Cobbold Mews Scheme Receives Green Light

Local residents angry that building of housing on car park site approved

CGI of scheme submitted by developer with their application

A virtual meeting of the Ealing borough planning committee has approved an application to build a mews style development on the border of Chiswick and Acton.

Councillors voted on 20 May to allow the proposal to build 42 flats and houses on the 0.51 hectare ex-railway site to the north of Greenend Road which is currently used as a car park. The part four storey, part three story building will mainly comprise one and two bedroom flats. There will be two communal gardens, a children’s play area and 6 of the flats will have roof terraces.

There will be 135 parking spaces on the site when the development is completed, 103 related to the section 106 agreement with existing residents of the Old Factory Quarter. Some of the new spaces will be underground.

The application has proved controversial particular because many existing residents of the area were allocated a parking space at the site as part of their lease which will not be available to them during construction. There were over 278 comments on the plan which overwhelmingly are objections and most from either Greenend Road or the recently built flats along Warple Way.

Planning officers had dismissed residents’ concerns about loss of privacy and light and odour from the nearby sewage works in their report to the committee. Objectors say that officers were incorrect to claim that fragrant plants had been placed at the site to counteract the smell from the Thames Water facility.

The site as it is currently

Chair of Southfield Park Triangle Residents’ Association, Don Tanswell, had hoped to get the decision deferred rather than it be made at the virtual meeting. While thanking Cllr Andrew Steed and a neighbour with legal expertise who helped guide the objections made to the plan he said, “I feel disgusted with the disingenuous, misleading and unprofessional way in which the planning department have conducted themselves since September, ignoring my legitimate requests for information and in the way they have sought to evade and destroy, rather than enhance community consultation and involvement and the knock on effect this has had on decision making. “

Some local residents’ groups believe that Ealing Council’s arrangements for the publicity of planning applications during the lockdown has been inadequate. The public notices for developments like this one are published in a newspaper which does not circulate in the area which is a requirement of the relevant legislation. The Council have refused to consider the publication of notices in sites like ActonW3.com and ChiswickW4.com even though the current guidance from the government is to increase the use of digital media to make residents aware of developments that may affect them. Ealing Council say that if they were to publish notices digitally they would do so on their own site.

May 21, 2020