Hillgate Village Residents’ Association
19 July 2023
Response to Newcombe House planning application
Dear Members and Supporters,
Following our June 27th newsletter your committee has carefully considered the application, and received comments from nearby residents. We will lodge an objection this week as below, and would encourage you to endorse our comments by visiting the website ahead of the deadline of July 28. The link can be found here.
Please note if you wish your comment to count as an objection you will need to highlight this in the relevant box.
Our objection will show as The Hillgate Village Residents’ Association on the website, but comments from individuals are posted anonymously by RBKC as per their privacy policy (updated 2020). CHRA and Pembridge Associations will probably lodge similar objections to ours, but please do not wait for those before you act.
Please also note that if you are a Westminster resident, you should lodge your comments/objection on that website, as they are also consulting on this; their case reference number is 23/04101/OBS.
Our response
'Many elements of the revised scheme are welcomed - such as the social housing, colonnade, the public space on the NHG frontage, the brickwork and arches on the larger new building and the promised landscaping throughout the site. The height and massing due to the extra storeys and front slab on Newcombe house (making it 50% deeper) and the bulk of the two new buildings remain unacceptable to the local community.
The proposal to construct an additional 6000 m² (65,000 ft2) over the previously consented scheme is a huge expansion of total space. We do not believe such a large volume is necessary for viability, especially in view of the developers’ repeated assertions on the desirability of office space in this area.
The additional height awarded to the previous consent for this site was contingent on delivery of public benefits such as additional (as opposed to replacement) social housing and tube access improvements, as well as a sizeable internal public square; these are not offered by the current scheme and therefore do not provide justification for the proposed massing or the 15-storey tower.
In recent years the narrow street network of Hillgate Village has suffered from increased social media attention, Uber pickups and tourists using the area for personal photoshoots. Our members have expressed concerns that the developers’ proposals for the eastern end of Uxbridge Street will encourage footfall through the quiet residential streets. We request that no benches or café seating is placed between the sheer walls of the eastern section of Uxbridge Street, to protect residents of the houses in Jameson and Uxbridge Streets from reverberating noise, as well as potential rough sleeping. It is suggested that the pedestrian funnel effect of the Uxbridge Street development proposals could be mitigated with a barrier at the Jameson Street end to provide narrow access only.
Numerous consultation meetings with the developers led us to understand that the western end of the building would have no windows. We are surprised to see Verified Views 12, 13 and 14 (one shown below) which now show a central glazed area on the western flank of the tower. Local views impacted will include those from residential areas of Kensington Park Road and Hillgate Village. The long window will present at night time as a bright column of light. The developers’ Visual Impact Statement assesses the magnitude of the impact as “high” - an intrusion on the Ladbroke and Campden Conservation Areas which is surely unjustified, given that in daytime the windows would illuminate only “lobbies and amenity” areas on each floor. We would prefer to see these 'column of light' windows removed, unless they can be mitigated by automatic blinds at night. This was a last minute change, which was not covered in the consultation with residents, or residents' associations.
Should the development receive planning consent, we request that conditions are imposed on the following elements:
Plant and equipment. Such clutter must be contained within the envelope of the buildings or solely permitted in the roof top plant enclosure on the main tower, with approved screening. Subsequent additions, including masts and telecoms equipment should be expressly forbidden. Lessons must be learned from the external fitting of plant which has marred so many of the adjacent buildings in Notting Hill Gate.
Should technology innovations remove the need for rooftop plant, the uppermost floor of the development, currently reserved for plant and equipment, should be removed.
Hours of operation for plant should be limited to office hours only (ie. 8am-6pm).
Use of the terraces facing Hillgate Village should be prohibited after 6pm.
Permission for restaurant/bar use and on or off site licenses for the entire site (apart from retail units giving onto Kensington Church Street) should be expressly forbidden.
24/7 Security (with CCTV) should be a firm requirement (contrary to p 16 of the viability report) to deter rough sleepers, as referred to in the consultation meetings.
We are appreciative of the efforts the developers have made during the consultation process and for their significant alterations to the design. However, our members remain unconvinced of the merits of such an intrusive, tall and bulky proposal in the context of the four surrounding conservation areas.'
Thank you for supporting HVRA throughout the campaign. We have worked hard on your behalf for the best achievable outcome at the Newcombe House site, for Notting Hill Gate and the surrounding streets and we will continue to represent the interests of the residents. If you have any comments or questions for us, please email us ASAP at Hillgatevillage@outlook.com - which we monitor closely. We would also encourage you to consider renewing your subscriptions via the membership page on our website (www.hillgatevillage.com/membership), and we hope to arrange our first post Covid AGM in the autumn.
The HVRA Committee
Hillgate Village Residents' Association
June 2023
Newcombe House Application
Dear members and supporters,
As you will probably have seen from RBKC’s written notification of 16th June (also distributed in neighbouring areas of Westminster), the developers, Beltane, submitted their application PP/23/03534 on June 13, following their consultations over the last year. The deadline for comments is July 28.
Here is the link to RBKC website:
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea | Planning Application Search (rbkc.gov.uk)
Where the 155 documents listed cover 16 webpages (go to the later pages to find the application documents):
Document List (rbkc.gov.uk)
Beltane outline their arguments on their updated website:
Newcombe House, Notting Hill Gate - Newcombe House, Notting Hill Gate
We are digesting this massive application, and will discuss it with CHRA and Pembridge Association in July. We have already received comments from one Jameson Street resident, and would be grateful if any other comments could be copied to us at hillgatevillage@outlook.com
Parking changes consultation
On a comparatively minor matter, the link below lists proposals all across the borough. but the ones nearest us are:
P1113 – Campden Grove, P1144 Holland St, P1153 Hillgate St and P1156 Campden St.
The proposal in Hillgate Street follows a review by London Fire Brigade after a fire at a restaurant there. It is the biggest change in this subset. You may wish to object, but LFB’s view is likely to prevail.
June 23 Parking Changes - Kensington and Chelsea's Consultation and Engagement Hub - Citizen Space (rbkc.gov.uk)
SPRING NEWSLETTER
In this issue we focus on Newcombe and the “Community Working Group“ RBKC consultation on Notting Hill Gate.
We then provide links to an informative – though depressing - article from Barbara Weiss (who gave evidence at the 2019 Newcombe enquiry) and a Wagnerian “light relief” item.
Newcombe House
Since our November newsletter Beltane have developed their proposals to remove the interior shopping street, which had presented challenges as a sloping site without pavement frontage. HVRA have welcomed the opportunity to meet Beltane several times now and they have demonstrated commitment to listening to their stakeholders although of course they are understandably driven by commercial objectives.
As noted last time, we were very grateful for the feedback many of you sent us in the autumn. We listed your main concerns in that newsletter, and will not repeat them all here.
Beltane now plan to submit a planning application in Q2 based on:
1) A more conventional new office block over and behind retail frontage on Kensington Church Street,
2) A replacement for the Royston court social housing at the corner of Kensington Place, to include a ground and lower ground floor medical centre
3) A refurbished, but substantially expanded (up and sideways) Newcombe house - all offices. New designs we have seen indicate a wider and deeper tower, with an additional three storeys.
The developers have a dedicated website - www.Newcombehouse.info - which will be updated as the project progresses and as new images are released. Most local residents will also have received a newsletter, which we would urge you to read.
We have continued liaising with our colleagues at Campden Hill Residents' Association and the Pembridge Association; we had a useful joint meeting with Beltane in January, followed by a joint site meeting (without Beltane) with ward councillors. Cllr Hudd asked the developers for further information on various aspects of the designs, in a letter at the end of February. It is hoped that the answers to those questions will be given and updated images will be shown to residents in the course of the various public meetings detailed below.
Forward Plan
Beltane have advised the following dates:
9th March – Community Newsletter delivered door-to-door locally. This will provide an update on progress/revisions and extend invitations to planned events. The dedicated website will also be updated at this time.
16th March @ 1830 (advertised in newsletter/click to join on their website) webinar
21st March – public drop-in session at the Essex Church (2pm to 7pm).
29th March – RBK&C Development Forum – again, this is the same format as the one which was held at the end of September last year (public meeting). It will be at the Essex Church from 6pm to 8pm.
We look forward to seeing some of you at these events – probably our last pre-application opportunities to influence the outcome - and would of course welcome any further feedback to hillgatevillage@outlook.com once you have seen the new designs.
We await RBKC’s advice as to their activities, referred to above.
RBK&C’s Growth and Delivery Team consultation and “Community Working Group”
We attended a further consultation meeting on Feb 21st on the Council’s Notting Hill Gate Local Action Plan.
A presentation by their consultants PDP was followed by Q&A. We have urged RBKC’s team, led by Sue Foster, to liaise with Beltane and the relevant planning officer handling Newcombe to try to ensure the best outcome for the Notting Hill Gate frontage.
Although Beltane have conceded that the Newcombe tree will remain, there is still great concern about the challenges of creating a more attractive public space on the busy north frontage, and enhancing the approach from Uxbridge street.
The 21st Feb meeting also raised serious issues around traffic, pavement widening, cycling arrangements and tree planting; and it is notable that of the 8 objectives arrived at so far, the health of retail comes last.
The next CWG meeting has been postponed to April 18 (5 pm) “to allow PDP more time to map and plot the proposed interventions on NHG as we continue to gather more information.”
A disaster foretold: how a decade of high-rise architecture has blighted London’s skyline
Barbara Weiss, Skyline Campaign Co-Founder, HVRA friend and associate, has written an excellent article on the battle for London's Skyline:
https://www.bdonline.co.uk/opinion/a-disaster-foretold-how-a-decade-of-high-rise-architecture-has-blighted-londons-skyline/5121477.article
Light Relief
We hope you will enjoy this Anna Russell piece on Wagner, which is generally regarded as a classic:
https://youtu.be/07E5sLsJQe0