Give your views on plans for 53 new homes in Dean Gardens car park

The end of August is the deadline to complete the survey, or give your comments about, the Council’s plans for 53 new homes in the Dean Gardens/Maitland Yard car parks.

There were two online Q&A sessions on 5th Augsut which contain some useful information about the plans. These should be available to view on the special website for these plans in a few days. Some key points:

There will be three blocks of flats moving from 4-storeys by the Salvation Army building to 8-storeys at the corner of Leeland Terrace and The Broadway

The homes will be built to passive standards to minimise their carbon footprint.

The homes will be mostly 1 and 2 bedroom. On the Q&A session there was a question about whether 1 and 2 bedroom were the right sort of properties to tackle the housing waiting list. The answer was that it is difficult to address local housing needs on such a small site.

There will be a mixture of homes for private sale and to rent at London Affordable Rent rates

The two pedestrian routes through from The Broadway will be retained and the lighting improved to make these routes safer and more attractive

There will be an overall loss of about 20 parking spaces across the three car parks – Maitland Yard, Dean Gardens and Leeland Terrace – leaving some 36 spaces.

The Farmers’ Market stallholders will still be able to park on Saturdays for the weekly market

There will be a public seating area roughly where part of the Leeland Terrace car park is now

There was a question about the importance of tackling the anti-social behaviour that plagues this area, especially Maitland Yard. The architects were aware of this problem but clearly need to talk to the police and Council anti-social behavior team to fully understand the problem and how their design needs to deal with this. This needs stressing as the residents of Leeland mansions and Pioneer Court have had to put up with years of anti-social behaviour – drug dealing, drug taking, street drinkers and so on.