Following the rejection of NHP's proposals by the RBK Planning Control Committee last year, there have been a few developments.
After holding follow up meetings with the GLA and the RBK planning officers, two things started happening in parallel. The first is that NHP are going to appeal against the decision. This will, if it goes ahead, result in a public enquiry which they believe will probably be heard by a senior QC sometime during the Spring (residents may have received some correspondence in relation to this).
The second is we believe somewhat more constructive. Given most parties were in favour of a dual use of hotel / residential development but objecting in the main to the design and most significantly the height of the proposals, NHP have decided to bite the bullet and design an alternative scheme.
This will entail most likely leaving the design for the bit covering the substation (which everyone appreciates is a significant technical challenge) intact and reworking the remainder (ie. the bit that most people objected to).
NHP have commissioned a brand new architect - Michael Squire (www.squireandpartners.com), to come up with a revised proposal to run in parallel to the existing one. This is a well regarded UK firm with a number of high profile projects under it's belt. See the web site for details.
In order to not have a repeat of the previous situation, all parties involved have attempted to engage with local community representatives, officers and planning committee members throughout the early stages of the design process. Given our representation and proximity, it is felt that CARA is a key party in such matters. In a similar way, they are keen to engage with the residents group based in the Royal Quarter development.
To this end we arranged a meeting in November 2007 for our Committee to meet with personnel from Squire & Partners, representatives from the developers - NHP, people from the Royal Quarter residents association and any local councillors who had an interest in the project.
Given some initial reticence on behalf of some elected members to attend, we pointed out that given this is an attempt at working towards a consensus approach by all parties concerned, we as an association believe it would have no material impact on any due process in place once (if) any application is / was finally registered and we would of course reserve all rights to participate fully in any subsequent consultation and decision making exercise.
Furthermore, we also held that we did not believe that there was any risk of anyone pre-judging anything given this exchange taking place at a pre-application stage. Once an application is registered, it would be a different matter and the normal controls will come into effect.
On behalf of CARA residents, we asked all parties to be sensible and pragmatic in helping to improve this long forgotten but strategically important site for the town centre and where possible work together for towards a solution of which everyone can be proud of.
It turned out to be a very useful session.
The follow notes are those of that initial meeting and the subsequent workshop held in the Richard Mayo Centre in Kingston last month.
Obviously the notes whilst thorough are not verbatim and we apologise for any errors or omissions.
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