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Higgs Triangle Loughborough Junction redevelopment

andrewdroid

andrewdroid

Born before the internet
Not sure if this is good news or not and not sure if I can go to any of the consultations.
(reposted from an email)

CONSULTATION ON HIGGS TRIANGLE FROM DEVELOPER PARRITT LENG

Developer Parritt Leng is about to put in a planning application for the Higgs Triangle - this is the large site between Coldharbour Lane and Herne Hill Road up to the railway bridge.

This is the most important planning proposal in recent years for Loughborough Junction and Parritt Leng has organised a couple of consultation events at the Sureway Church, 1 Higgs Industrial Estate, Herne Hill Road, SE24 0UA on:

Friday 29 August from 2pm to 4pm and

Monday 1 September from 3pm to 5pm.

LJAG (loughborough Junction Action Group) thinks this is very short notice but very much hope that this is just the start of Parritt Leng's conversation with the community.

LJAG
Parritt Leng

Some good news the former pub The Mucky Duck is now not going to be a Sainsburies not sure what it will be but we dont need another supermarket around here.
 
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Not sure if this is good news or not and not sure if I can go to any of the consultations.
(reposted from an email)

CONSULTATION ON HIGGS TRIANGLE FROM DEVELOPER PARRITT LENG

Developer Parritt Leng is about to put in a planning application for the Higgs Triangle - this is the large site between Coldharbour Lane and Herne Hill Road up to the railway bridge.

This is the most important planning proposal in recent years for Loughborough Junction and Parritt Leng has organised a couple of consultation events at the Sureway Church, 1 Higgs Industrial Estate, Herne Hill Road, SE24 0UA on:

Friday 29 August from 2pm to 4pm and

Monday 1 September from 3pm to 5pm.

LJAG (loughborough Junction Action Group) thinks this is very short notice but very much hope that this is just the start of Parritt Leng's conversation with the community.

LJAG
Parritt Leng

Some good news the former pub The Mucky Duck is now not going to be a Sainsburies not sure what it will be but we dont need another supermarket around here.
 
Nah, this deserves a thread of its own. That's a huge site.

EDIT: Parritt Lang are architects, not developers.
 
Is the Higgs Triangle the bit that includes OIS removals and the Whirled studios?
 
It's where MDM props and OIS etc are I think. Not surprised someone has their eye on it for redevelopment now. I think it would be a loss to LJ if it just became more housing, instead of light industry as it is now.

Certainly very late notice for a consultation, and excludes anyone with 9-5 job.
 
teuchter said:
Certainly very late notice for a consultation, and excludes anyone with 9-5 job.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's taking the living piss. It's almost as if they don't *want* to consult any locals.... :hmm: I mean, like actually telling anyone about it*

I will try to get to tomorrow's one, will report back. I agree wholeheartedly that more 'luxury flats' would be a definite step in the wrong direction for the area.

*Bottom of stairs, locked filing cabinet and leopard notwithstanding.
 
I think it could be good if they are farsighted enough to open up the space around the pavements, especially on Coldharbour Lane itself. But I suppose we shouldn't get our hopes up
 
I suppose if all the light industrial units were replaced by shops/empty office and luxury flats then it wouldnt be too long before the taxi garages in the arches across the road went as well. Probably replaceed by cafes and micro-breweries and the like.
 
Hi - unfortunately I can't make it to either of the consultations, but would appreciate if any information on the proposals could be posted here afterwards.

Seems like a good opportunity to make something of a massive site (and a terrible frontage to Coldharbour Lane at present). Not so sure about Parrett Lang. There's a lot of nonsense on their website ("This juxtaposition is further complemented by an organic expression to the sky...") but have they actually built anything?
 
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goldengraham said:
I think it could be good if they are farsighted enough to open up the space around the pavements, especially on Coldharbour Lane itself. But I suppose we shouldn't get our hopes up
Click to expand...
Yes, although I'd be in favour of trying to hang on to the light industrial uses, getting rid of the unit immediately across the road from the station and opening that area up a bit would make a big difference.
 
Thanks for the picture - was struggling to get my bearings right from the description.

Is there any indication what the plans are for the site?
 
Monday's consultation on the Higgs Triangle plans at at the Sureway Church, 1 Higgs Industrial Estate, Herne Hill Road, has been extended until 8.30pm
 
I went along on Friday.

The venue isn't early to find and there are no signs up. I started off by trying the main entrance to the Sureway Church on the corner or Coldharbour Lane and Herne Hill, but no sign of the exhibition, and nearly gave up at this point. However, I remembered that the info circulated by LJAG referred to the Higgs Triangle industrial estate,so I wandered down Herne Hill Road for a bit and found the entrance to the estate. Again, no signs up to let you know you might be in the right place. I eventually found the exhibition by going to the far side of the industrial estate where there is an entrance to the Church tucked away at the back. No sign up on the door but could glimpse people in a room looking at floor plans and guessed this might be the right place.

I finally made my way in at around 2.20 and stayed for around an hour. Another 5 members of the public turned up. Even compared with other planning consultation events in Lambeth I thought this was pretty abysmal. Maybe others tried to find the venue and got lost?

Main points to emerge were

1. The developers intend to submit a planning application next Wednesday 3rd September. As they must have the plans and supporting documents pretty much finalised by now, this seems to be just a case of the developer going through the motions so they can report to Lambeth that they have "consulted" the local community.

2. The site consists of a church, a collection of purpose built industrial buildings and an area in the middle used for loading/unloading and vehicle parking by tenants of the light industrial units. All the units appear to be occupied. Largest occupier (has 3 units) makes scenery.

3. The application is to keep the church, demolish everything else and put up half a dozen or so new buildings all be 6/7 storeys high. Two of the blocks will have commercial units on the ground and first floor, but everything else, including all the upper floors, will be be residential. There will be approx 3,500 sqm employment floorspace (which we were told was the same as the existing B1 floorspace) and 8,000 - 10,000 sqm residential.

4. Main issues discussed when i was there were

a. What will happen to existing businesses on the site? We were told they had all "agreed" to relocate.

b. Will the new business space be suitable for industrial use? It was clear from the answers to our questions that the new space is intended for office use only and won't be suitable for the kinds of businesses which operate out of the Higgs Triangle now. Floor to ceiling heights in the new commercial units will be just two metres - this is standard for new offices, but not acceptable for industrial and studio space, and much less than the existing units on the site where floor to ceiling heights looked to me to be between 4 and 5 metres. There will be no dedicated loading/unloading/parking space for the business units - so loading and unloading will have to take place on the highway. And all the units will have flats above, with potential for complaints re noise, vibration and fumes from neighbours (not an issue now as the industrial site isn't near residential properties)

c. Someone asked about the number and affordability of the residential units. We were told there will be around 160 flats, a mix of three bedroom, two bedroom and one bedroom units, but were;t able to glean any information about the percentage of affordable/market flats.

What we saw today pretty much confirmed my worse fears. If the application is approved, then we'll lose yet another site in Lambeth which provides accommodation to creative industries. Existing tenants will move out, probably beyond the south circular, and the skilled jobs they provide will be lost to local residents, including young people.

I will sending an objection when the planning application is submitted. Key issue I think is loss of employment. Appreciate that the quantum of employment space in the proposed development may be similar to existing, so the argument would need to be about the poor quality of the replacement floor space (floor to ceiling heights, lack of large doorways with shutters, closeness to residential occupiers, lack of yard space for loading/unloading).
 
Given the scale of this development and the short notice of the meetings, I've posted up High Definition's report on Brixton Buzz in the hope that more people will hear about it and perhaps come along to the meeting and get involved. The article title is a bit excitable but - hey! - sometimes you have to do that to get people to take notice!

Have your say about the redevelopment of Higgs Triangle, Loughborough Junction before it’s too late

If anyone wants to post any further reports on B Buzz, please drop me a line.
 
editor said:
Given the scale of this development and the short notice of the meetings, I've posted up High Definition's report on Brixton Buzz in the hope that more people will hear about it and perhaps come along to the meeting and get involved. The article title is a bit excitable but - hey! - sometimes you have to do that to get people to take notice!

Have your say about the redevelopment of Higgs Triangle, Loughborough Junction before it’s too late

If anyone wants to post any further reports on B Buzz, please drop me a line.
Click to expand...

That's good, the more visibility the better.

For the same reason, it deserves its own thread on here, and there's one already:

http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/loughbourough-junction-redevelopment.326915/

Maybe the Brixton Buzz article could point to that one instead?
 
When EDF wanted to develop Bengeworth Road at LJ, they were not granted permission. Some of the reasons were given relate to the Greater London Authority Planning report.

The key reason for refusal was that it was contrary to Lambeth Local Development Framework Core Strategy Policy S3 (a) which safeguards Key Industrial Areas for business.

http://planning-docs.lambeth.gov.uk/AnitePublicDocs/00289999.pdf

Do people, more knowledgeable than I, have any views on whether this policy would also apply to this development site?
 
With our house price madness/failure to build enough homes, every commercial site is vulnerable to residential development.

So you have to hope the council can hold the line here.
 
In brief -

- Parrit Leng are architect *and* developer, so they design it but also remain in control of the construction phase

- As far as I could make out, the site is in dual ownership - the larger portion they would have outright control over, but the corner facing onto CHL is owned by Sureways Church. Parrit Leng would be employed by them to develop this section of the site, although the whole thing would read as one development.

- Basically, housing blocks arranged around central courtyard as you can see from the plan. Courtyard would be public ie. no gates etc.

- They propose opening up access route immediately along railway arches on S boundary. (At the moment the industrial units are attached onto the viaduct here.

- Block along Herne Hill Rd 4/6 stories.

- Block along S side 8 stories

- 10 story office block in the SW corner of the site.

- They claim heights have already been scaled back to minimum to make feasible scheme

- They are proposing "light industrial use" on ground floor (and partially basement) of some of the blocks. Although they are trying to say that this would allow some of the "light industry" to return, there was some scepticism amongst attendees about this and rightly so as you can see from the floorplan that like is not being replaced with like at all

- To be fair to them they are governed somewhat by Lambeth policy as well as their commercial incentives. Lambeth require workspace to be "flexible" ie potentially usable as office space as well. They say that with a different "brief" from Lambeth planning, they could have provided a different kind of workspace. That's their line anyway.

- It's quite obvious the scheme is driven by the housing element. They were fairly open about this. ie. without a certain amount of housing redevelopment is unviable. They are also implying that there is a pressure planning policy wise to provide housing on this site.

- Proposal is for 40/60 ratio affordable housing/private. ("as per lambeth policy")

- I think he said around 150 housing units (?)

- There is a general intention to proivide permeability through the site, also allowing possibility of links under the railway arches to the site on the other side of the Thameslink line (ie running along W side of site) if it also becomes redeveloped.

- This permeability does not extend to the Coldharbour Lane facade, which remains relatively blank. When asked about this they seemed to say this was down to ownership (ie Sureways church)

- The corner of CHL/Herne Hill Rd is entrance to "community space" which in reality would be the Sureways church.

- It woudl be a "car-free" development. There was vague talk of s106 money and upgrades to the train station (don't get your hopes up for an overland station though). Apparently Lambeth are currently doing their transport impact study. I think there would be a genuine issue about impact of teh extra numbers on the train service because even as it is, often you can't get onto the morning peak services at LJ. This can't be solved with a station upgrade - needs longer/more frequent trains.

- As you can see, architectural style is fairly much standard current London housing block style...neither offensive nor particularly interesting.

- The facade along Herne Hill Road doesn't look too bad to me, and with the varying height isn't too oppressive. However, the highest parts of the development are the block along the S edge of the site and the office tower in the corner, which conveniently aren't too visible in the images they provided.

- Some people asked why no shops/cafes etc. Apparently the guidance from Lambeth is that the site should not include retail - commercial space to be office/light industrial instead. It seems PL would be happy to include retail etc if Lambeth allowed it.

- There were maybe 8-12 people there when I went in around 7ish. It seems this is an informal consultation run by Parrit Leng and there will be an official Lambeth-led one in due course. The chap representing Parrit Leng (he's the project architect) was friendly, open to discussion, answered questions mostly fairly honestly and seemed genuinely willing to take people's thoughts on board (presumably particularly those ones that would help them to negotiate favourably with Lambeth!)

- I can confirm the words "vibrancy" and "regeneration" were used although the former was from an audience member, not part of the presentation.


In summary - it's a housing-led scheme. There is a nod to the "light industrial" use but I doubt companies like MDM would return if the currently proposed scheme was built, because the space and access would be inadequate and having loads of flats above would rule out noisy/smelly/dusty work (ie genuine light industrial). The general message was that unless there's a substantial amount of housing, no redevelopment would be viable.
 
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