News Flash 18/11/2008

Please help HCRC to urgently lobby the Leader of Elmbridge Council and our Members of Parliament before the meeting on 26 November. You can download a letter to email, or send your own individual letter. 

Because Secretary of State, Hazel Blears has denied the request for a public inquiry, it is now vital that our Councillors are supported in reaching the right decision for the Hampton Court Station site.

Elmbridge Council's full Planning Committee met on Tues 11th Nov, rightly deciding by 11 votes to 10, to defer judgement on the application. The majority agreed that the report by Head of Planning's, Martin Parker, recommending the scheme, was incomplete and that too many questions had gone unanswered.

Parker dismissed the importance of the thousands of 'letters of representation' sent to his Department and when pressed was unable to supply figures, either for or against, Over and above the collective submissions by Residents Assoc. and community groups, the public should feel very aggrieved that the 3,845* individual responses opposing the scheme, has made so little impact.

A deeper examination of Surrey County Council's traffic proposals was made particularly difficult by the lack of adequate diagrams. The subject of the absent Traffic Safety Audit was raised, relevant to the pedestrian/vehicular conflict across the Riverfront Square, recognised as 'an accident waiting to happen' and also the added mileages/pollution and congestion associated with the new road layout. Parker's perfunctory explanations and reliance on the developer's own uncorroborated statistics made resolution impossible.

Gladedale's justification for the under-provision of affordable housing was challenged. This, Cllrs stressed, would need serious scrutiny, setting as it would, a precedent for other developments in the Borough.

Finally, the developer's interpretation of the 1999 Planning Brief's guidelines on build-density was strongly contested, but again using only Parker's controversial report for reference.

The resolution to defer the decision is entirely correct. Martin Parker's report is not an accurate reflection of the facts in this application and Councillors should not be asked to compromise themselves by relying on blind faith. The Councillors' concerns are shared by us all.

The Head of Planning must revise his existing report and offer it once again for public scrutiny. The next meeting of the Planning Committee on the 26th Nov. must be postponed to allow more time for public consultation.

*Extrapolated from calculations in the Full Planning meeting' Agenda 31st Oct 2008

News Flash 12/11/2008

The 11 November Planning meeting at Elmbridge to decide the fate of Gladedale's Hampton Court Station proposals went ahead.

To the surprise of those assembled, after individual addresses by Councillors of the full Planning Committee to a packed audience, a motion was carried 11 to 10 to defer the Application, pending more extensive investigation. This was specific to the impact of the traffic proposals, clarification of building density and affordable housing provision, details and statistics to be furnished in full by Gladedale.

The role of the Head of Planning, Martin Parker is now being strongly questioned, having failed to ask for clarification of these areas before making his own recommendations approving the scheme. Similarly, why he did not quiz English Heritage about its approval of the second application, after an apparent 'U turn' from the first.

Since Martin Parker's recommendations were published, there have now been two meetings of the Council's Planning Committee, there will soon be a third. HCRC supporters have been sending letters to Parker in their thousands, highlighting the very real concerns raised at last night's meeting. It is extremely frustrating to admit that he has not heeded our voices and that much time and money has and will be spent going 'back to the drawing board'.

HCRC awaits the imminent decision by the Secretary of State to grant a public inquiry. It has worked tirelessly, alongside a long line of other statutory consultees, to remove this important decision from local government, and raise it to national level.

As soon as HCRC learns of a decision from the Sec. of State, it will release an e-mail shot and post on our site.

News Flash 9/11/2008

Following an appeal by Hampton Court Palace to the Government of the South East an "Article 14" order has been placed on Elmbridge Council. This allows the Government more time to consider a case, and stop the Elmbridge from granting planning permission without the Secretary of State’s approval. The Rt Hon Hazel Blears MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government is expected to make a decision in the next three weeks.

John Barnes, Hampton Royal Palaces' conservation director, ridiculed the idea of “plonking down” urban buildings at the site. He wrote, “Once breached, it’s breached for ever. [The development’s] dominance and physical proximity would diminish the importance of the palace itself. It’s inconceivable to us that this would be allowed next to Hampton Court Palace. It would be unthinkable in other countries. Imagine this outside the gates of Versailles.” Read more in The Times.

News Flash 10/10/2008

Numerous local and national organisations met on 9th October to reject the scheme, these organisations included HCRC, Historic Royal Palaces, Molesey Residents Association, Thames Landscape Strategy, Conservation Area Advisory Committee, the Hampton Society, Thames Ditton/Weston Green Residents Assoc, Hampton Wick Assoc., Feltham Avenue Residents Assoc., Hampton Court Assoc. and the Friends of Bushy Park.

Any representations, objections, support or comments should be made in writing to the Head of Town Planning via email: tplan@elmbridge.gov.uk or by post to Head of Town Planning, Civic Centre, Esher KT10 9SD.

Say No to Building on Hampton Court Riverside

Over 3,000 signatures against the scheme were handed to the Mayor on 8 August.

Find out WHY WE SAY NO.

Brian Rusbridge has written a 45 page report from the Hampton Court Rescue Campaign that makes it clear why we are calling for the rejection of the Planning Proposals in their entirety. In brief, The document points out the massive size of the new development, which is 20 times the size of the existing station, the serious flood risk (the site is Flood Zone 3, the highest risk), the increased air pollution, the ground contamination from the old railway shed and turntable, and the failure to protect the natural and historic environment as the Campaign to Protect Rural England has also pointed out to the Council.

In addition, the traffic chaos and danger will be made worse and during and after the three year construction period and East Molesey streets will have to cope with the additional commuter traffic caused by closure of the railway car park and its eventual replacement with an inadequate underground car park.

The report makes it clear that the Hampton Court Rescue Campaign supports the Royal Star & Garter Homes but believes it has been "ruthlessly used as an emotional 'front'" and is concerned that it locked into a scheme that is wholly inappropriate for its needs and is worried that it may get hurt in the process. (Read the complete 45 page Adobe PDF file - if you do not have the Adobe PDF reader click here first).

What is to be done?

Read the letter from Bryan Woodriff (Professor Emeritus) Co-coordinator Hampton Court Rescue Campaign for a well considered answer to this question. 

Hampton Court Rescue Campaign is dedicated to restoring, preserving and safeguarding the future of the Hampton Court site:

• As a major tourist venue of national significance.
• As a vital component of the precinct of Hampton Court Palace.
• As an integral feature of the communities on both sides of the River Thames.

We were founded in July 2006, to fight off proposals to build an intensive development on the Jolly Boatman site directly opposite Hampton Court Palace.

In summary:

Download the poster as a PDF file.