Say 'no' to dense development on former Funeral Directors' site

3-7 Uxbridge Road W7 3PX (former Henry Paul Funeral Directors)

Background
A REVISED planning application for this site has been submitted by A2Dominion to Ealing Council Planning Services for this site at the gateway to Hanwell from Ealing.

The site comprises the three houses at the east end of this Edwardian Terrace of nine houses fronting onto the Uxbridge Road, with Shirley Gardens to the east of the end house in the terrace. The properties were built between 1890 and 1910 when they first appear in the Ordnance Survey maps.

The revised application by the land owners A2Dominion, a Housing Association, is to demolish nos. 3-7 Uxbridge Road and for the erection of a three-storey block comprising 11x residential flats (5x one bedroom, 5x two bedroom, and 1x two bedroom wheelchair accessible unit) for affordable housing, together with associated landscaping and a single car parking space for the wheelchair accessible unit.

Plans can be views at http://www.pam.ealing.gov.uk/portal/servlets/ApplicationSearchServlet and keying in Planning Reference Number P/2010/5088

OUR POSITION
Local residents are OPPOSED to the demolition of the three Edwardian houses and to the proposed development of the three storey block of 11 units (5 one bed units, 5 two bedroom units and one two bedroom unit with wheelchair access) on the following grounds:

Existing three Edwardian terrace houses
•Residents want to see at least the frontages of the existing buildings saved
•These houses are big enough to be brought up to current standards of sustainability to provide three homes for large families in need of social housing for which there is an urgent need in LBE
•Alternatively, the houses could be converted into six large flats, and perhaps more with sympathetic extensions at the rear

Proposed three storey block of 11 flats
•We believe that the increased and excessive scale, bulk, massing and footprint of the main block of flats, is overpowering in the perspective of the adjacent housing, and would cause unacceptable, detrimental visual harm to the architectural heritage and character of the surrounding area, and to the visual amenity of neighbours and residents in the wider locality
•The high density approach to maximising housing on the site is inappropriate for this area. Shirley Gardens, and the adjacent Edwardian terrace is predominantly two storey, Victorian/Edwardian family housing with perhaps additional habitable rooms in the roof space
•The flat roof to the main block is unsympathetic to the pitched roofs of the adjacent Edwardian terrace and the Victorian housing in Shirley Gardens
•The three storey ‘transition’ building jars with the Edwardian house to which it is attached and the windows are out of line with those in the terrace
•The use of zinc roofing for the transition building and the rear elevations of the main block is unsympathetic to the pitched slated or tiled roofs of the neighbouring housing stock
•The proposed room sizes are close to the present minimums in the adopted Unitary Development Plan (UDP – this is the policy which guides Ealing Council’s land development strategy) and should be more generous for modern living and to satisfy minimum habitable room sizes in the near future
•There is insufficient garden/amenity space for the adults in the units on the first/second floors, let alone the children; they will have to travel some distance to get to their nearest park

Loss of daylight, sunlight and privacy of neighbours
•The windows of habitable rooms in the side of the building on Shirley Gardens would have a negative impact on the privacy of Shirley Court residents; they would now be overlooked when they have not been previously whilst the building has been in use as a Funeral Directors
•When the sun is low in the sky the new build would overshadow gardens backing onto the site and the homes of residents in Shirley Court

Traffic and parking issues
•Developers would usually be expected to allow a minimum of half a parking space for every two bed unit in social rented housing, indicating that there is a potential minimum of three cars for this block. The developers are providing one space for the wheelchair user. This is inadequate and an underestimate of what is required for a potential of 22 adults in the 11 units