What is replacing the Old Garden Centre??

[Louisa]

Waitrose back in the pipeline.

Louisa.

[grace3]

Who givsa do you miss that 'rip off ' Garden Centre?

[grace3]

Ah Hey, are those railway workers going to be evicted? now that's different, me and the boys will be down there tomorrow.

[James Barber]

Morrisons are apparently still planning to open there when completed. 6+ months delay due to a planning condition bweing stuck with Sotuhwark planning officers.

[Pantalaimon]

Does anyone know when they will start building and how buying 'off plan' works?

Thanks

[Pantalaimon]

Sorry, missed page number 2, just seen James' post. Thanks.

Will it be possible to buy off plan, does anyone know?

Thank you

[Countrlass22]

Good want morrissons there

[chazzle]

James,

If there is a 6+ months delay here, then can we ask that some work is put into tidying up the wasteland they have left? We've now had nearly ten years of worrying about this development and it would be good if they could show a bit more respect to the community. Looking at the plot at the top of Dog Kennel Hill and the Hospital site, we should expect to be in for a long wait.

I would like to see the razor wire defences removed, and the hoarding tidied up, particularly on the station side. The Victorian station building should be properly shored up as there is a chance that if the development does fail this could be saved.

Most importantly, the hoarding should be moved back off the pavement (presumably a temporary allowance) as this blinds pedestrians to vehicles driving (sometimes at inappropriate high speed) down Railway Rise.

I have raised this with Southwark Building Control, who said it was the responsibility of the private company monitoring the building control, who said it was the responsibility of Southwark highways. I posted this as a hazard on the Southwark website, but I'm not sure it was in the right place and I've had no reply.

[Bic Basher]

Since James last posted, Morrisons have put on hold their M Local expansion and closing 23 existing stores.

[James Barber]

Hi chassle,

I believe the hoardings are on the boundary for the developers land and ultimately will be returned back.

The delays are with Southwark Planning vacillating between agreeing and disgreeing to some fine tuning of the approved scheme.

I have suggested to the developer - as I did with the 265 Lordship Lane developer - that the hoardings be decorated with pictures from the nearest local school. For 265 Lordship Lane that was Heber School. For this site it would be Goose Green school - this assumes the school would be interested in taking part.

[chazzle]

Thanks James,

I agree the hoardings will drop back eventually, but I'm coming to realise that 'eventually' becomes months and then years. Decorating the hoarding would be nice and it would be great to get Goose Green involved. However, I do think there's a safety issue having it blinding that corner.

I'm interested (and increasingly cynical) about the 'fine tuning' of the approved scheme. I hope that doesn't include the re-addition of the penthouse from the rejected scheme next door! (He seems pretty keen about that penthouse)

[chazzle]

Another six weeks and no sign of progress nor information. I've emailed someone at the planning department to see if I can find out what's going on.

[BrandNewGuy]

Well, we're still no further down the road:

1. Are Morrisons still planning on opening a store there?

2. Is the new library still happening?

3. The site is an eyesore ? can the developers be asked to do something about it, particularly with the hoardings narrowing the pavement right outside the station?

[chazzle]

The latest I've heard, indirectly, is that the same builders who did the demolition are moving back in during July to re-start the building work. Mind you, it's been about "two weeks" for the last six months. James Barber in February pointed to a six-month delay due to a planning condition.

I complained about the hoarding to Southwark planning ('looks ok to me'), the private building controllers ('not our responsibility') and Southwark highways (twice, no reply).

Wouldn't it be refreshing if someone just said what's happening?

[chazzle]

Another month gone by and ... absolutely nothing

[James Barber]

I've been told they start August but not holding my breath.

[edhistory]

When does the planning permission, and especially the S106 requirement, expire?

John K

[BrandNewGuy]

And are Morrisons definitely taking the retail space? From what Morrisons' new head honcho David Potts has been saying about stopping store openings, I have my doubts. In which case, the developer will need to find someone else pretty quickly.

[chazzle]

James B - There should be a function on here to say: "I've been told [insert next month]". I find it exasperating that there's no requirement for developers to be transparent in their plans even when they have a clear impact on the community and, in this case,causing an ongoing danger with the hoarding blocking the views of the road and pavement.

John K - I posted earlier about an extension to something about the "viability", but that extension ran out. It strikes me that there should be a test of whether this is viable (with all the original promises).

BNG - See above remark about transparency. People say that Westrock (www.westrock.co.uk/) are in charge and that they do developments for Morrisons, but who knows really?

My feeling is that they have an increasingly valuable piece of land with planning permission and there's no particular hurry to actually build anything.

[chazzle]

[double post]

[BrandNewGuy]

chazzle Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> My feeling is that they have an increasingly

> valuable piece of land with planning permission

> and there's no particular hurry to actually build

> anything.

That's my feeling too, but with the complication of the promised library. Without a retail unit that pays well to offset the cost of the library, the developer will be reluctant to stick to the deal.

[edhistory]

Morrisons have pulled out of this market sector.

[edhistory]

The final voluntary liquidation report for East Dulwich Garden Centre Ltd shows that the developer paid ?1.25m for the site.

[nxjen]

Any guesses what the site is worth today?

[edhistory]

On 31/03/2012 Southwark Council booked in a ?982,599 Section 106 planning gain.

Does this now get "un-booked"?

Section 106 Annual Report 2011-12

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