Developments at the Standard
Dan asks:
I live on the Standard and heard recently that there may be plans to re-design the area including doing something about the slip road between Westcombe Hill and Charlton Road?
Do you know of such plans?
If so, do you have any more details?
The Phantom replies:
I suspect you mean the argument that has been going on about that slipway between Old Dover Road and Charlton Road regarding access between the two. I believe it's by Hexagon Housing. I confess I found the reports in the WN very confusing and I'm really not sure what the hell is happening there. If someone would care to create a Blackheath Standard Development Proposals For Dummies (and Phantoms) I would be very grateful.
I live on the Standard and heard recently that there may be plans to re-design the area including doing something about the slip road between Westcombe Hill and Charlton Road?
Do you know of such plans?
If so, do you have any more details?
The Phantom replies:
I suspect you mean the argument that has been going on about that slipway between Old Dover Road and Charlton Road regarding access between the two. I believe it's by Hexagon Housing. I confess I found the reports in the WN very confusing and I'm really not sure what the hell is happening there. If someone would care to create a Blackheath Standard Development Proposals For Dummies (and Phantoms) I would be very grateful.
Labels: Ask The Phantom, Not-Quite-Greenwich, Regional Greenwich
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
15:24
4 Comments:
Is this where new, council-backed housing's gone up and severed the old cut-through from Charlton Road to Somerfield/M&S? Would have been nice to have been warned about that when that opened.
Or is this the little road outside the old toilets indicated by the sign "East Greenwich 1"?
I'm still fuming that they pissed about with the bus stops.
I can't believe something so small is what Dan was on about, certainly sounds more exciting than our cut problem through.
Dummies guide,
Cut is between Charlton Road and Old Dover Road, used to go through garages before Council sold land to private/social housing. Bike route diverted permanently by council at a meeting last year some debate over whether pedestrian access was an official right of way and therefore should have been reinstated after building work completed. Regardless the housing development built 2 walls to divide Schofield Walk from Bellfield Close.
The biased bit from me...
WN ran a rather sensationalist article (for an otherwise excellent local newspaper) crying foul on behalf of peoples unknown (lets be honest it is only an extra 100 yards at best to walk around). I then wrote to them and they used it in an even more biased and sensationalist article. So I wrote again (well done to the editor who was very cooperative) and they ran a more balanced piece that reflected residents views that we like the wall as it has really improved the quality of life for residents(as the cut through always brought rather unpleasant noisy creatures, like school children, through the estate, with all their associated flotsam and fires). The same rather irritating people wrote to the Mercury as well to make their rather petty point(I note none of them live in the immediate area!).
SB
I have information pertinent to both of these...
1. The original request for information, as stated, quite clearly (to me) related to the Charlton Road/Westcombe Hill slip road.. all 20 yards of it. The suggestion that this be closed, since it is currently often quicker to go around the end in any case, as do many buses for which it was originally designed, was put forward at least three years ago and was referred to in the Westcombe News. The Council have regularly updated the W.S. on how the proposals might progress, but they have always appeared reluctant to spend money on what they see as a relatively wealthy part of the Borough. The last I recall on this was that some money was supposed to be on the table for works in the Batley Green area generally this year, but nothing appears to have happened apart from the demolition without due consultation just last week of the Shelter immediately adjacent to the slip road.
2. However the Westcombe News article came across, the facts of the matter are that Hexagon have blocked during the construction phase, and failed to re-open subsequently, a designated section of the London Cycle Network and public right of way. The Council have also acted illegally in not enforcing its re-opening. The issue all along for many has been the almpst total lack of communication by the Council on the original proposed closure, and is now based on their maladministration in not dealing with the present illegal situation. At least 36 people have, like the Westcombe Society, complained about this poor consultation. A letter in the July WN agreed with the Society that 'it is a bit bizarre no-one was consulted'. At the meeting of the Greenwich Area PESC where the continued existence of the rights of way for pedestrians, cyclists and mobility scooters over the Hexagon site was confirmed, the minutes record that;
"Councillor Keys (Ward Member) expressed concerns about a lack of consultation on both applications (Charlton Road Garages and Dornberg Close), which she felt caused some confusion for residents"
The Westcombe Society, as I understand it, have neither heard from nor received a letter from anyone - on the estate or elsewhere - who disagreed with the content of that letter or Ms Keys on this point, so does not believe that it is ignoring the views of any residents of the estate in pressing for the maladministration to be rectified so that proper consultation on the issue can take place.
Only just found this late reply from eeyore so perhaps no one will notice but the record needs correcting. As well as being the "ananoymous" earlier I was the person whom Eeyore quotes about the consultation but fails to mention that the rest of my letter was in support of the walls, funny that. This was then followed in the next edition last year with a series of letters from other residents in my support so perhaps it would be better to have read the Westcombe News properly rather than relying on hearsay from local busybodies who don't live anywhere near the problem.
Regards,
Stuart Broom
Schofield Walk
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