From The Pinner Association’s Response to the Second Public Consultation on the Proposals to Build Additional Housing on the Grove Estate Pinner:
Comparing the proposals presented at the second public consultation, in June 2018, with those presented at the first consultation, it is difficult to reconcile the plans presented on the second consultation display boards with the indicative plans displayed at the first consultation.
In particular, the feedback that: “You Raised Concern With: • Height and Mass of Proposed Buildings • Loss of Trees” does not seem to have been addressed in planning the proposed development. The proposed footprints of the new buildings have been increased significantly from those outlined in the first consultation, with a concomitant greater proposed loss of mature trees. For both the “South Site” and “East Site” the existing trees on the boundary of and within the Grove Estate form an important role in screening the existing flats, to the benefit of both the residents of the flats and those residents with properties adjacent to the Grove Estate or to users of Pinner Village Gardens. Many of these trees would be lost if the development was to go ahead as currently proposed.
South Site: The orientation of the proposed town houses would result in actual overlooking of the private rear gardens of properties in Hereford Gardens and Cannon Lane. This unacceptable intrusion into the private amenity space of the existing dwellings has been recognised by the proposal for the design of these new houses to include: “South facing elevation – designed to mitigate overlooking issues by diffusing views from windows through the use of fins or louvers”.
The proposed seven townhouses would intrude into the area currently occupied by mature trees, as well as using the area currently occupied by garages, hard standing and storage buildings. This is not what was shown on the indicative plan displayed at the first public consultation, where only the previously developed area was shown to be built upon.
If, despite the problem of building homes that would directly overlook rear gardens, it was to be decided to build town houses on the orientation shown, then all should be of the three bedroomed, mono-pitched roof, design with small obscured glass windows serving only non-habitable rooms such as bathrooms on the south elevation. These would then effectively be one storey on the side backing onto existing properties in Hereford Gardens / Cannon Lane to mitigate the already identified overlooking issues.
Fewer townhouses should be built so as to allow the existing screening trees to remain in situ, i.e. building should be restricted to the footprint of the existing developed area. The proposed design does not address the concerns raised at the first public consultation about the height and mass of the proposed new buildings, nor the concern about the loss of mature trees from the Grove Estate.
East Site: The proposal for a six storey block immediately adjacent to and visible from Pinner Village Gardens would be greatly detrimental to the amenity value of that park, whether of the design proposed in Scheme 1 or Scheme 2. If it is deemed absolutely imperative to build a large block of flats on the site, the design should be restricted to a maximum of four storeys to respect the current height of the buildings on the estate. This would have the concomitant effect of allowing the new building to be constructed further from the eastern boundary of the Grove Estate, as not so much separation from the existing flats building would be required to allow sufficient light to reach the existing flats. As shown, both schemes would result in a very large, tall building being sited immediately adjacent to the boundary with Pinner Village Gardens.