside / RBK in the coming weeks to ensure the proposal mirrors the materials / feel etc of the CRE plans. They will also discuss access requirements and potential shared use of the new access road during Phases 1 and 2  / ensuring the busy junction works ok / traffic management. However, Hawks Clinic developers are confident that - even without CRE - they will be able to access their site ok. Worth remembering that should CRE not get planning, Hawks Clinic site will still function as a stand-alone project - albeit with lower proposed height to reflect the neighbourhood (ie: no high-rise precedent)
Biodiversity	Referred to the GLA Urban Greening Factor guidance, and how the site will need to reflect this. Also claimed that the twin 13 storey towers will help highlight the proposed Green Street. Were unable to explain how this is better than lower-rise buildings which would open up the Green Street better. They do plan to widen the pavement alongside the site, to mirror that currently outside Trade Systems (junction of Hawks Road and Portman Road)
Parking	Only parking provision is 4 disabled parking spaces. Occupants will need to sign an agreement that they don’t have a vehicle. Occupants won’t be able to apply for local residents parking permit