SE16 residents may wish to pay attention to the outline planning application for the redevelopment of Convoys Wharf over in Deptford – with 3,500 homes planned, there are bound to be implications for Evelyn Street / Lower Road and Canada Water infrastructure.
With so much development on the Southwark side of the boundary, it’s easy to lose track of what’s happening over in Lewisham.
Proposals have been announced that would see Fisher FC return to Rotherhithe as part of a new development involving the disused Surrey Docks Stadium and St Paul’s playing field sites.
Fairview New Homes have agreed to buy the freehold of the former Surrey Docks Stadium from receivers appointed by Ulster Bank. Fairview are proposing a development of the stadium site, and a linked development of St Paul’s playing field on Salter Road , that would see the disused playing field site turned into a brand new football facility that would serve as a home ground for Fisher FC.
On the site of the Surrey Docks Stadium, home to Fisher Athletic until 2004, a landscaped community park will be created while there will be a residential development on the ‘yard’ area of the stadium site.
At the AGM of Fisher Society Ltd last week Fisher members gave unanimous support to the proposals.
Welcoming the members’ decision, Fisher FC chair Ben Westmancott commented: “After nearly a decade in exile from our Bermondsey and Rotherhithe home, and four years after reforming Fisher as a supporter-owned club, we now have a fantastic opportunity to bring Fisher FC back home and to establish a base at the heart of our community.”
The planned facility at St Paul’s would form a home not just for Fisher’s first team but also for the many youth teams that the club runs. A state of the art 3G pitch would be installed, to help ensure that the wider community also benefits from the investment. Mr Westmancott explained:
“We’ve had really positive discussions with officers at Southwark Council, who own the freehold of the St Paul’s site, and they have assured us that the new facility will be Fisher’s home. But they are also clear that the benefits that this investment will bring must be shared with the wider community. We completely support their position on this, and as a club one of our constitutional objectives is to enable wider participation in football in our community.
“With those aims in mind, a 3G pitch is a necessity. A number of clubs have shown just how well they can work including Maidstone United, and we will be able to use the surface in the league as well as the FA Vase, and FA Cup qualifying rounds.”
While Fairview New Homes Ltd will be providing £500,000 funding for the development, via payments made to Southwark Council, there will still be a requirement for Fisher and Southwark Council to access additional grant funding to ensure that the anticipated total cost of circa £0.75M can be covered. Mr Westmancott explained:
“Fisher will need to a make a financial contribution to the development and there is now lots of hard work to do to access the opportunities we have identified for grant funding – and the club will also be undertaking fund raising initiatives.
“The development is of course subject to obtaining planning permission, and even if everything goes according to plan we still have two more tough years to survive by ground-sharing. We need our members, supporters and friends in the community to come together and help us get through these two seasons while we work hard on making a new home on Salter Road a reality.
“I’d like to put on record our thanks to Fairview New Homes Ltd and Southwark Council who have worked positively and constructively with us over the last few months. We have also received outstanding practical support from Supporters Direct, the national organisation that supports and encourages fan-ownership of football clubs.”
Simon Hughes MP said: “There will no doubt still be discussion and further developments of the plans for Fairview New Homes to develop the old Fisher Football Club ground in Salter Road.
“But the dramatic disappearance into administration of the company which was Fisher’s previous owner has given a great chance for the Fish to return to Salter Road, although on a new site on St Paul’s playing fields.
“The club, the council and Fairview are to be congratulated on working together to give a great new opportunity for a new start for Fisher in Rotherhithe.
“All being well a good deal can be done in the months ahead which will deliver a decent number of affordable homes, new green space and above all a new and welcoming home for the much loved Fisher Football Club.”
King’s College London’s plans to establish a major new campus at Canada Water are included in the Mayor of London’s 2020 Vision – The Greatest City on Earth: Ambitions for London document.
Boris Johnson wrote:
As UCL expands to the east, and Imperial College to the west, so King’s College, another internationally renowned university is reaching across the Thames to Canada Water. This will help develop a new science cluster with potential for 2,500 new homes and 2,000 new jobs.
In the document the Mayor also makes positive noises about the prospect of an eastern extension of Barclays Cycle Hire.
A Tesco Metro supermarket is open at the Parker Building in Jamaica Road, near the Abbey Street junction.
Tesco Metro is the chain’s medium-size format, larger than the Tesco Express convenience shop. A similar store can be found in Tooley Street.
Tesco has submitted planning applications to Southwark Council for a new shopfront and bank machine. The chain has also applied for advertisement consent for new signage.
Southwark Council is to spend £15,000 to investigate the possibility of extending the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme beyond its current coverage area in the north-west of the borough.
The council has allocated £10,000 to identify cycle hire docking station sites beyond the current scheme area in Southwark.
At present, there is only one docking station east of Tower Bridge Road.
The council says that this work will investigate possible extension options towards Burgess Park and along the river. The findings of the study will be used to cost and plan future scheme expansion.
The recently approved redevelopment of the Biscuit Factory in Bermondsey includes provision for a docking station as part of the planning permission.
The council will also spend £5,000 on a collaborative study with a leading academic to investigate cycle hire usage patterns and identify barriers to usage. This information will also be used to put together a case for extending the cycle hire scheme.
Plans for a 19-storey tower in Rotherhithe New Road have been turned down by Southwark Council’s planning committee.
The scheme included 158 homes, new accommodation for the Southwark Free School and a sixth form centre for the City of London Academy.
Officers had recommended that the scheme be refused on the basis that it would leal to the loss of industrial and warehousing land in a designated area.
Planners also warned that the scheme “represents an overdevelopment of the site” and criticised the 19-storey tower for its “inappropriately large scale, architectural expression and the form, massing and design of the building”.
The level of affordable housing in the scheme had also been a point of contention, with just 10 of the 158 homes designated as affordable.
That the developers SCCD pressed ahead with the application despite the clear steer from planning officers suggests that they are hoping that Mayor of London Boris Johnson will ‘take over’ the case from the council – or that the application will go to appeal and a planning inspector will decide.
Southwark Council has voiced its strong opposition to proposals to use Chambers Wharf for the Thames Tideway Tunnel superseder. The council has set out its objections in its first formal response to the Planning Inspectorate on the impacts of the proposal.
“We strongly believe that Chambers Wharf is the wrong site for such a disruptive, major piece of construction like the Thames Tideway Tunnel,” said Cllr Peter John, Labour leader of the council.
“The proposed location is in the heart of a heavily residential area and very close to three of the borough’s schools. The round-the-clock noise, vibrations and traffic pollution caused by the construction work will blight the lives of these residents and children for years not to mention create significant safety concerns, making living and learning around Chambers Wharf an absolute nightmare.
“Any consultation by Thames Water has been ineffective and flawed at best, and at worst dismissive of the council’s genuine concerns. There has been a lack of information available on how the route of the tunnel and the affected sites have been chosen along with a lack of real opportunity for those affected by the proposals to influence site selection. Furthermore, Thames Water has failed to respond to our concerns about the potential impact of this project on our residents.
“In our opinion, there are better alternative solutions for the construction of the tunnel that would have significantly less impact than the proposals at Chambers Wharf. We will continue to oppose plans until we have achieved the best possible outcome for our residents.”
In a response on behalf of the Southwark Liberal Democrat council group, Riverside councillor Anood Al-Samerai said: “The impact of the proposals on our residents would be enormous – with six years of work, including 90 lorry movements a day and round the clock noise for the first three years, it would be impossible for them to carry on with their lives as normal.”
Councillor Eliza Mann added in her own response: “There are 150 residential properties in very close proximity to the proposed site, mainly on the nearby Dickens Estate which is home to 800 residents, all of which would be very badly affected by the plans.”
The Save Your Riverside campaign is holding a public meeting at City Hall this Thursday
King’s College London has submitted a planning application to Southwark Council to develop student accommodation, office space, affordable housing, retail units, a health care centre and public space on the former Mulberry Business Park site.
The college intends to increase student and academic staff numbers by 2,250 and 150 respectively by 2016. It is also committed to providing more student residential accommodation to meet both current and future demand.
King’s says that it plans to work with the council “to develop a town centre heart with a university environment” in the wider area, including the Harmsworth Quays site soon to be vacated by the Daily Mail.
This would include a mixed-use facility that will provide new teaching and learning facilities, student residential accommodation – of which a significant proportion would be for post-graduate student accommodation that may include a family provision – and indoor sports facilities.
The first step is to develop the former Mulberry Business Park. King’s has a contract to purchase the site when planning permission is granted for the proposed development.
“I believe that Canada Water offers an unparalleled opportunity for the college and the London Borough of Southwark to create a vibrant, unique centre that will benefit our students and staff and make a positive economic, educational and cultural contribution to the local community,” said Ralph Luck, real estate development director of King’s College London.
“The Mulberry site development is the first stage in achieving this. We would aim to commence the Mulberry site works in 2014, and completing for the academic year 2016/17.”