Bell Green - where are the shops?

[nasaroc]

Occasionally, people say to me “What’s happening at Bell Green?”

Good question.

The depressing answer is - not very much. Yes, earth is being moved about (largely to avoid problems with the new Landfill Bill soon to come on the statute book) but as for all those new stores we’ve been promised. Well, where are they?

It is difficult to remember that it is now twelve years since the Savacentre (as Sainsbury then called their large out of town stores) was given the planning go-ahead. At the time we were told that other stores were “queuing up” to get onto the site.

Lewisham planning department completely swallowed this line despite numerous groups arguing that a more mixed development (retail/housing/light industrial/leisure) was more appropriate in an age where there were already more than enough out-of-town shopping areas locally and people were crying out for local jobs and local housing. This argument wasn’t pie in the sky. Right next to the site, at Kangley Bridge, is a huge industrial estate providing steady employment for hundreds of people. Go down to Lower Sydenham station at 5-6pm any weekday and look at the number of local workers from the estate using the station. This could easily have been reproduced on part of the Bell Green site.

The truth of the matter is that the local population has been badly misled both by the developer and local planners (supported it has to be said by local politicians frightened that they might be sued by the developer). They all swallowed the bunkum of retail shed development hook, line and sinker.

The original planning permission was so dodgy that the government (twice!) called it in for a public enquiry – a situation almost unheard of in recent planning history. At the last public enquiry the inspector decided that granting permission was wrong under current planning law but that since Lewisham had already given permission there was little they could now do about it. Hardly a ringing endorsement of the scheme.

The latest move in this sorry saga is that the developer has now re-applied to Lewisham Council to alter the planned sheds so that they are each much smaller than originally planned. Not exactly a sign that the development is going as planned. Presumably, once the sheds are small enough to accommodate pound shops the development can steam ahead!

Those people who supported this method of development really have to explain why, after twelve years, they have led us down this total dead end and left a huge wasteland on our eastern doorstep.

[Muddy Waters]

One could also wonder why there was an effort by the British Gas to re-designate this site as a "Local District Centre"in the Unitary Development Plan? The Planning Inspectorate turned this suggestion down. Common sense ruled here at least, thank heavens.

Watch this space - there are applications in at the council for creating smaller retail units for the 4 large warehouses originally agreed. Why, one may ask? Castlemore, the developers on behalf of British Gas, said there were many large retailers keen to come on site.

Perhaps, as was pointed out to them (and Lewisham Council) at the Public Inquiry, times have changed - large retailers need smaller in-centre store displays so that users can see their goods, compare prices and order on-line. Press coverage this weekend suggests huge discounts being given by high street retailers to move their Christmas stock.

Maybe Nasaroc is right - it is economical at this stage to clear the site of contaminated soil as landfill prices will increase over the next few years. If no one other than Homebase is prepared to "come on site" at least there will be an uncontaminated site available in the future for the developers to apply for permission to build housing.

A case of deja vu?