Wednesday 23 March 2011

Boo to Boris!

Disappointing news... despite all our emails, Boris has decided not to overturn the council's decision to approve the tower blocks for Walthamstow Central station car park. This despite the plans being too tall for the council's policies and CABE saying they should not be approved! And despite Boris having pledged before he was elected to fight this sort of inapproriate development. So it looks like the development is going ahead. Boo!

Meanwhile, this week is your last chance to comment on important Council policy that will shape Walthamstow for years to come. So please send a quick email by Friday! Details below.

 
Please take 5 mins to email the council

The council is asking for resident's pinions on what we need in Walthamstow town centre, to create an important planning document called the Walthamstow Town Centre Area Action Plan. This will shape local planning decisions for years to come - so basically please email them if you care about the local area!!!
 
Things you might want to talk about include: the size and shapes of new buildings; what sort of shops, cafes, takeaways, business we need; what happens to the Arcade site, EMD cinema, town square and market; what sort of new housing we need (for instance, should it be highrise) and where (and what should go with it); how to improve safety, traffic and parking problems; how to encourage visitors by day and by night.
 
There's a PDF file from the council that you can print and fill out but it's appallingly written. So instead you can just answer the quick questions pasted below and then send them by email to planning.policy@walthamforest.gov.uk - subject "Walthamstow AAP" or similar. The deadline's this Friday 25 March... but please do it ASAP so you don't forget!!!
  1. I like the following things most about Walthamstow Town Centre:
  2. I think the main problems in Walthamstow are as follows:
  3. I think the following should be considered as “Top 3 Priorities” for the Walthamstow Town Centre Area Action Plan to address:
  4. I think the following sites should be investigated as part of the Walthamstow Town Centre Area Action Plan:

 
Add at the bottom: "I would like to comment on LDF documents via the internet." and "I would like to be kept informed of progress on, and have the opportunity to comment on the Walthamstow Town Centre AAP. My contact details are:" And make sure you put on your name, address, telephone number and email address.

Read More......

Monday 21 March 2011

Email Boris one sentence today!

Our idiotic council may have approved the plans to fill Walthamstow Central station car park with tower blocks, but Mayor Boris gets the final say. He's making his decision this Wednesday (23 March). So please email his case officer Emma Williamson at emma.williamson@london.gov.uk with your thoughts before then - today if possible, so it makes it into her written report. Subject: "Planning application 2010/1047, 1-2 Station Approach, Hoe Street E17".

Even a one-sentence email would be great, simply urging the Mayor to reject the application.

If you want to write a couple of sentence, you could also...
  • Remind him that he has pledged to veto tower block plans that don't fit in to the local context (i.e. central Walthamstow's character is largely two- and three-storey, much of it Victorian).
  • And point out that architecture experts CABE recommended that the plans be rejected because the blocks on either side of the station are still too tall to meet the council's own planning policy, and because the architectural quality of the main 14-storey hotel tower block still isn't good enough.
As with all such planning reports, they do take notice of how many emails they receive. The content isn't too important, unless you make new original points. So basically there's no need to write an essay. It would be much more effective to bribe a dozen colleagues from the office to all fire off one sentence emails to Boris too! (And if you 'do' Twitter, Facebook, etc then ask friends to.)

Read More......