Woodhall Properties have applied to build a 15-storey block of flats and an 11-storey hotel on the site of the Masonic Lodge and the old telephone exchange in Thames Street, between Debenhams and the Tothill multi-storey car park. They propose 140 flats, a density of 700 dwellings/hectare, and 102 hotel rooms, plus some office space and a new Masonic Lodge. The building fills the site completely, edge to edge from the curving service ramp to the walls of the Tothill car park, with no open space and no landscaping except a few token small trees in a central drop-off & pick-up area and a plant trellis on the service ramp. The residential block is three times the height of the Tothill car park, and is so tall that it is within four feet of the aircraft safety boundary. There is no parking, other than three spaces for disabled people: the residents are supposed to use the Tothill car park (until it is demolished in a later phase of development) but will actually add to the parking problem in nearby streets. The development will add about 115 vehicles per hour at peak times to the already busy Thames Street traffic.
This immense phallic symbol sticking up out of the existing townscape is totally and contemptuously out of scale with our modest riverside town. It will be a poor environment for its residents in their tiny flats, most barely above the SBC approved minimum floor space and some below it, looking down on the back yards of neighbouring shops and offices. 44 of the 140 flats will be affordable housing, tucked in at the back of the site with a separate entrance.
Staines Town Society has objected to this proposal as gross overdevelopment, violating Spelthorne Local Plan policies on design, open space, housing density, air pollution, and the riverside environment. We have also objected to the loss of 7 mature sycamore trees on the site. It is disturbing that although this plan is clearly wildly out of step with many Local Plan policies (all the ones put in to protect citizens from overdevelopment), it is the outcome of two years of discussion with planning officers.
You can see the plans at the Council offices or on SBC website, reference 14/01377/FUL. The application says that this is viewed as a landmark site and a catalyst for future change in Staines. You have been warned.
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