The Kingston upon Thames Society, founded in 1962 and affiliated to the Civic Trust, is Kingston’s major voluntary and independent organisation concerned with planning and conservation. The Society has no statutory right of consultation. A link to their website can be found here.
The mission of the Society is to promote high standards of planning, conservation and design in the Royal Borough. Following the third consultation, the Society has stated the following as its position:
1. As the site is Metropolitan Open Land (MOL), there is a strong presumption against any form of built development. Furthermore the site is not identified in RB Kingston’s Tall Buildings Strategy as being suitable for the sort of tall buildings that are being proposed. In addition, the PTAL (Public Transport Accessibility Level) for the site is 1 and only reaches 2a/2b closer to Motspur Park Station. The access route for pedestrians to the site from the station is down a long and poorly overlooked path which gives rise to concern about the personal safety of users particularly on winter evenings and nights.
2. For all the above reasons, the Society does not consider the site is suitable for the type and amount of residential development which is proposed. The Society is also aware of the existing and potential nature conservation value of the site with one Site of Interest for Nature Conservation (SINC) being within the red line boundary and another immediately adjoining on the other side Beverley Brook. The brook itself is also of nature conservation value and on a visit to the site which was kindly facilitated by the developer, herons and a peregrine falcon were observed.
3. In light of the above, the Society considers that any development of the site would need to be significantly reduced from the level set out in the pre-application consultation details. It would need to be at a level such that the integrity and value of the wider area of MOL within which the site is located was not compromised and such that the nature conservation interest of the site was not reduced. Indeed, the principles of biodiversity net gain (BNG) would indicate that a positive nature conservation benefit should result.
4. We very much welcome Berkeley’s intention to restore the banks of Beverley Brook and increase public access to it. However, the Society’s view is that any built development of the site should only be considered within the floor plan/site area of the existing gasholders and should be much reduced from the height of the existing gasholders and the heights set out in the pre-application consultation. It is understood that there will be some retention on site of an operational gas facility and clearly there will need to be appropriate safety measures taken including decontamination before an acceptable development proposal can be produced.
Sparrowfeld Patch 