Helen Jones kindly forwarded these notes taken by a resident in another building from a February “Consultation”.

 – The towers are increasing in height. The 20 storey tower is now proposed as 22, and the 15 storey tower now proposed as 16. This is intended to reduce the height by 1 storey of the development elevation facing Calypso Way (now 7 storeys, rather than 8).

– The tenure split is now 50% private, and 50% mix of intermediate and social housing, rather than the 1/3:1/3:1/3 split proposed before. This seems to be due to changes in the cost plan of the project, and additional costs associated with increasing the number of provided parking spaces, and thus the size of the basement. 60% parking provision is now proposed for the car park, so approx 130 car park spaces. I don’t think this is particularly relevant for the planning submission, but it shows that the project is under pressure from a cost perspective.

– The transportation assessments have not adequately considered traffic on Plough Way, particularly the bottleneck at the end, where it joins Lower Road.

– The wind assessments show unsafe levels of wind gusting around the base of the development near the corners, and mitigation measures are ‘currently being explored’. The Thames Path section which runs between the river and the development, could therefore become an exceptionally unpleasant place to walk – due to being overtowered by the development, in permanent shade from about midday, and high winds.

– Daylight studies show that at least in winter, Dockmasters Quay will be overshadowed by the development for the whole morning..

The bottom line is that Southwark are going to planning with this scheme.  We need to make our voices heard at the review stage.

The project timeline shows a ‘public exhibition’ prior to application submission. This is not a consultation event and will only be an exhibition of the final scheme to be submitted to planning. Southwark did mention that they think another consultation is required between now and then,but have not decided on the format.

The planning application is set to be submitted (current plan is May).