Kew Bridge (Scottish Widows/ Eco-village) site second planning application

Having lived in Brentford all my life this is a site I can still remember when Scottish Widows had an office there, The Plough pub had not been demolished and there was a sizeable boat club.

Since then at least fifteen or so years must have passed by. The site has become wild land; we have had one failed planning application; followed by a developer-led community planning exercise that enabled more community influence than under the previous scheme.

In forming my views on the proposals as a ward councillor I note the 5 amenity societies and Royal Botanical Gardens in their latest letters feel that St Georges scheme amendments do not address their concerns over bulk, mass, scale and design sufficiently.

I also note the formal objections raised by Simon Moore, one of the eco-villagers.

I used to chair Brentford Community Council and have no doubt that if I was still involved in its policy making I would still be advocating these higher building standards to which I continue to aspire.

Unfortunately as Councillors sitting on planning committees our idealism from design to social housing to environmental sustainability is more often than not compromised by a national planning framework and planning inspectorate that is far less ambitious than we and our local communities would like - as well as a lack of effective controls on land prices. Land price inflation considerably increases the density at which sites have to be developed if they are to be economically viable and built on at all.

And the local authority does not have the funds to purchase and convert sites such as this to common land.

In support of the application the Council has received 45 letters and e-mails, a letter from London Youth Rowing and representation from the local business community.

I argued for deferral last Autumn when this came to committee as my gut instinct was then and remains that the Council could achieve more for the community negotiating at a local level.

The areas where I argued more work was needed were:

1) Lack of understanding/ confidence amongst Councillors as to whether a fair deal on social housing had been secured.

2) There was still a need for St George to agree to an 'Open Book' claw back mechanism so that social housing provision could be put on a sliding scale, depending on market conditions.

3) Improvements to the materials/ detailing used to finish the buildings were needed.

On the first issue I suggested that to the Committee Chair and officers that a briefing was delivered on the process applied by the borough's independent valuer. They took up the challenge and organised a workshop on economic viability of schemes that a number of councillors attended.

On the second an open book approach has been proposed by the applicant St George which is more acceptable to the Council, although there is still one outstanding issue.

On the third I suggested that St George run a half day workshop with their architects and local stakeholders where alternative finishes could be considered. Instead, St George ran a short workshop for councillors. In my view this improved the form and reduced the bulk of the most prominent corner building, although not the finish of the site overall.

If this scheme goes to appeal I am doubtful it would be turned down again by an inspector, but the community would incur considerable cost. My conclusion is therefore on balance that we are best off accepting the scheme as is now presented. However if members are minded to approve I would urge the following conditions:

1) First of all a fair "Claw back trigger" still needs to be agreed between the applicant and officers - a key component of the Open Book agreement;

2) A working group should be established involving local councillors and interested community stakeholders to do more work on refining the finish of the building and reducing the amount of white render, which is not part of the traditional Brentford/ Strand on the Green building vernacular;

3) Whilst the eco-credentials of the scheme have now reached Code for Sustainable Homes level 3 (from '0') I would urge conditioning that a significant proportion of the roof space is given over to rooftop allotments and that fruit/nut trees are planted on the public square. This will address our shortage of allotment space in the East of the borough, as well as being a fitting legacy of the eco-village.

4) The cost of re-instating the original style lamp columns to Kew Bridge, suggested by Holland Gardens Residents Association, should be determined and an s106 contribution sought for a portion of the costs within the package;

5) There should also be an "Informative" note to St George and Fullers strongly advising them to bring back an old Brentford pub name for the waterside pub when complete. I understand from speaking to both parties that they would be amenable to this.

Finally since the Eco-villagers arrived on site last June I have welcomed St Georges not preventing a hugely valuable "meanwhile" use of the land. The eco-villagers have become well respected members of the local community - teetotal on site, democratic and peaceful. They have done what they promised in raising awareness of low impact, eco-friendly living.

If approved I hope St George will stand by their word and once building contractors are agreed and almost ready to go, then provide a few weeks notice for the eco-village to be dismantled.

Thank you.