Why Do Developers Ride Roughshod Over Residents?

Chiswick Gunnersbury councillor Joanna Biddolph reports back

Cllr Joanna Biddolph
Cllr Joanna Biddolph

February 11, 2024

Despite being on the planning committee for a year (which I will never get back), and supporting several residents through the planning process including warning them about what to expect at planning committee meetings, I remain perplexed by the determination, of planners and applicants, to get a scheme through, against locals’ views, when the plan could so easily be adjusted for the much better and make locals content. Why is it such a them-and-us battle of wills?

I saw this dogged, heels-dug-in, determination in arguments, demeanour and words throughout agenda item 4 of last Monday’s planning committee meeting – the application by Birchgrove to develop Chiswick’s former police station into exclusive, assisted living rental flats for older people. We Will Win Whatever! was the attitude. The size of the Birchgrove team taking up public seats in the meeting room confirmed their reality; there they all were, ready to pop some corks afterwards.

So, I warn residents that it will be a horrible experience, that they will leave frustrated and feel that they have not been listened to. They will go home feeling cheated, whether they are asking for reasonable changes to plans for a rear extension at a house next door, or trying to tone down the impact of a large, ugly and imposing block by making it more reflective of the best of Chiswick’s architecture and character.

Because that is what residents wanted from the Birchgrove development – a landmark building that “would enhance Chiswick, not diminish it” not the “banal, corporate, dominant” block it has become. An inevitable positive consequence of residents’ suggestions for modest changes would also be to reduce the loss of light on neighbours’ homes.

Anyone who isn’t in favour of the entirety of a development is described as an objector. As with so much of the workings of local government, the assumption is that opinions are either black or white, yes or no, for or against. There is no grey, no yes-but, no nuance.

A step down in height along the Linden Gardens elevation had been proposed by Birchgrove, after so-called consultations with residents, to reduce the loss of light. It meant moving just one flat to another part of the building to ensure no reduction in the number of flats from Birchgrove’s business model. It could easily be done. Was the step down in the final plan? No.

At the start of the consultation process, Birchgrove told residents that the height of that elevation would be the same as the roofline of their houses opposite, to reduce the loss of light on residents. Was that in the final plan? No. Instead, the building will be higher and, despite the top floor being set back, means a dramatic loss of light particularly to basement flats.

Following discussions about respecting the character of Chiswick, elements described as “high quality detailing” were added. Residents noted their canny likeness to utilitarian radiators and asked for changes to them and other poor features. High quality detailing? No.

No-one wanted to scupper the scheme. The request was for a short deferral to get it right. Changes could have been proposed and agreed with the application coming back to the planning committee next month. Was this reasonable? Yes. Was it agreed? No. Did residents go home feeling they had been heard? No.

Trick photography

At the public inquiry into The Chiswick Curve in June 2018, I learned about the tilt-shift lens, a form of trick photography used by architects to create an optical illusion. In the Chiswick Curve case, it was used to make the 32-storey tower block appear to be the height of a couple of urban trees on top of each other.

With the Birchgrove drawings, the trick was to superimpose trees, in full leaf, onto the front of the building’s facades, or judiciously placed on a corner, to hide the reality. The elevation of the block along Linden Gardens was largely obscured, as were the houses on the other side of Linden Gardens in an architect’s impression of the road from the other side of Chiswick High Road. Members of the committee don’t seem to care about this misleading approach. Residents are alive to it. It’s another mismatch between residents’ expectations and the reality of the awful planning process.

Abusing regulatory committees for cheap party-political shots

No surprises, this is about parking. I continue to try to protect what little unrestricted public parking remains in Chiswick, against the proposals of others to reduce it further including at this development.

The current plot includes a large car park, hidden from view, accessed from Linden Gardens. Users of the police station used to park there. This part of the plot will become flats and a garden for residents. No-one begrudges Birchgrove residents their own garden. But to state, as happened at the meeting, that there will be “no loss of parking” was erroneous and insulting.

Even if residents of the Birchgrove flats were to give up their cars and switch to assisted bikes (as one Labour councillor expects will happen), and if carers travel by public transport to work their double-shift days, it is beyond fantasy to think there will not be an impact on parking, in the central Chiswick car park, from family and friends visiting Birchgrove residents. If any of them – residents or visitors – are Blue Badge drivers, they can park anywhere – in the car park and on residential roads. The impact will therefore also be significant on residents, and on visitors coming here from beyond Chiswick, to spend money in our retail, hospitality and service economy. It will, as intended by Hounslow’s profoundly anti-car strategy, drive them away; other boroughs will benefit from their spending; more of our shops will close.

This defence of parking was pounced on by Cllr John Stroud-Turp, who represents Isleworth ward and lives in Chiswick, who pulled out his Labour-group-chief-whip whip and accused me of speaking not on behalf of residents (forgetting that I had also said I was speaking for business owners – don’t business ratepayers count with him?) but about my “hobby horse”. He ended his outburst with the infamous words, “with respect” which everyone knows is an insult, as explained in this article.

Cllr Stroud-Turp’s role as Labour group chief whip is to make sure Labour councillors behave professionally and appropriately. Yet there he was, abusing a regulatory committee to make cheap party-political shots. His outburst was described as “outrageous” by one person at the planning committee meeting, and as “childish” by another. This is what we Conservative councillors have to put up with – outrageous and childish personal attack, not proper debate about serious issues that affect the borough’s residents and business ratepayers.

A nod is as good as a wink

Alert observers at this meeting noted nods and winks between certain Labour councillors after scoring points or winning arguments. The cameras recording the meeting for YouTube don’t necessarily pick up on these gestures – but people in the room do.

From the gutter to the … public loo

We, the Conservative group, have for many years been banging on the bathroom door of Hounslow Council asking for public loos to be installed in Chiswick, and in all the borough’s retail areas, large and small. I have been lobbied by several residents who restrict when and for how long they go out because they know they will need a loo. Others want to stop public urination such as in our parks, particularly at night when nothing is open. A business owner suggested Hounslow council should adopt a community toilet scheme (CTS) which encourages pubs and other businesses to open their loos to non-customers by paying them a grant. After all, why should they welcome all and face increased costs from loo paper, soap, hand dryers/towels, cleaning products and increased checks and time for cleaning from what can at times be a constant flow of people pleading to pee.

This has been kicked into the long grass by the same Hounslow Council officer since 2018. Even requests (several, over the years) to upgrade the loo in the library weren’t acted on. The town hall loos are fine but who knows when the town hall is open? It emerged in one meeting relatively recently that there is already a CTS in Hounslow – but it isn’t publicised, it isn’t extensive, and it isn’t up to date. Now that the unreceptive officer has left, I renewed my request and … have been assured it is now being looked at. The first suggestion – to advertise community hubs, because there are loos there – was rather too feeble; I reinforced that we need loos in more places and for more hours in the day and night. I’m very much looking forward to being flushed with success.

Councillor Joanna Biddolph

joanna.biddolph@hounslow.gov.uk

07976 703446

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Thursday, 15th February 2024 at 7:00pm Overview and Scrutiny Committee

Tuesday, 20th February 2024 at 7:00pm Cabinet

Tuesday 27 February 2024 at 7:30pm Borough Council budget-setting meeting

Tuesday 13 March 2024 from 6.30pm Chiswick Area Forum Celebrating Culture

Monday 18 March 2024 at 7:00pm Cabinet

Tuesday 26 March 2024 at 7:30pm Borough Council

THEN:

6th Floor, Hounslow House, 7 Bath Road, Hounslow TW3 3EB

During weekends, residents can still access council services on-line or via emergency numbers:
To inform the council of an emergency, please call 020 8583 2222

CONSERVATIVE COUNCILLOR SURGERIES

Chiswick: Every Saturday from 9.30am to 10.30am at Chiswick Library (the eight Conservative councillors take this surgery in turn).

Gunnersbury: First Saturday of the month from 10am to 11am at The Gunnersbury Triangle Club, Triangle Way, off The Ridgeway, W3 8LU (at least one of the Chiswick Gunnersbury ward councillors takes this surgery). 

CONSERVATIVE COUNCILLORS and CONTACTS

Chiswick Gunnersbury (was Turnham Green) ward

Cllr Joanna Biddolph joanna.biddolph@hounslow.gov.uk 07976 703446

Cllr Ranjit Gill ranjit.gill@hounslow.gov.uk 07976 702956

Cllr Ron Mushiso ron.mushiso@hounslow.gov.uk 07976 702887

Chiswick Homefields ward

Cllr Jack Emsley jack.emsley@hounslow.gov.uk 07977 396017

Cllr Gerald McGregor gerald.mcgregor@hounslow.gov.uk 07866 784821

Cllr John Todd john.todd@hounslow.gov.uk 07866 784651

Chiswick Riverside ward

Cllr Gabriella Giles gabriella.giles@hounslow.gov.uk 07966 270823

Cllr Peter Thompson peter.thompson@hounslow.gov.uk 07977 395810  

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