Hackney Planning Watch has submitted a report to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Hazel Blears. The reportis signed by many local residents and urges her to intervene using her powers under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (PaCPA) to "satisfy herself that the policy is sound and that the law has been complied with". It is our view that such an enquiry will demonstrate that the policy should be amended and the proposed areas of exception dropped.
You can read the full text of the report here in MS Word format.
Saturday, 29 September 2007
Wednesday, 1 August 2007
First results of survey
Why do landlords really want to alter houses in Stamford Hill?
This letter has been sent to all councillors, planning enforcement, environmental heath and the mayor today. It shows the first results of a survey of our local streets. Please let us know about your survey work and we can do one of these for every street.
From the Triangle Community Group
30 July 2007
Dear Councillors, planning enforcement and environmental health
As consequence of the council's production of the Local Development Framework and the proposed 'area of exception' a group of residents in Amhurst Park, Bethune Road, Bergholt Crescent, Cranwich Road, Denver Road, Durley Road and Dunsmure Road have formed the 'Triangle Community Group'. As part of our campaign against the area of exception and to maintain the same rules for our streets as those that apply in the rest of the borough we have begun to undertake a detailed survey of our streets. We believe that this will produce evidence to refute the suggestion by the council that our streets have already been blighted by inappropriate developments and that the area of exception is needed due to the needs of large families.
Our experience is that large houses in this area are in fact being bought up by landlords and extended and then converted into flats and bed-sits. If the council wishes to ensure that there are sufficient large properties then the area of exception will be counter-productive and instead action should be taken to prevent regulated and unregulated conversions from taking place.
Some of these large houses appear to be operating unlawfully as unlicensed HMOs. They are badly supervised and tend to create a noise and environmental nuisance. We wish to draw your attention to three. The results of our full survey will be sent to you in due course.
Of the 90-plus Victorian and Edwardian houses in Cranwich Road, the only ones we are aware of which have been the subject of planning applications, which would lead to over-development, are number 52 (which we believe has been converted, unlawfully, into flats, and is currently the subject of a Council order), number 3, and 7.
No. 3 Cranwich Road: Currently being used as a house in multiple occupation (HMO)
HMO licence applied for and currently being processed by the Council. This has a notably dilapidated appearance and is overflowing rubbish bins. There have already been several complaints to Environmental Health yet no action has been taken.
Planning issues
In November 2006, and again in January 2007, the owner-applicant, stated that the existing use of No. 3 was as a 'single family dwelling'. This is not the case. The owner also gave No. 3 as his own address. His actual family dwelling is elsewhere in Stamford Hill.
In both cases, the application was for 'ground and first floor rear extension and erection of two rear dormers'; in both cases the Council, to its credit, turned the application down, citing the policies of the UDP.
We do not believe that this was a genuine family-type application of the kind that it is claimed justify the proposal for an 'area of exception'. On the contrary it is an example of an absentee landlord acting as a property developer seeking to maximise their income at the cost of both local residents and tenants.
This kind of thing actively needs to be discouraged, both for the sake of Hackney's administration and for the sake, also, of accountability and good management of our streets. Please note that a similar false application with a wrong Certificate 'A' has recently been made for No. 68 Cranwich Road (an infill of nearly all the back garden). The planning department is aware of this.
No. 5 Cranwich Road: Currently being used as a house in multiple occupation (HMO)
We believe that this property has been operating as a HMO since April 2006 without a licence and is in a dilapidated and unkempt state. There are recurrent problems with rubbish. The house is divided into four flats, at least one of which we believe has housed five tenants.
Planning issues
The deeds show that property was previously owned by Hackney Council and was transferred to a religious trust in November/December, 2002. Planning permission for a pre-school and primary school for 100 pupils was immediately applied for, and turned down on the grounds that 1) a noisy school was not suitable for a residential area, 2) the large proposed extensions were intrusive and discordant, and 3) 'The proposal represents a cumulative loss of residential buildings.'
It is perhaps surprising, in view of the obvious need for family accommodation in the area that the Charitable Trust then transferred the property in April 2005 to a landlord who we believe has turned it into an unlicensed house in multiple occupation, posing a significant risk to the health and safety of the tenants and providing no increase in the availability of homes for large families in the area.
No. 73 Cranwich Road: Currently being used as a house in multiple occupation (HMO)
We believe that this property has been operating as a HMO since April 2006 without a licence.
Planning
In March 1997, a planning application was applied for the basement of number 73 to be converted into two bedsit flats. The application was refused on the grounds that it was 'unacceptable by reason of inadequate natural lighting and size of the kitchen areas, representing an inferior standard of accommodation'. Anyone seeing the basement of number 79 would be bound to agree that the Council was, right to refuse.
Yet neighbours inform us that someone is living in this basement nevertheless. Also scrawled on its door, in large letters in green ink, is 'Flat No. 1 BASEMENT'. The person applying for planning application also filled in the Certificate 'A' form on the planning application stating that he was sole owner of the property. Yet we believe that this is not the case and that the information given to the Planning Department in 1997 was false. The owners, bought the property jointly in February 1997 and live (according to the electoral register) elsewhere in Stamford Hill
Conclusion:
We believe that the council should take action to regularise the use of the above properties. We also believe that when it comes to planning applications the council should undertake a routine check to confirm that if the person making the application claims to be living at the property that this is true. A simple paper check with the land registry would not be expensive, and an unannounced site visit by the planning officer (when they are in the already in the area) would help to establish the truth behind some of the applications.
This is particularly important when the main reason for the council proposition that this part of the borough should be exempted from normal planning regulations, is based on the erroneous notion that these building are for extended families in single occupancy. The behaviour of the above landlords exposes the falsity in our area, of the supposed grounds for making our streets part of an 'area of exception'.
If councillors are genuinely representing local people they would see to it that relevant bodies, which include the Planning Department, building control, environmental health and the fire brigade are utilized to ensure that decent standards and statutory obligations are adhered to.
This would benefit of the tenants of these properties, and the majority of residents of Cranwich Road. It may prove unpopular with a small number of rogue landlords, but why should the council's policies be set to please landlords who are already flouting the rules?
Yours sincerely
Jane Holgate
On behalf of the Triangle community group
Encl. Documents on each of these properties have been sent by post to the planning department and environmental health department.
This letter has been sent to all councillors, planning enforcement, environmental heath and the mayor today. It shows the first results of a survey of our local streets. Please let us know about your survey work and we can do one of these for every street.
From the Triangle Community Group
30 July 2007
Dear Councillors, planning enforcement and environmental health
As consequence of the council's production of the Local Development Framework and the proposed 'area of exception' a group of residents in Amhurst Park, Bethune Road, Bergholt Crescent, Cranwich Road, Denver Road, Durley Road and Dunsmure Road have formed the 'Triangle Community Group'. As part of our campaign against the area of exception and to maintain the same rules for our streets as those that apply in the rest of the borough we have begun to undertake a detailed survey of our streets. We believe that this will produce evidence to refute the suggestion by the council that our streets have already been blighted by inappropriate developments and that the area of exception is needed due to the needs of large families.
Our experience is that large houses in this area are in fact being bought up by landlords and extended and then converted into flats and bed-sits. If the council wishes to ensure that there are sufficient large properties then the area of exception will be counter-productive and instead action should be taken to prevent regulated and unregulated conversions from taking place.
Some of these large houses appear to be operating unlawfully as unlicensed HMOs. They are badly supervised and tend to create a noise and environmental nuisance. We wish to draw your attention to three. The results of our full survey will be sent to you in due course.
Of the 90-plus Victorian and Edwardian houses in Cranwich Road, the only ones we are aware of which have been the subject of planning applications, which would lead to over-development, are number 52 (which we believe has been converted, unlawfully, into flats, and is currently the subject of a Council order), number 3, and 7.
No. 3 Cranwich Road: Currently being used as a house in multiple occupation (HMO)
HMO licence applied for and currently being processed by the Council. This has a notably dilapidated appearance and is overflowing rubbish bins. There have already been several complaints to Environmental Health yet no action has been taken.
Planning issues
In November 2006, and again in January 2007, the owner-applicant, stated that the existing use of No. 3 was as a 'single family dwelling'. This is not the case. The owner also gave No. 3 as his own address. His actual family dwelling is elsewhere in Stamford Hill.
In both cases, the application was for 'ground and first floor rear extension and erection of two rear dormers'; in both cases the Council, to its credit, turned the application down, citing the policies of the UDP.
We do not believe that this was a genuine family-type application of the kind that it is claimed justify the proposal for an 'area of exception'. On the contrary it is an example of an absentee landlord acting as a property developer seeking to maximise their income at the cost of both local residents and tenants.
This kind of thing actively needs to be discouraged, both for the sake of Hackney's administration and for the sake, also, of accountability and good management of our streets. Please note that a similar false application with a wrong Certificate 'A' has recently been made for No. 68 Cranwich Road (an infill of nearly all the back garden). The planning department is aware of this.
No. 5 Cranwich Road: Currently being used as a house in multiple occupation (HMO)
We believe that this property has been operating as a HMO since April 2006 without a licence and is in a dilapidated and unkempt state. There are recurrent problems with rubbish. The house is divided into four flats, at least one of which we believe has housed five tenants.
Planning issues
The deeds show that property was previously owned by Hackney Council and was transferred to a religious trust in November/December, 2002. Planning permission for a pre-school and primary school for 100 pupils was immediately applied for, and turned down on the grounds that 1) a noisy school was not suitable for a residential area, 2) the large proposed extensions were intrusive and discordant, and 3) 'The proposal represents a cumulative loss of residential buildings.'
It is perhaps surprising, in view of the obvious need for family accommodation in the area that the Charitable Trust then transferred the property in April 2005 to a landlord who we believe has turned it into an unlicensed house in multiple occupation, posing a significant risk to the health and safety of the tenants and providing no increase in the availability of homes for large families in the area.
No. 73 Cranwich Road: Currently being used as a house in multiple occupation (HMO)
We believe that this property has been operating as a HMO since April 2006 without a licence.
Planning
In March 1997, a planning application was applied for the basement of number 73 to be converted into two bedsit flats. The application was refused on the grounds that it was 'unacceptable by reason of inadequate natural lighting and size of the kitchen areas, representing an inferior standard of accommodation'. Anyone seeing the basement of number 79 would be bound to agree that the Council was, right to refuse.
Yet neighbours inform us that someone is living in this basement nevertheless. Also scrawled on its door, in large letters in green ink, is 'Flat No. 1 BASEMENT'. The person applying for planning application also filled in the Certificate 'A' form on the planning application stating that he was sole owner of the property. Yet we believe that this is not the case and that the information given to the Planning Department in 1997 was false. The owners, bought the property jointly in February 1997 and live (according to the electoral register) elsewhere in Stamford Hill
Conclusion:
We believe that the council should take action to regularise the use of the above properties. We also believe that when it comes to planning applications the council should undertake a routine check to confirm that if the person making the application claims to be living at the property that this is true. A simple paper check with the land registry would not be expensive, and an unannounced site visit by the planning officer (when they are in the already in the area) would help to establish the truth behind some of the applications.
This is particularly important when the main reason for the council proposition that this part of the borough should be exempted from normal planning regulations, is based on the erroneous notion that these building are for extended families in single occupancy. The behaviour of the above landlords exposes the falsity in our area, of the supposed grounds for making our streets part of an 'area of exception'.
If councillors are genuinely representing local people they would see to it that relevant bodies, which include the Planning Department, building control, environmental health and the fire brigade are utilized to ensure that decent standards and statutory obligations are adhered to.
This would benefit of the tenants of these properties, and the majority of residents of Cranwich Road. It may prove unpopular with a small number of rogue landlords, but why should the council's policies be set to please landlords who are already flouting the rules?
Yours sincerely
Jane Holgate
On behalf of the Triangle community group
Encl. Documents on each of these properties have been sent by post to the planning department and environmental health department.
Wednesday, 11 July 2007
Register now for our campaign training
If you want to know how to navigate the council’s planning website, how to object to a planning application, how to involve the ombudsman (when the council fails to answer your concerns) or 101 other ways in which you can help to challenge inappropriate planning in your street, then pre-register for our two hour training session. Email us at planningwatch@btinternet.com
Organise to protect our neighbourhood!
On Tuesday 26 July over 180 people turned up to a Hackney Planning Watch meeting in Stamford Hill Library. Unfortunately the room only held 100 people and many residents had to be turned away. The issue was Hackney Council’s proposal to introduce an ‘area of exception’ into its planning regulations which will see streets in Stamford Hill excluded from its normal planning requirements. The issue arouses fierce passions and people were almost fighting to get into this meeting. Yet the council reports that a mere 216 people responded to its ‘sham’ consultation about which most residents knew nothing.
Council delegation
The next evening, a delegation from Planning Watch addressed the full council meeting (thanks to Councillor Linda Smith for facilitating this). Our spokesperson put our case eloquently, but the councillors did not seemed that concerned with the issues that residents raised. Councillor Guy Nicholson insisted that the flawed consultation period would not be extended and that enforcement was taking place to address inappropriate developments.
What are our concerns?
The council has experienced years of malpractice within its planning service. The notorious Stamford Hill neighbourhood committee was disbanded in 2001 after Planning Watch initiated a successful action by way of judicial review. More recently, the Council’s enforcement arm has been heavily criticised by the Ombudsman for its delay or failure to take enforcement action (they illustrated their concerns by reference to the council’s failure to take timely action in a case where an owner had built a pair of two story semi-detached houses in a rear garden). It is against this history of incompetence (or worse) that we object to a loosening of planning rules in our area.
1 Please sign our on-line petition:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/planningwatch
2 Also please sign our separate paper-based petition (and ask your friends and neighbours to do the same) petitions available from Planning Watch.
3 Call a meeting in your street of concerned neighbours. We will send a speaker to update you on what is happening in the campaign. Where street meetings have been set up they have been productive and a great way to meet your neighbours!
4 As part of our campaign we are planning a survey of the streets of exception. Could you help out by surveying your street? This is not hard, and involves using a simple checklist to assess the types of property and the extent to which inappropriate development has already taken place.
5 Do you have any special skills that you could use to further our campaign? We already have people with a background in architecture, equalities, environmental health, research, media, and law. Do you have specialist skills such as documentary making, database or web design or other skills that could help? Please let us know.
6 Finally, we must ask for money. Hackney Planning Watch does not receive any public funding. Yet our campaign needs money. Could you help out by organising a fund-raising event (for example a barbecue or a social). Alternatively, why not make a small donation by standing order?
Council delegation
The next evening, a delegation from Planning Watch addressed the full council meeting (thanks to Councillor Linda Smith for facilitating this). Our spokesperson put our case eloquently, but the councillors did not seemed that concerned with the issues that residents raised. Councillor Guy Nicholson insisted that the flawed consultation period would not be extended and that enforcement was taking place to address inappropriate developments.
What are our concerns?
The council has experienced years of malpractice within its planning service. The notorious Stamford Hill neighbourhood committee was disbanded in 2001 after Planning Watch initiated a successful action by way of judicial review. More recently, the Council’s enforcement arm has been heavily criticised by the Ombudsman for its delay or failure to take enforcement action (they illustrated their concerns by reference to the council’s failure to take timely action in a case where an owner had built a pair of two story semi-detached houses in a rear garden). It is against this history of incompetence (or worse) that we object to a loosening of planning rules in our area.
1 Please sign our on-line petition:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/planningwatch
2 Also please sign our separate paper-based petition (and ask your friends and neighbours to do the same) petitions available from Planning Watch.
3 Call a meeting in your street of concerned neighbours. We will send a speaker to update you on what is happening in the campaign. Where street meetings have been set up they have been productive and a great way to meet your neighbours!
4 As part of our campaign we are planning a survey of the streets of exception. Could you help out by surveying your street? This is not hard, and involves using a simple checklist to assess the types of property and the extent to which inappropriate development has already taken place.
5 Do you have any special skills that you could use to further our campaign? We already have people with a background in architecture, equalities, environmental health, research, media, and law. Do you have specialist skills such as documentary making, database or web design or other skills that could help? Please let us know.
6 Finally, we must ask for money. Hackney Planning Watch does not receive any public funding. Yet our campaign needs money. Could you help out by organising a fund-raising event (for example a barbecue or a social). Alternatively, why not make a small donation by standing order?
Monday, 9 July 2007
"Hackney Planning Department in complete disarray"
Hackney Council's planning department is incapable of enforcing the law or the present rules on planning. That's not Hackney Planning Watch's claim, it's the concluion of the Local Government Ombudsman in December of last year. So much for claims by Councillor Guy Nicholson that Hackney's planning problem were in the past...
Saturday, 7 July 2007
Stamford Hill deserves better
Stop the proposed area of planning exception
Hackney Council is planning to exclude 38 streets in Stamford Hill from normal planning protection. A period of so-called ‘consultation’ on the plans has already concluded, but most residents had no idea that this consultation was taking place. One councillor has already been quoted in the press celebrating what he described as an unprecedented u- turn in council policy. While the councillor was celebrating, most residents had not even been informed of the proposals. Those who have managed to obtain copies of the ‘draft’ proposals are appalled at the proposal to abandon their streets to unregulated property developers.
The Council already has an appalling record of applying its existing policies and often grants planning permission for front, rear and side extensions that are completely out of character with the existing streetscape, and which in some cases involve the almost total in-fill of rear gardens. Not satisfied with the existing levels of architectural vandalism, the Council wishes to relax even further the rules that they so rarely apply.
If this ‘area of exclusion’ is allowed, the unique character of our Victorian and Edwardian streets will be lost forever. With the Olympics approaching the area will be a magnet for unscrupulous ‘hit and run’ property developers and unlicensed ‘buy to let’
landlords who will destroy the quality of our environment. Already residents are facing inappropriate developments with a resulting loss of privacy, light and other amenities. Developers are even applying to build three storey houses in residential back gardens.
Why should residents of Stamford Hill be any less entitled to statutory planning protection than the rest of Hackney residents? We pay the same council tax; we deserve the same services. If you own your own home and this policy is approved, then you may not find it easy to sell up and leave as ‘planning blight’ will make prospective owner occupiers wary. If you rent, you may find your landlord decides that there is more money to be made by ‘increasing the density of occupation’, i.e. extending the property and then converting it into additional flats. The result will be a loss of high quality rental accommodation and more people forced to live in smaller flats and ‘houses in multiple occupation’ (including bedsits).
If you are concerned at the prospect that your next-door neighbour (or some future next door neighbour) will be able to build a wholly inappropriate extension with no regard to normal planning controls, if you care about the quality of our built environment or just wish to express your views on the Council’s flawed consultation, then please show your support.
• Email us at planningwatch@btinternet.com
• You can also contact the council for a copy of the consultation document at mailto://conservation.design@hackney.gov.uk
Hackney Council is planning to exclude 38 streets in Stamford Hill from normal planning protection. A period of so-called ‘consultation’ on the plans has already concluded, but most residents had no idea that this consultation was taking place. One councillor has already been quoted in the press celebrating what he described as an unprecedented u- turn in council policy. While the councillor was celebrating, most residents had not even been informed of the proposals. Those who have managed to obtain copies of the ‘draft’ proposals are appalled at the proposal to abandon their streets to unregulated property developers.
The Council already has an appalling record of applying its existing policies and often grants planning permission for front, rear and side extensions that are completely out of character with the existing streetscape, and which in some cases involve the almost total in-fill of rear gardens. Not satisfied with the existing levels of architectural vandalism, the Council wishes to relax even further the rules that they so rarely apply.
If this ‘area of exclusion’ is allowed, the unique character of our Victorian and Edwardian streets will be lost forever. With the Olympics approaching the area will be a magnet for unscrupulous ‘hit and run’ property developers and unlicensed ‘buy to let’
landlords who will destroy the quality of our environment. Already residents are facing inappropriate developments with a resulting loss of privacy, light and other amenities. Developers are even applying to build three storey houses in residential back gardens.
Why should residents of Stamford Hill be any less entitled to statutory planning protection than the rest of Hackney residents? We pay the same council tax; we deserve the same services. If you own your own home and this policy is approved, then you may not find it easy to sell up and leave as ‘planning blight’ will make prospective owner occupiers wary. If you rent, you may find your landlord decides that there is more money to be made by ‘increasing the density of occupation’, i.e. extending the property and then converting it into additional flats. The result will be a loss of high quality rental accommodation and more people forced to live in smaller flats and ‘houses in multiple occupation’ (including bedsits).
If you are concerned at the prospect that your next-door neighbour (or some future next door neighbour) will be able to build a wholly inappropriate extension with no regard to normal planning controls, if you care about the quality of our built environment or just wish to express your views on the Council’s flawed consultation, then please show your support.
• Email us at planningwatch@btinternet.com
• You can also contact the council for a copy of the consultation document at mailto://conservation.design@hackney.gov.uk
How you can help
The council has confirmed that it will not re-open the consultation period. So we must use other methods of impressing on them the strength of feeling.
1. We are asking supporters to collect names on our petitions. We have two petitions.
One is a 'traditional' paper petition, which we are asking to be completed only by people who live in the proposed area of exception. We want to demonstrate the strength of opposition within the area. Click here to download petition sheets.
A second 'e' petition is available on the Downing Street website. We are asking everyone to sign this one (as it addresses the wider point of principle which arises from the proposed area of exception).
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/planningwatch/
Please tell as many people as possible, we have more than 120 signatures so far, and need 100 for it to be looked at by Downing Street; ideally in excess of 4000 to show a real opposition.
2. We are also asking you to contact your ward councillors and invite them to meet with residents to discuss concerns. Please email your councillor and copy in the council and Councillor Guy Nicholson, cabinet member for planning and Sue Foster, planning officer - see addressed below.
Conservation.Design@Hackney.gov.uk, sue.foster@hackney.gov.uk,
Guy.Nicholson@Hackney.gov.uk,
New River:
Maureen.middleton@hackney.gov.uk,
harvey.odze@hackney.gov.uk,
Simche.Steinberger@hackney.gov.uk,
Springfield ward:
Jacob.Landau@Hackney.gov.uk,
Eric.Ollerenshaw@hackney.gov.uk,
Shuja.Shaikh@Hackney.gov.uk,
Lordship ward:
Bernard.Aussenberg@hackney.gov.uk,
matthew.coggins@hackney.gov.uk,
Simon.Tesler@Hackney.gov.uk,
Suggestions and ideas
This campaign will only succeed if we work together. Please forward any ideas, or suggestions as to how we can increase the pressure on the councillors to Hackney Planning Watch.
1. We are asking supporters to collect names on our petitions. We have two petitions.
One is a 'traditional' paper petition, which we are asking to be completed only by people who live in the proposed area of exception. We want to demonstrate the strength of opposition within the area. Click here to download petition sheets.
A second 'e' petition is available on the Downing Street website. We are asking everyone to sign this one (as it addresses the wider point of principle which arises from the proposed area of exception).
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/planningwatch/
Please tell as many people as possible, we have more than 120 signatures so far, and need 100 for it to be looked at by Downing Street; ideally in excess of 4000 to show a real opposition.
2. We are also asking you to contact your ward councillors and invite them to meet with residents to discuss concerns. Please email your councillor and copy in the council and Councillor Guy Nicholson, cabinet member for planning and Sue Foster, planning officer - see addressed below.
Conservation.Design@Hackney.gov.uk, sue.foster@hackney.gov.uk,
Guy.Nicholson@Hackney.gov.uk,
New River:
Maureen.middleton@hackney.gov.uk,
harvey.odze@hackney.gov.uk,
Simche.Steinberger@hackney.gov.uk,
Springfield ward:
Jacob.Landau@Hackney.gov.uk,
Eric.Ollerenshaw@hackney.gov.uk,
Shuja.Shaikh@Hackney.gov.uk,
Lordship ward:
Bernard.Aussenberg@hackney.gov.uk,
matthew.coggins@hackney.gov.uk,
Simon.Tesler@Hackney.gov.uk,
Suggestions and ideas
This campaign will only succeed if we work together. Please forward any ideas, or suggestions as to how we can increase the pressure on the councillors to Hackney Planning Watch.
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