Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Contradications re. Friary Park Estate regeneration | |
Posted by: | ken white | |
Date/Time: | 21/03/15 22:33:00 |
I went to one of the Catalyst workshops this morning. It’s obviously very easy to baulk at the so-called ‘Landmark’ 20-storey tower which is on the drawing board, however, this has all the signs of a classic diversionary tactic; while we’re all objecting (as we should) to a cloud-kissing tower block, we are in danger of missing the fact that the smallest building starts around 6 storeys and rises in steps to 8, 10, 14 and finally the Landmark 20. When one considers that the present buildings and surrounding neighbourhood are generally in the region of a maximum of three storeys – the new development would start at twice that height, which is already too high. There were about nine of us at the meeting this morning, and all of us objected to the height and scale of the development. The area around the Friary Park estate is populated with mainly semi-detached dwellings with some larger town houses down Emanuel Avenue. Dumping a development of this magnitude onto this site is hardly going ‘fit-in’ with its surroundings. Catalyst are also planning to have a through-road leading from Horn Lane to Friary Road and also closing off the road by Friary Green to extend the green space. Because, they say, Ealing council want the estate to be more integrated with the surrounding area. This will mean that the quickest and most convenient way to and from Horn Lane/Friary Road would be this new through-road. We were assured that ‘traffic calming’ measures would be put in place – I commented that no amount of ‘traffic calming’ would stop people in cars speeding down their nice new road. We have a big problem in Friars Way/Friary Road with speeding traffic, even though it is a 20mph zone with speed bumps like ski-slopes. |