Oldest conservation group joins fight to 'save Richmond Hill' (From Your Local Guardian)
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Oldest conservation group joins fight to 'save Richmond Hill'
1:00pm Wednesday 1st February 2012 in Richmond By Christine Fleming
Britain’s oldest conservation body has joined a campaign to save the views from Richmond Hill.
The Open Spaces society said they had written to the Mayor of London and the Secretary of State for Culture urging them to adopt a lower alternative, to a proposed high-residential block at Twickenham station, in order to preserve the view.
Kate Ashbrook, the society’s general secretary, said: “The Open Spaces Society was instrumental in saving Petersham and Ham Commons for the public and preserving the view from Richmond Hill.
“Over a century later, we shall fight just as hard to protect this same view from a high-rise development.”
The Open Spaces Society was champion of the original Richmond Hill, Petersham and Ham Act 1902, which was designed to protect the view from Richmond Hill.
Comments(26)
bandit63
says...
4:38pm Wed 1 Feb 12
twickerman
says...
6:13pm Wed 1 Feb 12
But, both went quiet about the second application which still features 8 and 9 storey tower blocks.
This only adds to the 'Tory conspiracy' theories that explain why the 5 Tory Councillors on the planning committee all decided to ignore the Council's own DMP policy specifying a maximum height of 4-5 storeys at the station.
Regal House, Travelodge and the station tower blocks will appear as one massive, ugly lump of development when viewed from Richmond Hill.
The will appear even larger, darker and more sinister closer up, particularly from the platforms and neighbouring roads.
Well done to the Open Spaces Society.
We need as many people as possible to write to Boris to let him know that high-rise station development is hugely damaging to the local area and (as agreed by the planning committee) will cause demonstrable harm to local residents.
Hopefully, the prospect of losing thousands of Richmond and Twickenham votes in the Mayoral election will encourage Boris to refuse the station application or determine it himself.
Write to: mayor@london.gov.uk
Twickenham resident
says...
9:15pm Wed 1 Feb 12
Wouldn't it be great to hear from Richmond Hill resident and environmentalist, Sir David Attenborough and Zac Goldsmith, Richmond MP too.
Looking down from Richmond Hill today at Regal House and Travelodge (the plasterer of which should be publically named....), I imagined what the view will look like when the monstrous Solum development is built. Ghastly. The protected view for miles will be spoilt forever.
Before those boring people start accusing me of nimbysim (yes you know who you are), try standing at the top of Richmond Hill and looking down at the iconic view of the river and Ham House. Then imagine if developers had their way and had built three tower blocks in the middle of Petersham Meadow. Views like this in Greater London are rare and worth fighting for. Get the idea?
Yes, improvements to Twickenham Station are desperately needed and CAN be achieved - it doesn't require high rise, horrible boxes to pay for them.
There was an army of yellow jacket clad men taking technical photos of the Station area today, so are we to presume Solum is pressing ahead with it's destruction plans regardless of the fact that Boris has yet to comment....?
PS The Cabbage Patch exterior is looking great and a great example of how to sympathetically improve the look of this gateway to the Town.
PhillipTaylor
says...
11:22pm Wed 1 Feb 12
I did not know that our treasured view was being so seriously threatened even though I do not like the level of this high rise development peaking out of the trees across the river as commentators have suggested.
It would be great to see a projected computer picture of what this new Twickenham Station complex will actually look like from the top of Richmond Hill Terrace if an obliging architect or planner could produce it.
We might then have an idea of how 'The View' will be altered as I cannot picture it at the moment after all the guff we have heard on this scheme which seems to just confuse matters further.
The question must be- surely a high rise development of this bulk and complexity will damage the Richmond Hill Terrace view: yes, or no? There is no half way measure on it.
Phillip Taylor
Concerned_Resident
says...
11:53pm Wed 1 Feb 12
I personally can't imagine this would do too much damage to the view. It's not like it'll be blocking it, but rather just adding to it as an additional landmark to the ones already identifiable. Granted, it won't be amazing architecture, but at least it's not a gas works or similar.
PhillipTaylor
says...
1:06pm Thu 2 Feb 12
The first paragraph of your posting is personal attack rubbish and unnecessarily nasty with its twisted, warped interpretation of a simple posting by me.
It is pathetic of you!
Perhaps you would have the courage to tell us who you really are when you issue this sort of posting instead of hiding your identity?
I am trying to make a constructive comment on an application which has been approved by this Council but may well be stopped at a higher level- your 'nice man' jibe is particularly unpleasant and unnecessary when there is a real debate going on in the community.
Phillip Taylor
Gareth Roberts
says...
1:28pm Thu 2 Feb 12
As for the philanthropy which could fund a computer aided model to demonstrate fully the impact of the Station Development on the view, well where to find such a generous person? If only there was, in the constituency of Richmond Park, a suitably high profile person, perhaps a holder of an elected office, who is a multi-millionaire and therefore would be well placed to fund such an altruistic scheme...........
twickerman
says...
2:33pm Thu 2 Feb 12
Not surprisingly Solum presented a photo from Richmond Hill taken late on a hazy day when the sun was on the far side of Regal House.
Even the Shard would have been invisible in such conditions!
The results would have been completelly different and demonstrably harmful if they had used a photo taken on a clear morning.
PhillipTaylor
says...
5:55pm Thu 2 Feb 12
I would say that your style of posting is hardly sympathetic, either, Gareth!
You continually attack the Tories without justification- there is such a thing as hyper-criticism and that is the problem the LibDems have here now as they naval gaze because they continually fail when given power as the electorate see through them- it must upset the dwindling rank and file Liberal membership here as you haven't got a story to tell any more.
Your point about a computer model (which would not be costly anyway and was just an idea ) is both cheap and offensive in its dig towards 'you know who' (who you do not name) in Richmond and quite unnecessary to the general debate on whether we will see this station monstrosity or not. A good tip for the Liberals round here is to "get real" for a change.
Presumably you are also 'Concerned Resident' Gareth?
Yours philanthropically
Phillip Taylor
Dan Filson
says...
9:22pm Thu 2 Feb 12
Concerned_Resident
says...
10:33pm Thu 2 Feb 12
I agree that there has been a lot of opinion on the station matter. I do however feel that it's a pretty disrespectful for someone who has been, and continues to try to be (as of May 2010), an elected representative, describing people's worries as "guff". It would appear as though this opinion goes through the Conservative party locally as they forced through the application!
Sincerely,
Gareth Roberts
Liberal Democrat Councillor
(Sorry Cllr Roberts, but we must give them what they want - a warped view of reality where everything's a conspiracy.)
Gareth Roberts
says...
11:46pm Thu 2 Feb 12
Quite a loss of face there, Phil!
Concerned_Resident
says...
10:04am Fri 3 Feb 12
twickerman
says...
10:32am Fri 3 Feb 12
Currently, this seems to be their default operating mode.
Take a look at Virginia Morris's press release on Planning Policies (01/02/2012) in which she states:
'The Solum process started some years ago when the last Mayor of London had a tall buildings policy which covered this site'.
'Future applications, such as the sorting office, will be judged using the latest planning policies'.
In fact, 'the latest planning policies' were adopted before the planning officers wrote their report on the station development and before the planning committee heard the application, therefore they carried full weight.
One of the policies, the station SPD, that Virginia Morris was actively involved in writing, was approved before either of Solum's station applications were submitted.
It is highly disturbing that Planning officers and the Conservative committee members chose to ignore their own policies which should have limited height to a maximum of 4-5 storeys. Approving developmentof 8 and 9 storey blocks, and then claiming in the press release that 'it's much better than what could have been built' is scandalous.
If the Mayor allows the station development to go ahead it will permanently scar Twickenham and views of it from Richmond.
The Council's decision has shown that the Council won't hesitate to ignore its own policies to satisfy greedy developers who offer big enough financial contributions.
Thus, we can expect more high rise tower blocks on the sorting office site, but at least for Richmond residents these will be largely screened by the station development. Twickenham residents will be less fortunate.
Gareth Roberts
says...
12:40pm Fri 3 Feb 12
Twickerman is quite right. Readers with a long memory will remember the 2002-2006 administration's attempt to flog off the North Lane Car Park in Tedddington to a developer and they came rather unstuck
Concerned_Resident
says...
12:44pm Fri 3 Feb 12
I am sure you are a very nice man, Cllr Roberts, but both locally represented parties have done some pretty poor things.
Gareth Roberts
says...
2:25pm Fri 3 Feb 12
RiverLover
says...
3:21pm Fri 3 Feb 12
Gareth Roberts
says...
3:26pm Fri 3 Feb 12
Coming up next on the list "Lloyd George and Home Rule for Ireland"!
twickerman
says...
4:35pm Fri 3 Feb 12
Coincidentally, this has come just days before the official opening party of Travelodge Twickenham (Wed 12.30pm)
Watch out Richmond, you'll soon have your own cheap, nasty and very poorly finished Travelodge.
If you don't believe me about the finish, please come and take a look when it is illuminated - you won't know whether to laugh or cry.
Twickenham resident
says...
6:36pm Sat 4 Feb 12
To dredge up previous / inherited planning policies is irrelevant.
Twickenham Bob
says...
1:54am Sun 5 Feb 12
Its noticeable how the Tories who paint themselves as champions of the regeneration of Twickenham are silent on this issue - yet this is exactly the type of thing that causes areas to decline and look rundown.
I bet the internal rooms are noisy and don't meet building regulations - & I doubt the council has bothered to do a proper inspection and test it.
In terms of the station, the more people the contact the Major the better.
Julie Hill
says...
4:12pm Sun 5 Feb 12
I know this is off the thread topic but on the subject of planning controls - what do people think about the neon sign that has been added to The Cabbage Patch pub in Twickenham?
Travelodge's original signage application was rejected so allowing this one at the Cabbage Patch will surely give Travelodge the green light to reapply and light up the sky.
There seems to be absolutely no consistency whatsoever in the decisions coming out of Richmond Council's planning dept.
Concerned_Resident
says...
10:07pm Sun 5 Feb 12
Julie Hill
says...
8:31am Mon 6 Feb 12
The need planning permission to erect such large luminated signage and The Cabbage Patch is on the edge of a conservation area.
They currently do not have permission and there does not appear to have been any publicising of the application which I have found here:
http://www2.richmond
.gov.uk/PlanData2/Pl
anning_CaseNo.aspx?s
trCASENO=11/4106/ADV
Looking at the illustrations online, they bear little resemblance to the sign that is in place and show many ore uplighters and downlights to further illuminate the area - opposite a busy main junction.
A decision is due to be made by officers by 28th February so anyone wishing to comment, support or object should do so quickly.
Eyeball says...
2:07pm Wed 1 Feb 12
Check out TRAG,s website at
http://trag-sos.moon
fruit.com/#