SE23.com - The Official Forum for Forest Hill & Honor Oak, London SE23
Online since 2002   11,000+ members   72,000+ posts

Home | SE23 Topics | Businesses & Services | Wider Topics | Offered/Wanted/Lost/Found | About SE23.com | Advertising | Contact | |
 Armstrong & Co Solicitors



Post Reply  Post Topic 
Housing Development next to Capitol Pub - Removal of Trees
Author Message
FNicoll


Posts: 9
Joined: Jun 2008
Post: #1
06-06-2008 12:35 PM

Approval was granted to build 4 wooden houses on land adjacent to Capitol Pub and Remove trees for this construction development.

This wooden house development in a conservation area was even pushed through by Lewisham Planning & approved by a planning committee.

Is Forest Hill now overdeveloped and does the loss of these trees in the centre of Forest Hill impact everyone in Forest Hill?

Please contact Forest Hill Society and Forest Hill Ward Councillors if you dissaprove this, as the local residents have to be supported on this and somehow we need a way to overturn this decision.

Thanks,
Fraser

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
brian


Posts: 2,002
Joined: Apr 2005
Post: #2
06-06-2008 01:42 PM

I am afraid nothing surprises me anymore. UK , London and Forest Hill all overcrowded. They will not be happy until every green spot is built on and every tree cut down.
There is zero employment in F Hill except locals shops and various state and local authority job. Everyone has to work somewhere else.
All right there are not enough houses for people who want to live in London ( that figure could be hundreds of millions if asked worldwide ). It will NOT be solved by building more and more , it is rather like building more roads does not solve transport problems.
I am dismayed by our concil and would welcome a response. I expect they will say Nat Govt forcing them to do this and probably right.
Why not build over Mayow Park.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
michael


Posts: 3,255
Joined: Mar 2005
Post: #3
06-06-2008 01:48 PM

Mayow Park is recognised as a green space. Back gardens are regarded as brownfield sites. Mayor Boris wishes to change that so that there is some protection for back gardens.

But with the Euro now at a high level against the pound, and wages in Poland having risen substantially over the last couple of years, perhaps the demand for housing in London will be reduced.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
brian


Posts: 2,002
Joined: Apr 2005
Post: #4
06-06-2008 01:55 PM

Michael you may be right but my point is that just because there is a demand for something does not mean it should be met.
We are already more crowded in Se 23 than we have ever been I would think. I can think of many 3 bedroom small family homes that now house far more people than originally intended.
Hopefully also the property crash will persuade the devolpmers to at least pospone

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
blushingsnail


Posts: 371
Joined: Dec 2005
Post: #5
06-06-2008 02:39 PM

FNicoll wrote:
Is Forest Hill now overdeveloped and does the loss of these trees in the centre of Forest Hill impact everyone in Forest Hill?


Does the loss of those trees impact ANYONE in Forest Hill, apart from a few people whose homes look out onto that plot of land?

brian wrote:
There is zero employment in F Hill except locals shops and various state and local authority job.


Which actually account for quite a few jobs. What do you expect: factories, farming, shipbuilding?! If someone where to build a whacking great office block in the centre of Forest Hill we'd be complaining about that too.

brian wrote:
Everyone has to work somewhere else.


Most people commute to work - that's always been the case. Most local people haven't worked within walking distance of their homes since this area was farmland.

brian wrote:
UK , London and Forest Hill all overcrowded.


Define overcrowded. There may have been an increase in residents (which should be easy to prove statistically) but how can you say when a place is overcrowded? We're not running short of electricity or water (although try telling that to people on the hill with low water pressure!), there's no shortage of food in the shops, traffic is busy but not gridlocked, people aren't living ten to a room.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
FNicoll


Posts: 9
Joined: Jun 2008
Post: #6
06-06-2008 02:42 PM

Agreed we are overbuilding in Forest Hill and this is still ongoing as there will remain speculation for the New Tube line.

The Mayor may not be in favour of garden developments, but this is still at a planning stage and would probably not be able to overturn retrospective decisions.

Have developers, planning officers and planning committees become Untouchables and out of touch with the local residents.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
FNicoll


Posts: 9
Joined: Jun 2008
Post: #7
06-06-2008 02:48 PM

Not quite PC but in a house that will be directly in front of the new development, however from an observation of the number in & out and the industrial scale washing there were last cound 15 people living in one of the houses on the main road (I suspect it is a 3 bedroom house), the houses are to be surrounded on all sides by buildings, the people living in the wooden houses would feel like they are in a rabbit hut. This is packing people into a confined area and in terms of density would be arguably overcrowding.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Johnc


Posts: 138
Joined: Jan 2007
Post: #8
06-06-2008 02:57 PM

Blushingsnail, I feel that all trees in London are important whether I can see them or not, since they are part of makes up where we live. John Donne sums it is up very well in his famous poem

"No man is an island, entire of itself
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main
if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls
it tolls for thee. "

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
FNicoll


Posts: 9
Joined: Jun 2008
Post: #9
06-06-2008 02:59 PM

Yes - the loss of trees does impact us locally in Forest Hill, we even have a London Mayor now promoting that we should not cut down trees either.

We are hypocrites criticising other countries for cutting down trees when we are doing likewise, just for our local housing developers profit margins, hey - I bet these guy's do not even live locally.

Forest Hill is not leaving much of a heritage behind to the next generation. I am not a tree hugger, but I genuinely believe the presence of mature trees beside the Capitol Pub will be more pleasant to have and look at, even from road level than 4 wooden houses (which by nature of the material have a short life span).

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Theotherbrian


Posts: 95
Joined: Mar 2005
Post: #10
06-06-2008 05:30 PM

I agree that there are far too many trees being cut down in the area. I have bored you all before with my bemoaning the cavalier attitude of LBL towards our greenery and compare this with the greening of Southwark just next-door and that comparison is not good. I would like to see a similar comprehensive tree planting strategy in the borough and anyway, being a tree-hugger is no bad thing, is it?

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
ForestGump


Posts: 202
Joined: Jan 2008
Post: #11
06-06-2008 06:45 PM

In 2005 the council employed a company to go round and find sites suitable for at least 2 units. A list of over 120 was drawn up and reduced to 50 priority sites that were put before the Mayor for approval. The list is secret so what purpose does it serve?

I do wonder if the open space by The pools is on the list.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Perryman


Posts: 820
Joined: Dec 2006
Post: #12
07-06-2008 01:57 AM

"I do wonder if the open space by The pools is on the list."

Open space? You cannot mean the park, as that land has been assigned a usage and has been developed and maintained as a park for a considerable time.

It seems every week another sizeable tree in SE23 is being felled - there should be a rule where if a tree must be chopped down, another tree is planted nearby to replace it.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
baggydave


Posts: 390
Joined: May 2004
Post: #13
09-06-2008 09:52 PM

I doubt whether Lewisham planning department give a pooh about our area, that is the conclusion I have reached after some of the recent planning decisions. It would be interesting to hear any planning officers views on this, that is if any of them live round here. Probably reside in other boroughs.

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
sydenhamcentral


Posts: 269
Joined: Mar 2008
Post: #14
09-06-2008 10:01 PM

Open space? You cannot mean the park, as that land has been assigned a usage and has been developed and maintained as a park for a considerable time.
I wouldn't use the word maintained...have you been in recently? It's a large dog toilet! I've never seen so much poo!

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Woody
No Longer Registered

Posts: 61
Joined: Oct 2006
Post: #15
10-06-2008 07:35 AM

ForestGump wrote:
In 2005 the council employed a company to go round and find sites suitable for at least 2 units. A list of over 120 was drawn up and reduced to 50 priority sites that were put before the Mayor for approval. The list is secret so what purpose does it serve?

I do wonder if the open space by The pools is on the list.


You can always submit a request to Lewisham under the Freedom of Information Act asking them to disclose the complete list. See here:

http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/CouncilAndDem...formation/

Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply

Friends of Blythe Hill Fields