Streatham Vale residents fight to stop dense, ‘prison like’ Woodgate Tower development

Lambeth residents are launching a last-ditch battle to halt plans for a giant 14-storey tower block planned as the centrepiece of one of the densest developments under way in London.

The development is so dense there is no room for children to play on grass at ground-level – so their playground will be built on the concrete roof, hundreds of feet up in the air – and surrounded by cage-like safety fencing.

Cramming 237 flats into the tiny site will also leave most flats overlooking each other at such close quarters they will have to be fitted with privacy screens – blocking most natural light.

Squeezing the maximum number of rooms into flats also means many rooms will have no windows.

Of those that do, many will overlook the busy London-Gatwick rail line – meaning they will have to be built without being openable because of the noise, making them claustrophobic and unhealthy.

The developers, Hadley Property Group, controlled by Chinese and US investors, also plan just two car parking spaces for the whole development, says a planning application lodged with Lambeth Council.

Since residents will still be able to own their own cars, surrounding streets will face a parking disaster zone.

“This prison-like development has more in common with Azkaban than Streatham,” said Emily Smith, a co-leader of the Woodgate Tower Protest Group, a several hundred-strong group of local residents fighting the development.

More than 1,000 local people have lodged objections with Lambeth whose planning committee, will discuss the “Streatham Blot” development, as locals know it, on Tuesday, March 19 at 1900. Members of the public can attend this open meeting.

Ms Smith added:

“This area has no other high-rise developments. It’s dominated by late Victorian housing no more than three-storeys high so this block of flats is completely out of character. “It will block light from surrounding properties and create a horrible environment for both its new residents and those already living in the area.” “If approved this will set a terrible precedent for Streatham, Lambeth and all of London – because it will open the way for many more similar developments. Londoners should beware – Hadley and companies like it will not stop here.”

There is fury not just around the site but right across south Lambeth because the tower block will dominate the “protected view” from Streatham Common, a much-loved green space half a mile from the site. It will also undermine views of Immanuel Church, a heritage site.

The site targeted by Hadley and its partners, Clarion Housing Group, is in Woodgate Drive, Streatham Vale, a former railway sidings that was developed some decades ago with housing plus a two-storey Homebase store used by thousands of local people.

Hadley bought the site five years ago and has been battling to build its massive tower block plus three smaller blocks, ever since. It claims it needs a massively dense development in order to make a profit but has refused to release any figures to support its claim – which locals reject as untrue.

Hadley is 35% owned by AIti Tiedemann Global, a US-based investment company, and 30% owned by Peterson Group, a Chinese property investment company. The rest of the shares belong to its managers.

Clarion is the UK’s biggest housing association but pays its directors corporate-level salaries, with three senior staff earning over £310,000 and a fourth taking home more than £440,000.

Hadley and Clarion have been at the centre of other similar protests around London, including in Penge where they bought the Blenheim Shopping Centre and the multistorey carpark from Bromley Council. Furious Penge locals are fighting plans to build 4 18-storey tower blocks on the site.

Ms Smith said:

“Developing horrible homes for people on low incomes has become a lucrative global business. We know new homes are needed and are not opposed to new housing in principle but they need to be high quality. This development is far too dense, much too close to a railway and much too high. It will condemn those living in and near it to misery.”

Tim Whitaker of the Streatham Society said:

“The risk is that this huge development not only badly transforms the area but also sets a precedent for further high-rise developments in the area. Residents haven’t been told their area is going to have massive housing. This is planning being done to the local community ”.

Want to get involved?

Show your support and join us at the PAC meeting on 19th March at Lambeth Town Hall. Brixton.7pm. They need as many people as possible to be showing strength of feeling

Sign and share local residents petition here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/block-the-block-say-no-to-woodgate-…

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