Decision Time On 'Goldhawk Block'

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Planning officers recommend consent should be given

Residents campaigning against the proposed redevelopment of the Goldhawk Industrial Estate are urging people to “turn up in force” at the planning meeting where it will be discussed.

Planning officers have already recommended that consent be granted to the Goldhawk application, which will come before the planning committee at 7pm on Wednesday, 23 September at the Town Hall in King Street, Hammersmith.

Residents say plans by development company London Newcastle to turn 11 light-industrial units into 57 homes and eight commercial units, amount to “over development” of the area. The residential component will be made up of three, two-storey mews houses, 21 town houses and 33 flats.

“The estate is surrounded by a residential area. Traffic, parking stress, noise, light pollution, security problems, intrusion - this redevelopment package has got everything. And it would mean the loss of a light industrial estate which nurtured JC Decaux and is currently home to Innocent Drinks and The Soundhouse, one of the capital's busiest recording studios,” residents say on their Facebook page, Goldhawk Industrial Estate Redevelopment Ha!.

In the Planning Applications Committee Agenda, the officers reporting on the case says residents' objections to the development include: noise, dust and disturbance to neighbours and (Brackenbury primary) school during construction, increase in traffic and parking on local streets, lack of visitor parking, inadequate public transport, additional traffic hazards on Goldhawk Road, pedestrian safety, density and increased pressure on public services, loss of existing employment, impact on residential neighbours: loss of daylight/sunlight; overlooking of property and gardens.

London Newcastle say they have made “major changes” to the scheme in response to residents' concerns: “In response to comments raised during the consultation the layout of the access road and the configuration of the mews houses and associated parking have been amended,” they state in their plans.

“A major change from the November 2008 scheme is the proposal to lower the site by 0.5 metres through additional excavation, thereby lowering all the town houses along the eastern and southern boundary, the central building and the below ground car park by 0.5 metres,” they add.

Campaigners describe the amendments as “welcome but essentially trivial”.

In recommending that the proposals go ahead, planning officers write: “Officers consider that the amenities of neighbouring residents and the school would not be significantly adversely affected by the proposed development.”

Speaking against the proposed development, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Hammersmith, Merlene Emerson, said: "We're in recession with more job losses each day. Why then destroy a thriving industrial estate to build more houses no-one can afford?"

September 15, 2009