Dear Mr Regan:

I would like to get involved in the Development Management Local Plan (DMLP) and help shape its content, but I cannot be at the meeting this evening.

I would like the DMLP to address directly the question of how we can get enough of the sorts of places where people want to live - and work - in Lewisham, with appropriate consideration taken of the environment. Development control should be mainly about basics, such as safety, and flexibility, so that the existing stock of buildings can be reused for whatever changed uses are sought. Flexibility here refers not just to the present, but any future changes; if the current pressure is for fewer bedrooms, then this should be accepted, but developments which make properties harder to convert one way or the other later should be resisted. Conversions of existing offices and retail space to residential should be accepted, and seen as opportunities for architects to show how it can be done well. It is a shame that so many local pubs are threatened by the pressure for more housing, but we also have the example, in the Sylvan Post, of redundant office space being successfully converted to a pub.

This morning I saw the following retweet from a member of one of our local amenity societies:



Please don't let Lewisham be the bureaucracy which holds back professional creativity.

There should also be a recognition that the immediate concerns which development naturally raises, e.g. the need for more local services, should be offset by the additional resources development brings to the Council, now incremented via the New Homes Bonus, and in principle available via the provisions of the Localism Act to benefit the areas where the development occurs directly. Development will also increase the viability of local businesses, and a more vibrant urban community, beyond purely commercial considerations.