Mortlake Brewery Traffic Fears Dismissed By Developer
Objectors say that jams around Chalkers Corner will be a 'nightmare'
Resident believe existing roads won't be able to cope. Picture: Mortlake Brewery Community Group
Residents fear local roads already struggling with “nightmare” traffic won’t be able to cope if new plans for the historic Mortlake Brewery are given the go ahead. The plans from developer Reselton Properties could see up to 1,085 new homes built across a series of blocks ranging from three to nine storeys on the site.
Old plans for the site were thrown out by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan in July 2021. The size of the basement car park has now been reduced under the latest plans.
Transport consultants Stantec said the change means less people on the development would use cars. Dartmouth Capital Advisors also said, on behalf of Reselton, that traffic counts in June show “significantly lower numbers” of traffic during morning and evening peak times on key parts of the road network. The proposed number of car parking spaces has also been cut since the initial plans to 451.
But hundreds of letters of objection have been sent to the council raising fears the proposals will burden local roads and overwhelm services. Locals have said they want to see the site redeveloped but under different plans.
One resident said, “The infrastructure around this development is already stretched – roads are routinely blocked, the railway crossing at Mortlake is always blocked and Chalker’s Corner is always blocked with traffic adding unnecessary time it takes to get anywhere. Additional traffic on the scale planned will make the entire area unworkable.”
Another objector said he has often cancelled trips because of “nightmare” traffic in the area. He said: “This is, put simply, an overdeveloped place already – too many people living in a space squeezed between the river and the railway. The development will ruin the area and make me want to move out of it. The whole character of Mortlake would change. Not enough thought has been put into the consequences of the potential development – a real mess lies ahead if it is pushed through.”
Another wrote “The footpaths on the Lower Richmond Road have barely enough space for people to pass each other now, let alone after this is all built.”
There have been 310 letters of objection written to the council and eight letters of support. The plans also include a new secondary school with sixth form, restaurants, offices, cinema, boat house, shops and a hotel.
CGI of the revised Stag Brewery scheme from the developer's web site
A spokesperson for Stantec said, “The current ‘hybrid’ application has made significant progress from the consented scheme in 2020, where the size of the basement car park has been reduced, with a residential parking ratio reduced from 0.74 to 0.39 (spaces per unit ratio). Therefore, while the development has grown in terms of number of units and people living here less people will rely on their cars making the development more sustainable for the future.”
The spokesperson said there also measures limit traffic issues, include upgrading Chalkers Corner and improvements to Mortlake High Street and Lower Richmond Road with better bus stop layouts.
A statement from Dartmouth Capital on behalf of Reselton said, “TfL have vetted the transport plans and have indicated their satisfaction that the proposal truly mitigates the effect of the development proposed.”
It adds, “The developer has taken advice from leading architects and renown townscape specialist architects in order to find the right balance of density and heights for the site and it is felt that the current proposals, including the new school offer an optimised solution.
“Residents of Mortlake have had little to celebrate in this site over the past centuries of occupation as a brewery. It is a sealed 22 acre block of land with no public access at all and with 9/10 storey equivalent industrial buildings all over it. It is an eyesore.
“The whole of the site will become publicly accessible if the scheme goes ahead. In addition to residential homes of all types there will be shops, restaurants and pubs, a multiplex cinema, a hotel and office space offering employment for 500 people.”
Charlotte Lillywhite - Local Democracy Reporter
July 13, 2022