Residents Fight Against New Wolfson Homes Scheme
Developers want to build 85 flats in Copse Hill conservation area
Plans by Berkeley Homes to build 85 flats on the former Wolfson Neurological Centre in Copse Hill have been met with dozens of objections from local residents.
The development submitted to Merton Borough Council rises to six storeys over four blocks and includes 96 basement car parking spaces.
Berkeley Homes already has permission to build 16 homes on the site, which sits in the Copse Hill conservation area. But this is an alternative plan submitted in December, which includes 25 'affordable' homes as part of the scheme.
Wimbledon MP Stephen Hammond has been lobbied by local residents about the plan, and said: "Local residents are concerned about the impact this development would have on the Conservation Area, wildlife in the adjacent green space, and for local community infrastructure such as roads, schools and GPs' surgeries. I have made representations against this proposal."
One computer-generated image of the planned development
Submissions to the council closed earlier this month, but up to 100 comments from residents and local associations were posted before the deadline. Most raised issues around increased traffic and air pollution, excessive housing density, loss of wildlife, loss of public amenity and a potential increase in the area's flooding risk.
Typical of them were comments from the Parkside Residents' Association, which said: "This is a large site in a sensitive location within the Copse Hill Conservation Area, and adjoining Metropolitan Open Land.
"Berkeley Homes' residential development proposals have been amended several times, adding further dwellings each time, since their original planning application in 2012. There is currently an outstanding permission for 16 houses but the above application will, if granted, allow 85 flats instead with a total of 96 parking spaces, radically changing the development the the overall density from the proposals which were originally approved. This is unacceptable..."
You can search for more details on the scheme by searching on Merton Council's planning explorer using the following reference number: 16/P54853.
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February 26, 2017