Comments on new Wilmer Place planning application due Thursday 14th March
CORRECTION: Contrary to what we previously published, comments are due Thursday 14th March. Apologies for this mistake.
A new planning application for the Wilmer Place website has been submitted by the developers. The headline changes are:
- A height reduction of approximately 1.5 stories, although the height is largely removed from the bottom/retail unit ceiling height.
- Height has also been reduced towards the cemetery around the two storeys that were on top of the retail unit
- 15 fewer residential units; we are unsure of the mix at this stage.
- Given this change there is likely to be a remodelling of the financial viability of the project.
- The proposed retail floor space and frontage arrangements remain unchanged
- There will be a new bat study and enhanced Ecology study around the cemetery
- TfL and Highways previously had no strong views on transport issues so it is expected that this will remain broadly the same.
- There is still concern about the actual height and it seems that officers have requested more CGI views, a model and even suggested a scaffold be built to actual height to properly assess the scale and height, the committee could defer the scheme if it is unconvinced the point has been properly proven.
The new planning application can be viewed online here. The documents associated with the application can be viewed here. The design and access statement gives a summary of the application but once again it is divided into multiple very large pdfs.
We have created a zip file (156Mb) which bundles the five design and access statement pdfs together.
Comments on the application must be received by the planning officers by this Thursday 14th March.
What can I do now?
Read as many of the documents that have been posted on the council’s website as you can. These, and only these, are the official application documents. There are a lot of them and most are highly technical. If you can, you should at least read the Design and Access Statement (available here). It is a ‘glossy’ summary of the applicant’s case and contains computer generated images of the proposal.
Make sure your neighbours, and the managers of all the local shops you use and care about are aware that the process has begun and that they need to make their views known to the Council as soon as possible this week and no later than this Thursday 14th March.
If you want to examine the planning application documents on paper you can view them during office hours, at the Hackney Service Centre, 1 Hillman Street, London E8 1DY (behind the Town Hall on Mare Street).
When should I write to the Council?
Now! It’s important that arguments made are clear, succinct, and are mostly valid planning arguments. It is not necessary to quote policy, regulations, or the law. Planning officers will identify relevant policy when they write their report.
It is far more important that your response is clear, unambiguous, relevant and reasoned.
How should I write to the planners?
If you can keep your response brief (within 2000 characters), the best way is to use the Council’s website. Click here to use it. This will result in an automatic email with a copy of your comments being sent straight back to you – usually within a minute or two. This is confirmation that your response is stored within the planning system. We recommend you compose your response in a document and then copy and paste it across to the online form. If you want to know how many characters you have written then there is a website here which will tell you.
If you have longer comments, or if you don’t receive the automatic confirmation, you should email them to planningconsultation@hackney.gov.uk instead. The subject of your email should quote the application number. For example:
Subject: Objection to 2012/2228 Land at Wilmer Place To: planningconsultation@hackney.gov.uk
You should receive an automated response to confirm your email has been received by the Council, but not that it has been assigned to the relevant officer. You may get an email a few days later to confirm the officer has your comments and will take them in to consideration but it doesn’t always happen, so don’t worry if you don’t get the latter.
You can also write a letter by quoting the reference “2012/2228 Land at Wilmer Place” and sending it to Hackney Planning Service, 2 Hillman Street, London E8 1FB, though please do so in plenty of time.
There is more information on this process at the Hackney planning website:
The cut off date is 14th March according to a letter I got through the post from the Council… Not 15th!
Hi Rosamond. I’m positive it said the 15th on the online planning application earlier in the week but I can see it definitely says 14th now which is…today! Many thanks for pointing this out.