I have moaned on occasion about the monstrous carbuncle that is being built on my doorstep. I objected to the plans; our objections were only partly successful in that we succeeded in having some of the bulk reduced. We are currently experiencing stress as a result of the building works - having left the bedroom window a centimetre open last night I was duly awoken at three minutes past eight by intolerable noise coming from the building site. But I know that will pass eventually.
I accept that I am particularly resentful because this is an inappropriate building in an inappropriate setting. It fronts onto Streatham Place, the South Circular, but it backs onto an enclave of cottages - mine is from the 1830s, a neighbour's is from the 1780s, and there is no indication that the developers gave a stuff about respecting a rare gem in the cityscape.
I also recognise that there is a desperate need for more housing, and I do believe that where possible, it should be built on brownfield sites. Nor am I so naive that I don't understand the basics of capitalism and the economic system.
The whole process so far has been illuminating. The derisory consultation they undertook only after their initial plans had been rejected, and they realised that they were dealing with articulate educated people rather than what they had no doubt assumed, apathetic thickos. The absolute lack of communication from the company involved in developing the site, NacNiven and Cameron, and their disgrace of a project manager, Stuart Fanti, whose response to any suggestion that they act as Considerate Builders and Good Neighbours has been met with a standard response of "We are working within the law". Yes, of course, Stuart, actually you're not. Noise from the site starts at 7.15 am. A suggestion from me that the company should offer some gesture of Goodwill has been stonewalled - perhaps an offer to clean the house once a month, including the windows, the car, and the soft furnishings has been ignored.
There has never been an attempt to communicate with the local residents - all approaches have been made by us, searching on the net for their details. Naturally, they fail to respond on Saturdays, because that's not a working day, despite the fact they are happy to have noisy machinery working on site. They have deliberately positioned their noisy machinery at the rear of the site, with some lame excuse about deliveries, demonstrating utter contempt for their neighbours.
They really do not care about the neighbourhood; once the ugly box is built, they will leave the site and move on, and it doesn't matter. They have an "artist's impression" of what the site will look like when finished, complete with twee pictures of people strolling happily on the street. All white. It's only a small point, but this is Brixton. Of no consequence but clearly indicative of the contempt in which they hold the local area. But they don't even know that they're in Brixton, choosing to describe it as Streatham. I also love the way they fail to represent the reality of the traffic congestion that creates bumper-to-bumper gridlock for two hours in the morning and evening, right outside the development. Not much point having car parking if you can't get in or out at school-run/travel-to-work time.
But that is all transitory. They describe the development as
Built, designed and finished to a high specification, Thirty Streatham Place's range of apartments will exceed your expectations
Well, I have been watching these flats being jerry-built over the past few months and even without any specialist expertise I can see that they are shonky. Since when has metal girders surrounded by breeze blocks, with a thin veneer of brickwork been high specification? As for the concrete...! Further along the South Circular the NDC is embarking on a £100 million plus scheme to demolish many blocks of flats because of the fundamental structural and safety problems presented by spalling concrete - this site from "The Concrete Centre - the central development organisation for the UK cement and concrete industry" suggests strongly that the prevention of spalling is work in progress.
And yet they are marketing these as luxury apartments. I really can't see how they differ from the damp uninhabitable council flats that will be demolished further along the road, except that they will be selling for a third of a million. And some suckers are going to be suckered into buying them. They'll probably get 99-year leases, which won't be worth the paper they're written on, because they will have to be demolished about the time my brick-built freehold cottage reaches its bicentenary. I cannot see the attraction of living in a steel-framed concrete sarcophagus, but then I live in a properly built house.
And their website doesn't even mention the problems with the water table in the area, caused by the local underground river, the cessation of heavy water-intensive industry (the tannery and brewery) and the Artesian wells, nor the fact that rain water from, for example, my property, drains onto their site.
Hello Google.
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