Heart of East Greenwich Report
Andrew has just sent me a fascinating link to a report by CABE with their suggestions to improve the design of the proposal for The Heart of East Greenwich (AKA the old hospital site.)
CABE is The Commission for Architecture and Built Environment which acts as the government's advisor (read "Jiminy Cricket") on new urban projects. As far as I can tell, they look at projects from the point of view of those who will be using the spaces/buildings/facilities and make grass-root suggestions to make them better - both to use and to look at.
As far as I can see pretty much every suggestion they make seems to be solid and positive. Much of it leans towards the "could try harder" angle, but in most cases it at least points the would-be developer in the right direction. Personally I would have liked to see more suggestions limiting the amount of traffic spilling into the immediate area - but CABE at least makes a fist at channelling the traffic in a sensible manner.
Sadly they have no kind of enforcement facility - "we do not make statutorily binding decisions (although we are a statutory body)" but since they come from within the government maybe, just maybe, there's an outside chance that they will be listened to, even if only a little bit.
See the very sensible suggestions here and hope that they will have some impact where those of us locals who commented don't appear to have any at all.
CABE is The Commission for Architecture and Built Environment which acts as the government's advisor (read "Jiminy Cricket") on new urban projects. As far as I can tell, they look at projects from the point of view of those who will be using the spaces/buildings/facilities and make grass-root suggestions to make them better - both to use and to look at.
As far as I can see pretty much every suggestion they make seems to be solid and positive. Much of it leans towards the "could try harder" angle, but in most cases it at least points the would-be developer in the right direction. Personally I would have liked to see more suggestions limiting the amount of traffic spilling into the immediate area - but CABE at least makes a fist at channelling the traffic in a sensible manner.
Sadly they have no kind of enforcement facility - "we do not make statutorily binding decisions (although we are a statutory body)" but since they come from within the government maybe, just maybe, there's an outside chance that they will be listened to, even if only a little bit.
See the very sensible suggestions here and hope that they will have some impact where those of us locals who commented don't appear to have any at all.
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
16:17
6 Comments:
Interesting to see CABE's sensible comments - no idea whether our enlightened council take any notice. Reading this post set me off and I found this http://www.greenwich.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/FEEC21D4-F78A-46AD-B9EF-777BA9758EB3/0/PlanningBoardDecisions26June2008.pdf
which is the consent for the Stockwell Street development (subject to mayoral sign off). So let's see whether it will happen - Liberty International plc (the parent of the developer) had some appalling financials last week...
Something seems to have gone wrong with that link! I tried to type it manually into my browser, but it still didn't work. Is there any chance of having another go at posting it as a link - I would really like to read the piece referred to. I tried to find it myself on Greenwich Council's website, but wasn't successful.
Thanks
Here it is in full again:
http://www.cabe.org.uk/default.aspx?contentitemid=2586&refid=365&sl=3.2.4
I'll change it on the post too.
Sorry - something's wrong with Blogger, I expect. Can't get either of the links to work (ie Heart of E Greenwich or Stockwell St) and I'd really like to read both. Anything you can do, Fanti?
Here's the link again. I am not having any trouble clicking to it - but there could be some weirdness going on.
If it still doesn't work, try going to the cabe website www.cabe.org.uk and navigating from the home page - or email me and I'll send you the link back.
Good luck...
http://www.cabe.org.uk/default.aspx?contentitemid=2586&refid=365&sl=3.2.4
Cut and pasted the url(s) into my browser in the end.
The East Greenwich plan is about what you'd expect isn't it? Do we think that this, coupled with other recent residential developments, will help Woolwich rd to come up a bit? I can't help notice how many empty shops there are, and the (frankly) downmarket aspect of many that are trading. The further east you go, the worse it seems to get, so hopefully this might help. Perhaps Gordon Ramsey will take over the Old Friends.....
Without seeing plans or anything, the Stockwell St development (if it goes ahead in the current climate) doesn't seem too bad - I mean John Humphries House isn't exactly an adornment to central Greenwich is it? I was particulary pleased that there are to be market stalls on the site, together with A1 and A3 units, which, this being central Greenwich, will be taken up (unlike many another mixed use developments where the ground floor units remain empty).
There was talk at one point of the whole site being taken over by Tesco, and this is certainly better than that.
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