Brayards Building Plans

Myself, Althea and Sunil joined around 40 local residents yesterday at Southwark Council's exhibition of their plans to build on and around Brayards Green.

It was the first chance we've had to see any detailed plans and these are my initial thoughts on them.

I'll start with the positive bits
- The designs have been drawn up in such a way that the mature trees could be saved
- The plans are for 8 3-bed houses, all 2 storey, no big blocks
- A couple of the houses will be wheelchair accessible, something we are very short of in this borough is fully accessible family sized homes

And the negative
- They still plan to build on part of the Green and the cage
- In an attempt to mollify local residents they've come up with a rather silly idea for a patch of "community space" down an alleyway behind the houses, doesn't look safe to me
- In my opinion (and this is a matter of personal taste) the design of the houses is unattractive with black brick and odd roof lines. I'm generally a fan of modern design, but it didn't do it for me (see pic below).

There seems to be a bit of confusion about where exactly the sites are so I've sketched out this map. The red box on the left is the garages site on Firbank Rd where there would be 2 houses (marked in yellow). The red box on the right is the site encompassing the cage and part of the green. This would have 6 houses built on it in an L shape and they were suggesting a community space down an alleyway behind the gardens which I've marked in blue. Please note these are my hand drawn impressions and probably not spot on.

I've also marked the other site which people have been told is due to be built on (by a private developer) with a pink X.

I spent around 2 hours at the exhibition listening to what residents had to say. Almost all were against the plan to build on the Green and cage. Opinion was mixed about the garages site, I think most people accept the principle of building new homes there. A lot of people were concerned about the general intensification of the area as apparently there are also plans to build on a plot of land behind the gardens of Stanbury Rd, Lugard Rd and Hollydale Rd.

Overall my view wasn't changed. I can accept building on the garages site, but I am completely opposed to building houses on any part of the Green. Here in inner London we have preciously little green and open space and whilst I recognise the need for additional homes that has to be balanced against protecting the local environment and quality of life for local residents and children. I believe there are plenty of other sites around where new homes could be built and that the whole of the green space should be protected.

A few pictures I took of the plans. Click on them for larger versions.

Plans for the cage/Green site


Drawing of what the houses would look like at the end of Stanbury Rd


Drawing of the two houses on the corner of Firbank and Caulfield Rds