4:41pm Friday 29th August 2008
By Mark Chandler
AN application for a warehouse on an accident-prone roundabout has been thrown out by councillors, despite their officials' recommendations.
The Big Yellow storage company applied to build it at the site of the former World of Leather store at Cliftons Roundabout, Westhorne Avenue, Eltham.
The company planned to demolish the current buildings, replacing them with a warehouse open from 7am to 11pm six days a week, alongside two shops.
But at a packed Greenwich Council Planning Board meeting on August 29, residents put forward 15 speakers arguing against almost every aspect of the development from it's size and appearance to the impact it would have on traffic.
They complained that there would be less employment on the site, residents would not use it, and the proposals would lead to the closure of a gym used by 300 people a week.
Rejecting the application, councillors agreed with some of the residents concerns about the development which Councillor Alex Grant described as a "bog standard industrial warehouse."
Several councillors even questioned how the application had got as far as a planning committee.
Councillor Peter Brooks said: "This application should not be with us tonight. It should be turned down completely."
Transport for London had said the warehouse would not increase traffic but pointed out that the roundabout currently has an accident rate six times higher than expected for the borough.
Among the residents speaking was Savita Cardan, 41, whose house lies next to the site's access road.
After the meeting she told News Shopper: "I think essentially this is because the community got together. That's probably what's helped us in this - each person did whatever they could."
Big Yellow said the site had been specifically designed to fit in with the area and claimed to have sent out 2,032 letters of consultation to residents and held a two-day exhibition of its proposals.
Chairman of the Cliftons Roundabout Action Group set up to fight the plans, Beric Wickens, 57, of Eltham Palace Road, said afterwards: "We're absolutely jubilant that we got a unanimous decision.
"I feel that if they came back on appeal they'd have a really hard job."
Kirsty Davide, 42, of Eltham Palace Road, said she had spent several weeks knocking on the doors of people who Big Yellow had consulted.
She told the meeting: "I knocked on over 100 of the doors listed to see if they were aware of the proposal and I can categorically state that the vast majority of people had no idea."
Ms Davide also presented the council with 360 letters of objection and a petition signed by 690 people.
Jeremy Elsom, planning consultant for Big Yellow said afterwards: "We need to go back and speak to the officers now and decide what we're going to do.
"There was a huge amount of misunderstanding over our proposals."
Big Yellow has previously put in seven unsuccessful applications to build a warehouse at nearby Baring Road in Lee.
It launched an appeal against Lewisham Council's refusal of its seventh application last year but that was rejected following a public inquiry.
Mr Elsom confirmed that the Baring Road site will now be used for a residential development after a failed attempt to sell it on.
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