Council Planners Give Thumbs Down To Pissarro's Development

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Application to build townhouses and flats by the river likely to be refused

The proposal to redevelop the former Pissarro restaurant site into a residential complex is likely to be turned down, as Hounslow Council planning department say it is out of character with the local area.

The application from Gort Investments for the proposed townhouses and flats at Corney Reach Way is being advertised on this week’s Council 'pending' list. 

The reasons for likely refusal include "Harm to neighbours’ living conditions" and that it is an incongruous development out of keeping with the surrounding area.

There have been 152 submissions to the Council on the current planning application

Summary of objections
- Loss of the restaurant
- No replacement of community facility proposed
- The proposed design is out of keeping with the surrounding area
- The proposal is out of scale and too tall within the surrounding area
- Inappropriate location for high density development
- Impact on parking in the surrounding area
- Impact on neighbours living conditions – loss of light, outlook, privacy and overshadowing
- Over development of the site
- Impact on air pollution
- Loss of openness
- Too high

The group campaigning to keep a restaurant at the site said on their Facebook that there may be an appeal but that they are celebrating for now.

A spokesperson for the group said;"If the Freeholder thought the residents of Chiswick would weaken their resolve to protect this key community amenity they were clearly wrong We are delighted that Hounslow Planning Authority have taken into account our concerns about the harm this incongruous overdevelopment would do to our living conditions when reviewing this misleading planning application.

"The Freeholder will now have a hard decision to make. They have spent a small fortune on the fees for architects, planning consultants, engineers and lawyers in three failed attempts to get planning permission. They paid the last tenant to terminate the lease in 2013 in order to falsely claim that a restaurant was not viable and change the use. They also evicted the RNLI who were renting a flat on the property and have let it sit unoccupied ever since. Will they waste more money on an appeal, withdraw the application and try again or sell the property? Only time will tell. Once the freeholder realises that he cannot make the millions he was planning from turning this small space into luxury properties, the sooner he will sell it to someone who can turn it back into the community hub it used to be."

The developer, Gort Investments, has proposed 6 x 2 bed flats, 1 x 1 bed and 2 x 3 bed townhouses.

Image provided by residents of plan 'in context'

Local people have consistently campaigned against the development, on the grounds that it would be out of character and context, that a "too tall glass warehouse" will not benefit anyone locally and that it ignores the societal needs of the residents for a restaurant/bar/cafe on the site.

The residents objections include "inadequacies and inaccuracies in the submission", that the development is "totally out of context and character with the surrounding estates" , and will result in access/road/parking issues as well as loss of a a valued social meeting place.

The issue was recently discussed at the Chiswick Area Forum where locals voiced their objections and the developer made a presentation.

Last year 150 people objected to plans by Gort Investments which was was seeking to knock down the building and turn the riverside site into a three-storey residential complex. The developer was granted permission to knock the building but it remains standing.

The application currently submitted is for nine residential units.

Corney Reach Way eastern view

Locals believe the design is incongruous with the neo-Georgian look of this area of Chiswick on the Thames and the Georgian architecture of Chiswick Mall.

The restaurant closed in 2013 and a previous application to redevelop the restaurant into residential units was turned down in 2014.

Pissarro, which was named in honour of the 'Father of French Impressionism', Camille Pissarro (who painted many local scenes in the 1890s), opened in the late 1990s when it was owned by local investors. The restaurant had a chequered history, and at one stage suffered a serious fire. It closed down in January 2014 with management saying there was not enough business in that area to make it a commercially viable.

May 27, 2016