You raise a series of valid concerns that the developer is going to need to address but it shouldn't be impossible to build housing on this location. Just on the other side of the railway bridge, Olympic Heights was built a few years ago and seems to provide reasonable quality accommodation. The portacabin site is larger, so it should be possible to build something there.

The flats on Perry Vale (City Walk) were built with triple glazing on the front and residents there complain more about the ballroom (behind the site) than the traffic and trains.

When I spoke to the developer, they said they plan for all units to be dual-aspect. I suggested that it might be nice to have better lighting under the railway bridge, and that could be provided as part of the section 106 contribution.

My main concern would be a retail unit that fails on the site. It is a challenging site for a shop due to the poor access for cars and pedestrians, but if the rental levels were appropriate I could imagine that something could work.

So I'm not sure exactly what should go on the site, but I'm really pleased to see it being used for something, and if reasonable quality housing can be built on the site, I think we should welcome that, given the limited space available in Forest Hill for new house building.