Forum Topic

Last chance to contact Boris about the Oaks

The mayor has to make his decision by December 18th 2013.We can influence him if lots of us ask him to REJECT THE OAKS PLAN.email him on mayor@london.gov.uk * Include your postal address please.You might want to mention:the low percentage of affordable housing; the height and mass that will overwhelm the centre of Acton, especially the conservation areas; the piecemeal way the development is being done; the lack of a proper thoroughfare from Churchfield Road to the High Street; and the total absence of any public space.You’ve written already? Can you persuade your daughter/son/lover/partner and neighbour to write? This last push is really important. If we each persuaded 3 people to email Boris, he would wake up to a stash of cross constituents. He would know we mean it. It will help him focus. Please ask everyone in your house, your street, your workplace, church or at the school gate to email him now.We have very little time – the emails need to reach Boris by the end of the week.Please go to http://www.oaksaction.org.uk/ for more information, like us on facebook https://www.facebook.com/oaksactiongroup?fref=ts and follow us on twitter @oaksaction.*or write to Mayor of London, City Hall, The Queen’s Walk, More London, London SE1 2AA

Sara Nathan ● 4664d18 Comments

Including for the many supporters of this much-needed investment in a run-down part of Acton town centre. Despite the well-organised and vocal opposition to the proposals, there are plenty of supporters. For balance, the Mayor needs to hear their views too.

Peter Millman ● 4663d

Oh dear, Peter, we are not against a development per se.  We recognise the need for a sympathetic development that will open up the High Street and Churchfield Road and benefit the community as a whole.  The current proposals fail miserably.  We are not NIMBYS - we just want the council to get it right and not saddle us with a monstrous white elephant.

Anne Brown ● 4663d

Everyone I have spoken to wants some development at the Oaks, most would welcome Waitrose back.But, of all the dozens of local residents I spoke to during hours handing out leaflets at the Xmas fair, only one person said they thought it was a good idea in its current form. And that was mostly because the screening/cladding had gone.As Anne says, it's not development that we oppose, just this monstrous monolith with its disproportionate size, a 9 storey tower right on Churchfield Road, NO public space at all and no through route to the High Street. (apart from through the supermarket - less a route and more a retail opportunity - and only when it's open)

Sara Nathan ● 4663d

Well done Anne, I haven't been able to persuade Peter that this isn't about any development.It is about the wrong kind of development. If the Mayor uses his powers to ask for an improved design, we will all benefit, including Peter.

Maire Lowe ● 4663d

In fact, that would do nicely!

Sara Nathan ● 4663d

The fact remains that there is no other developer waiting in the wings with 40 million quid to invest in this difficult and, evidently, controversial site. If Boris can insist that the plans are refined such that opponents can be brought on-side and the developer can still turn a profit, all well and good.There's a good chance that this investment would be the catalyst for further investment and a much more ambitious regeneration of the High Street. Outright rejection would be a disaster and could end up delaying redevelopment for years to come. This is not prime London real estate. This is a grotty car park at the back of a grotty shopping centre at the grotty end of Churchfield Road. I don't envisage a bidding war with the Qataris, Foster + Partners and the Candy brothers. On the other points, which have been well rehearsed over the weeks: 9 storeys is not a monstrous monolith - it's a relatively modest low-rise compared to other new inner London developments. There's plenty of public space around The Mount already (and look how that gets used out of hours). If lack of social housing is an issue for the opponents, can I take it they would support the development if it was all social housing?How many through routes do you really need from Churchfield Road to the High Street? There are at least 4 or 5 already, including through the existing "retail opportunity".Let's see what we get for Christmas from Boris.

Peter Millman ● 4663d

There couldn't be another developer waiting in the wings. ARC OWNS the oaks. This doesn't mean they could not either a) come up with a better planb) sell it to someone who would come up with a better plan.This is a prime site in a thriving suburb where the property prices are rising exponentially. It will be much, much easier to turn a profit there than the would-be developers can possibly have dreamed a decade ago.As a community, we have invested in Acton, we have helped to make it a better place to live, shop and do business. Crossrail obviously hasn't hurt either. But the combination is a winning one - which I am sure the chaps from Tottenham Hotspur who own ARC realise. They must be licking their lips, given that this doesn't seem to have dawned on the Council either.Not only does Acton deserve better, it can do better too.We want and need development. But we don't need something so disproportionate to its surroundings in our town centre. The tower is certainly not "low-rise. Obviously (dur!) it's not a sky scraper either. But it is out of scale and character with our townscape and should be either flattened or at least moved to the centre of the development.

Sara Nathan ● 4663d

Glad to have your opinion Peter. There is no other Developer because we haven't looked beyond ARC ever and they are calling the shots. Lets see if someone else is interested shall we?If the whole development was social and affordable housing I would be interested. For one thing, the Developer probably wouldn't feel the need to turn the flats inwards to their own private space, leaving blank walls on Churchfield Road. No one I've met likes that idea and I am really surprised you do.Yes we do need development down that end of Churchfield Road. You keep being told we agree with you on that point. What we don't need is a Waitrose one and a half times the size of Morrison, with all the traffic that will bring to the narrow entrance to Churchfield Road from Market Place.And yes, we might have the nine story block if it was in the middle of the development and not right on the edge, ruining the light of the surrounding streets. Or the Developers could terrace the apartments, achieving the same density, without the light problems the Tower will bring in its present placement.Finally, yes, we do want a way through the Development to the High Street which is not narrow, lonely and an invitation to muggers. There is a similar path at the moment which is closed by the police for good reasons. Ealing Council have a policy of gating such throughways for good reasons. I suspect the alley in the proposed development wouldn't last long. Of course, we don't know how long Waitrose would last either. They haven't committed you know.I hope you find these comments persuasive enough to write o the Mayor asking him to critique the design. You will be in good company.

Maire Lowe ● 4663d

Dear Boris Johnson,I know the clock is ticking and that you are about to make the decision on whether to support the proposed development of the Oaks site in Acton, West London.Could I ask you to bear in mind that, while pretty much every local person I have spoken to would welcome some development of the Oaks and would also welcome the (very convenient) announcement by the developers that Waitrose will be the anchor tenant, only one person I met in hours at the Acton Fair last Saturday, thinks this particular scheme has anything going for it.Local people are concerned about the scale of the project and its massing - wholly out of proportion with the surrounding late Victorian buildings and church.We don't welcome the nine storey tower right on Churchfield Road which will deprive neighbours and the next-door burial ground of light and, again, is not proportionate.We are concerned that the development complies neither with the Ealing plan nor your own London plan. It is piecemeal, which is not current policy. It is 30% over the recommended density levels for occupancy. English Heritage are broadly critical of the scheme - not broadly supportive as Ealing Council claimed.The proposed development does not provide any public realm at all - yet all recent developments on a comparable scale have done so. It does not provide even a public route connecting the High Street with Churchfield Road - though the original tender spec said it should. It offers merely a route through the supermarket - when it is open - which is more of a shopping opportunity than public access.If you could see your way to asking the developers or the council to have another go: to reduce the scale, remove the tower or even merely move it to the centre of the development, to provide public access not just a gated community, and offer a welcome addition to our community- not just a block squatting in the middle of it - we would be grateful,The Labour members of Ealing's planning committee and the council leader seem to think Acton should be grateful that anyone wants to invest here at all. They say we should accept this, wholly flawed, proposal in case no-one else wants to regenerate the town centre. I think they are maybe out of date. Much of Acton is thriving: property prices are increasing exponentially; Crossrail certainly helps and so does a vibrant, active and engaged local community.We think Acton deserves better than this scheme and that you can help us achieve that.Please do.Sara Nathan OBE(Executive member, Churchfield Community Association)29, Goldsmith Avenue,Acton, W3 6HR

Sara Nathan ● 4662d

Oh Peter and as a resident at the "grotty" end of Churchfield Road, you can take your snobbery and stick it where the sun don't shine..oh yes..that'll be my end of Churchfield Road with a 9 storey tower in the way.

Charlie Mawer ● 4661d

nothing grotty about this end of Churchfield Road. Just maybe a few too many pigeons. What we need is a hawk!

Thea Buchan ● 4661d

No snobbery here. I live in South Acton, in the shadow of a 13 storey block. I don't have a problem with that. Get over yourselves with your architectural vernacular and massing and public realm...this is Acton not Hampstead. Most of the snobbery seems to be generated by the objectors to this £40m investment.

Peter Millman ● 4661d

Thanks Peter. Always good to have your views.The South Acton estate is quite another thing isn't it? It isn't a town centre development or next to a Conservation area so different rules apply.Just a thought. Not a Labour supporter by any chance? My Council right or wrong! sort of thing?

Maire Lowe ● 4661d

Definitely not a Labour supporter, though my politics is irrelevant. Just in favour of investment in the regeneration of the town centre.  By the way, the South Acton estate extends to the south side of the High St., for your information. So we're all one big community, not "another thing". Happy days.

Peter Millman ● 4661d

Peter, no need to be hostile. I know where the South Acton estate is. Many friends live there and I have been following the regeneration plans with interest But whether you like it or not,it is another thing, It is an estate, not a town centre so its requirements are different. If you pm me I'd love to walk round with you and we can debate the differences together. Happy day to you too.

Maire Lowe ● 4660d

I have lived in Acton for more than 40 years and have seen it change from a place where you couldn't even buy garlic to what it is today. I'm not happy at the idea of the town becoming totally (and soul-lessly) gentrified like Chiswick, but I am sick and tired of Acton always getting the short end of the stick.For years, the council has been desperately offering all development opportunities in Acton to just about anyone who would take them, regardless of the quality of their work. For years, the council was perhaps correct in their estimation of what Acton was worth - but no longer. We now find ourselves - between the coming of Crossrail and the over-development of Chiswick - in a seller's market: we are worth a lot now to any developer, not just the so-called Acton Regeneration Company.So Peter, we may not be Hampstead but are we as a community so much less deserving? Do we really want another Jeffries/Beechworth House (the monstrosity in the High Street now disguised with the big photo of an oak) right in the centre of the town? That building has been blighting our landscape for the best part of three decades.If we can persuade Boris to call in the plans, yes, there will be a bit of a delay in regenerating that part of Acton. But by waiting a little while, we could end up with something that would enhance the area, join north and south Acton and be something we could be proud of.

Nancy Duin ● 4660d

Forgot to add - have a look at the latest 42-second 'commercial' from The Oaks Action Group, just sent to Boris:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDnYufi24CA&feature=youtu.be

Nancy Duin ● 4660d

Brilliant 30 second expose. Grateful thanks to the makers of the film.

Maire Lowe ● 4660d