Public meeting tonight at 7pm at the Old Fire Station on Leswin Road

There will be a meeting to discuss the revised proposal tonight from 7pm at the Old Fire Station on Leswin Road.

The revised proposal comprises a large Sainsbury's supermarket (about the same size as the one on Stamford Hill) and 68 flats. This new proposal differs from the original proposal in three main areas:

  • Reducing the supermarket size by a third to 16,000 square foot

  • Increasing the number of flats from 44 to 68

  • Removing the underground car park and vehicle access from the High Street

For more information about the proposed development please check out the Stokey Local websiteand the developer's Wilmer Place website. 

Please pass this information on to anyone who you think might be interested in attending. 

 

Sainsbury’s returns: what next? Public meeting on Tuesday 12th June

The proposed Sainsbury's development at Wilmer Place is back and given the high level of public concern about its potential impact, Stokey Local is calling an action meeting for local people to discuss the implications of the proposed development and consider what if anything we should do to influence the developer, Sainsbury or other parties.

The meeting will be on Tuesday 12th June from 7pm at the Old Fire Station on Leswin Road if you plan to attend, can you please register in advance so that we have an idea of the numbers who will attend.

The revised proposal comprises a large Sainsbury's supermarket (about the same size as the one on Stamford Hill) and 68 flats. This new proposal differs from the original proposal in three main areas:

  • Reducing the supermarket size by a third to 16,000 square foot

  • Increasing the number of flats from 44 to 68

  • Removing the underground car park and vehicle access from the High Street

For more information about the proposed development please check out the Stokey Local website and the developer's Wilmer Place website.

It would also help greatly if you were to share this event through your facebook page, twitter, or even good old fashioned word of mouth!

Reminder: Wilmer Place public exhibition this Tuesday 29th May

Just a quick reminder that the public exhibition showing the revised proposals is this Tuesday from midday. The word on Twitter suggests it might run til 9 rather than 8pm as advertised. The exhibition is happening on the Wilmer Place site itself.

There hasn't been much time to get the word out about this so please tell your friends and neighbours that it is happening so that they can get  a chance to see it for themselves. 

Some more information emerging via Stoke Newington Central ward councillors

The Stoke Newington Central ward councillors met with the developer on Monday. They have put a detailed post up on their blog which is given in full here:

On Monday we met with Newmark Properties and their representatives to discuss the latest version of their plans to redevelop Wilmer Place.

As previously advertised, there will be a drop in session on Tuesday 29th from 12-8pm in a marquee on the Wilmer Place site itself. We campaigned and lobbied hard for there to be further consultation on the scheme. Ideally we would have welcomed a public meeting, but a drop in session does at least allow us the opportunity to see the plans in detail and ask the developer questions before they are submitted as a planning application. We stressed in the meeting last night that holding a drop in on a weekday would make it hard for many people to attend, especially if they are at work during the day – but ultimately it will be up to the developer as to whether he chooses to respond to this concern. Please do attend next Tuesday if you can. We understand that the developer’s website will also be updated with the new plans on, or just after Tuesday.

We haven’t seen the full details of the scheme but the key points are covered in the newsletter that has been distributed to residents:

  • The size of the proposed Sainsbury’s store is being reduced to 16,000 sq foot (approximately the same size as the one in Stamford Hill)
  • Despite the reduction in the size of the store – the overall size of the building has not changed.
  • No underground car parking – and just 7 disabled parking spaces for the development
  • Deliveries still via Wilmer Place, but restricted to 6-7 a day
  • The store’s delivery area will be enclosed to limit the noise from trucks loading and unloading
  • Retaining the buildings on the High Street
  • No vehicle access to the development from the High Street
  • A small buffer between the cemetery and the new building – of approximately 1m.
These are many of the issues that we raised in our objection to Newmark Properties and Sainsburys in August 2011 and we are pleased that issues with transport on the High Street and parking have been considered and taken on board.

However, we still have many concerns on planning grounds including:

  • The scale of the building and how this impacts on the Stoke Newington Conservation Area
  • The impact on the cemetery
  • Enforcing the delivery restrictions on Wilmer Place to ensure that this access is as safe as possible for residents and people passing through
  • The impact on biodiversity
  • The assessment of what impact the store will have on other local shops
We are also awaiting further detail on the breakdown of affordable housing units in the development. This is a very important issue given the housing shortages in the Borough and the increased pressure on the need for family sized housing. (We have been asked about how affordable housing is defined. The Council uses the following definition: Housing designed to meet the needs of households that cannot afford to access suitable housing in the open market. Affordable housing comprises both social rented housing and intermediate housing. You can find out more about the Council’s housing strategy here)

We also discussed last night what Sainsbury’s approach is to providing local jobs. The scheme will have ‘up to 150 jobs’, but there wasn’t any detail yet on whether these are all full time. We were very clear about the importance of ensuring that – if the development is approved – these jobs are filled by local residents. Local Labour agreements will be used to ensure that job opportunities are offered to people in the local area first – again we need to see more detail on how this might work in practice, and hold Sainsbury’s to their pledges.

The Sainsbury’s representative also confirmed that there were no plans to close any of their other stores in the local area.

We are expecting an application to be submitted at the end of June. We understand that if planning permission is granted, the construction period would be 18 months.

Please do get in touch with us if you have any further views or comments.

Invitations to the public consultation on Tuesday 29th May are now arriving in Stoke Newington homes. Please try and make it along to see the plans for yourself and try and get answers to the queestions which you have about the development. 

More details emerging plus public exhibition scheduled for Tuesday 29th May from 12 til 8pm

UPDATE: The developers have also made a change to their website, replacing the original content with a holding page containing similar information.

Some more details are emerging about the changes and the public exhibition.

Councillor Daniel Stevens has just put up a post on his blog which is copied here in full:

After a long period of silence, it would appear things are moving again on proposals to redevelop Wilmer Place. 

An application has not been submitted but we have been told that the following revisions have been made to the original plans:

  1. Increasing the number of flats on site and including a larger number of family sized homes
  2. Increasing the provision of affordable housing
  3. Reducing the size of the retail unit by 33%
  4. Removal of the basement car park with no car parking on site apart from allowing for disabled car parking
  5. Removing vehicle access off Stoke Newington High Street
  6. Reducing vehicle movements along Wilmer Place from 400 two-way unregulated movements per day to a maximum of 30 two-way regulated movements per day
  7. Restricing the size of delivery vehicle to a maximum of 11m
  8. Retaining the buildings on Stoke Newington High Street that were previously proposed for demolition
  9. Increasing the landscaped area between the development and the cemetery

As you may remember, we pressed for assurances that there would be another public exhibition from Newmark Properties and Sainsbury’s before a formal planning application was submitted. We have been told today that this public exhibition will now be held on site on Tuesday 29th May 2012 between 12pm-8pm. 

We are meeting with Newmark Properties next week to find out more about their latest plans. If you have any comments on the proposed revisions listed above, please email them todaniel.stevens@hackney.gov.uk

So the exhibition is in less than two weeks and it's on a Tuesday. Please spread the word so that as many people as possible can go and check out the revised proposals for themselves.

We will be there and will get as much information as possible to post here so if you don't manage to make it down you can get up to speed on how things are developing.

Wilmer Place proposal redesigned and a further public exhibition planned

There has been some movement on the part of the developers. The Casenove Area Action Group received an email from Four Communications regarding the proposal:

From: Nicholas Vose

Date: Mon, 14 May 2012

I am writing to update you regarding our revised proposals for the above site in Stoke Newington, Hackney and to offer you a briefing.

The proposals will provide a significantly reduced foodstore which will increase much needed footfall in this area and provide new homes including affordable homes for Hackney.

Following the consultation activity we undertook in 2011 we have carefully considered the feedback we have received from LB Hackney officers, elected members, local residents, business owners and other stakeholders and have made a number of significant revisions to the proposals, which we have already received some positive feedback on.

If you would like to discuss the proposals in more detail and arrange a briefing prior to the second public exhibition please do not hesitate to contact me.

We will be holding a second public exhibition shortly and I will ensure that you receive a separate invitation in due course.  

Yours sincerely,  

Nick  

Nicholas Vose

Account manager – Four Public Affairs

So as was suggested late last year there has been a redesign but at this stage we don't know how the proposal has been modified (the developer's webiste still hasn't been updated yet

We'll keep you posted on developments.

Apologies for the lack of website…

We've been having problems with the website for a while (something was flooding the servers), but things seem to be back up and running smoothly again..

There is still no word from the developers and no change to the Wilmer Place website. We'll update you if there is any movement. 

5,000 signatures to the petition and counting

We can now announce that we have received 5,000 signatures to our petition in opposition of the proposed developement. 

The clear majority of these (over 4,200) have come from shops around Stoke Newington and our thanks go to the shopkeepers for hosting the petitions and especially to  Hamdy and Suzy for doing such a great job of organising it. The rest have come from the online petition which you can still sign.

On most of the petition forms there was an opportunity for people to leave a comment and we have analysed a chunk of them to get a feel for what Stoke Newington residents feel about the proposal.

Most of the comments and concerns fell into distinct themes so we grouped them together, giving the breakdown of the most common as follows:

 

33% – Don't need another supermarket

24% – Would damage local businesses

14% – General objection to proposal

 7% – Traffic and congestion problems

 6% – Would damage the area's character

 3% – Would adversely affect the local community

 2% – Impact on local environment / polution

 2% – Don't need large corporations / no to corporate greed

 2% – No to cloned high streets

 

It is clear from this petition that opposition to this proposal is strong and the comments indicate that there is a wide range of concerns about the development. 

These concerns are described in more detail on the Issues pages of this website so please take the time to consider them for yourself and also sign the petition if you haven't already.

Reports of revisions to Wilmer Place development plan

In the last 24 hours there have been reports on Twitter that there has been a delay in submitting the application because the developers are revising the plan in light of the response from the Stoke Newington community. According to these reports the architects of the development have suggested that the supermarket aspect of the proposal is being scaled back. 

At this point in time we have no idea to what extent the plans are being altered and there have been no updates to the Wilmer Place website so far to confirm this. 

It is also worth noting that this would not be the first time that developers have put forward a clearly inappropriate proposal before submitting a scaled back application, with a view to softening up opposition.

This fight is by no means over, but it does show that by getting together we can influence how our community develops and that we can work together to support and maintain Stoke Newington's unique character. We will keep you up to date with the latest information as soon as we become aware of it.

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