Planning on the streets of West Hampstead

Alongside the Abbey Area and Lymington Road proposals, Thursday's Development Control committee meeting was also meant to discuss 163 Iverson Road - known as the "garden centre site". This had been postponed from the previous DC meeting, but was now removed entirely from the agenda of this meeting. The reason was not given at the time, but I heard later from cllrs Risso-Gill and Rea that the developers are increasing the proportion of affordable housing in order to comply with Camden's own planning guidelines (the council's planning officers were recommending rejecting the proposal). So this one is still to run.

Fortune Green ward councillor Flick Rea posted a useful summary of other local planning news this week. The headlines are:

"The Gondar Gardens reservoir site proposals rumble on - having appealed the previous refusal by the Council,(decision by Government Inspector pending) the developers also submitted a new plan which still didn't find favour locally - it encroaches on the open space and towers over the rear of the houses on Sarre Road. It was withdrawn for further consultation and will probably come up for decision in May."

"The new block on Maygrove Road is complete but an application for its neighbour "Handrail House" was basically refused by Camden before it ever got to Committee decision. In a way its a shame as they had worked out a good deal for improvements to the Peace Park and Sidings Community Centre ( a new cafe for example) which may get lost with a new application."

"From 1st April most developments over a certain size will have to pay a special levy to the Mayor which will go towards the mounting costs of CrossRail and therefore have less to spend on local improvements."