Meeting Tonight and Next Wednesday

There will be two meetings to discuss the Wilmer Place proposal over the next week.

The first will be an opportunity for people who are involved (or who want to be involved) in the Stokey Local campaign to meet and decide on next steps. The Stokey Local planning meeting will be this Wednesday 6th July at 8pm, the Boiler House Community Space, George Downing Estate, Cazenove Road.

The second is a broader public meeting being organised by Hackney Unites. This will be a good opportunity for concerned residents to discuss the problems and impacts associated with the proposed development. The Hackney Unites public meeting will be next Wednesday 13 July at 7pm, St Mary’s Church Community Centre, Defoe Road (Church Street end).

Independents’ Day Today – Support Your Local Shops

Today is Indepedents’ Day, when Hackney residents are being encouraged to choose local, independent shops for their shopping.

Here in Stoke Newington we have an incredible diversity of shops to choose from and many of these businesses are really suffering through a combination of the economic climate and the influx of supermarkets into the area.

They need your support now more than ever, so please try and do as much of your shopping in independents as possible today (and every day) and help to keep the area’s character and economy vibrant and strong.

Check out the Hackney Citizen’s article on the day in Hackney.

Spot the difference

Spot the difference – Saturday July 2nd 2011

Current view from junction on Cazanove Road and Stamford Hill

Did you get it?

Yup – a 30 year old tree has appeared from no-where to hide the proposed development, and possibly mask a removal of the existing Abney Park (Woodland Nature Reserve) trees.

Perhaps this is what is meant by “Try something new today

Please copy Stokey Local in to any feedback you send

We’ve started a directory of contact details of the people involved in this planning proposal as well as the councillors in the wards surrounding the site.

If you’re going to be sending feedback to the developer, Sainsbury’s or their PR company then we’d be very interested to see what you have to say.  This will help us to assess any conclusions of the consultation drawn by the PR company.

Our email address is stokeylocal@gmail.com and all comments will be kept strictly confidential.

Transport considerations

I’ve been talking transport and trying to  get an idea of what impact this development might have if it were to go ahead.

The developer is claiming that there would be 6 to 8 truck deliveries per day. The trucks would be 11m long rigid HGVs which would turn into Wilmer Place from Church Street (right opposite the primary school).  The Wilmer Place residents tell me that part of the plans will be to remove the pavements on Wilmer Place (which is an access road to their homes).

At the moment no one seems to know whether they will come from the west end of Church Street or from the South end of the High St.  I’m told that for some unspecified reason milk and bread will be delivered separately in vans.  The council will put restrictions on the times when these vehicles can deliver but there’s no indication of what time of day this will be.

On the car side of things it’s anticipated that the development would cause a 3% increase in traffic at the morning peak and a 5% increase in the evening peak and in absolute terms they”re forecasting 40 cars arriving and 40 cars leaving the car park per hour giving 80 car movements in total. According to the TfL gyratory study that stretch of the high street has about 1,000 vehicles per hour passing through it.  Hackney Council have commissioned their own gyratory study which has been completed but not published so hopefully we’ll have some more current figures soon.

As part of the planning application (if it gets that far) they will have to submit a detailed transport assessment so we’ll just have to wait to see what that says and assess it when it gets published.

Developer’s representative hasn’t turned up yet

Amazing turn out from Stoke Newington residents at the consultation – there’s been a steady flow all morning and some heated and well informed discussions.

I’m told that (perhaps unsurprisingly) the representative from Newmark Properties hasn’t turned up to their own consultation today. Still, half an hour to go so maybe they’ll show in the last few minutes.

“Provision of consumer choice especially for those without access to a car”

I think we’ve amply demonstrated through the map of local shops (still growing, book shops and florists to come) that there is already a lot of consumer choice for people living in and around Stoke Newington through the wide range of independents as well as the existing supermarkets.

The Morrison’s on Stamford Hill is just a few hundred meters away from the proposed site and the large Sainsbury’s in Dalston and the Sainsbury’s up Stamford Hill are an easy bus ride away. In the centre of Stoke Newington we also have the small Sainsbury’s and Tesco which can provide the very few things that the existing independents don’t tend to provide.

The area is very well provided for with non-car transport options: nine bus routes pass through the junction of Church Street and the High Street, there is an overland train station within 300m of the proposed site, Stoke Newington is located in the borough with the highest rate of cycling in London and both Church Street and the High Street have very high pedestrian footfall.

By the way we’re going to be doing a basket price comparison between the existing supermarkets and the independents within a half mile radius of the site – the supermarkets (well some of them at least) seem to be very keen on comparing their prices with the other supermarkets so let’s see how the supermarkets fair against the independents. Initial research suggests that it’s going to be quite illuminating!

I’m on an achingly slow 3G connection here and having a few technical hitches as a result but we’re getting there somehow. Will be dipping back into the consultation to find out more. Back in a hour or so.

“Section 106 Payments to Local Services…

…. and the physical environment”

As I’m only just learning about the planning system, this one is news to me.  Oldham council has a document describing the Section 106 Planning Obligations:

What are section 106 planning obligations?

Under section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, as amended by the Planning and Compensation Act 1991, any person interested in land in the area of a local planning authority may, by agreement or unilaterally, enter into an obligation (commonly known as a section 106 planning obligation)

    • (a) restricting the development or use of land an any specified way;
    • (b) requiring specified operations or activities to be carried out on the land;
    • (c) requiring the land to be used in any specific way;
    • (d) requiring a sum or sums to be paid to the authority on a specified date for an agreed purpose.

Planning permissions can therefore be subject to conditions or planning obligations enabling proposals to go ahead which might otherwise be refused.

Essentially it appears to be a substantial payment from the developer to the council in order to make what would normally be considered an unacceptable development ‘acceptable’.

According to one of the people here these payments are for investments related to the area where the development is happening and are legally binding.  These investments will usually be for public realm improvements but the affordable housing would fall under this, as would the revenue from the underground pay and display car park.

The amount hasn’t been confirmed yet so we have no idea what scale of payments the council would be receiving but we’ll try and find out what sort of numbers we’re talking about.

If anyone has more information on this system and figures for similar developments, please comment below.

Part Time Versus Full Time Jobs

It’s a lovely morning in Stoke Newington and the consultation is in full swing. Come on down and find out more about the development.

I’ve been having a conversation with one of the people here and quizzed him about the split between part time and full time jobs (so far all they’ve revealed is “up to 200 jobs” which doesn’t mean a great deal).

While it apparently hasn’t been formally set in stone, he said he expected it to be around 60% part time to 40% full time.

Someone else asked about wages and apparently Sainsbury’s will pay a bit above the minimum wage but less than the London living wage.

Live blogging from the consultation today

It’s the last morning of consultation at Abney Hall on Church Street from 9 til 1.

We’ll be live blogging from the consultation today, keeping you up to date with how the morning develops. We’ll also be reporting and assessing specific claims being made on the posters and by the representatives of the developer and Sainsbury’s.

If you can’t make it down today then feel free to post in the comments below letting us know your views.

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