Hideous 12 storey tower block approval for Bridge Street Car Park Site
On Wednesday 9th March 2016 the Spelthorne Borough Council Planning Committee granted permission to Bellway Homes, for the re-development of the Bridge Street Car Park. A very sad day for Staines – although also somewhat unsurprising, in what seemed like the blink of an eye, approval was granted to Bellway Homes for the gross over-development of the Bridge Street Car Park site, with its out of scale 12 storey tower block.
John Brooks, Head of Planning warned the Councillors at the very beginning that they must not consider the fact that the council owns the site (in other words he was reminding them that SBC would make £millions out of the deal) the resulting approval was hardly a surprise but never-the-less bitterly disappointing.
The Planning Officers Report was presented by Paul Tomson, who concentrated mainly on photos of riverside views.
The Town Society acknowledges that the site needs re-development but this poor quality and totally out of scale design will turn out to be a complete blight on the conservation area and the town for many reasons, for a very long time to come.
It seemed rather odd that only 11 of the 15 members of the Planning Committee were present for such an important decision, 3 were absent but Ian Harvey, the Leader of the Council and a member of Planning Committee sat on the side, not participating in the meeting. In the end 5 Councillors voted in favour & 5 against with leaving Chairman Councillor Smith-Ainsley with the casting vote in favour. Leaving us to wonder how Ian Harvey might have voted.
Our thanks to Town Society Secretary – Anne Damerell plus Councillors Ian Beardsmore, Robin Sider, Colin Davies and others, who spoke out vociferously against the proposals on the night and to those local residents, who turned out on a cold, wet night in support.
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