Objections to the Design of the Site |
This page is part of the campaign to
Save the Epping Forest Act.
It was hastily compiled from comments by
David Bowden (a Chartered Building Surveyor),
Tot Brill (whose house is immediately adjacent to the site),
Newham Council and a
local solicitor.
At (4.25) reference is made to the benefits of the 3.4 m perimeter fence limiting use outside the site. This fencing will be unsightly and will lead to additional pressure on the SSSI through forcing walkers to bypass the site.
These show a continuous 3.4 m high steel fence. Subject to engineering advice I would say that 3.4 m high solid fencing requires more support than shown. Wind load will be quite high and the pins may have to be piles, removal of which would be next to impossible.
I doubt the fencing will stand up to wind pressure as designed and so greater construction works will be necessary.
Biodiesel and other hazardous materials to be stored on site are not specified in any detail although biodiesel is worryingly described as safe.
At (23) the applicant admits to intending to store or use 0.5 tonnes of liquid petroleum gas. Elsewhere he refers to storage of biodiesel which he claims degrades naturally if spilt, which it may do but to the detriment of surrounding land and watercourses, as well as flora and fauna.
The largest marquee on the site is the feeding station. The applicant has given no details of how they will ensure that cooking smells do not escape the site. I expect Redbridge Council, if it agrees this application, to attach to it the same stringent requirements that they do to restaurants. I do not want to have to spend 90 days in a fug of frying oil. The horses, dogs and police officers on site will also defecate and urinate. I expect Redbridge Council, if it agrees this application, to ensure that no smells from latrines and manure piles escape the compound perimeter.
The lighting proposed is on 9.1 m high towers, which will clearly be visible over a 3.4 m fence.
At (7.48) reference is made to lighting being designed to avoid spillage outside the site. However, lights some 9m high will easily pollute across a 3.4m fence.
The Metropolitan Police intend to light the site 24/7. This means that immediate neighbours will be unable to escape the muster village as it will shine out just behind their gardens. While the application promises that there will be no glare and that the high fence will reduce light spillage, they ask, that, if Redbridge Council agree this application much more is done to reduce lighting on the site and that there is a 11pm - dawn turn off for the car park lighting (vehicles have their own in built lights) and all external lighting. I also ask that the Metropolitan Police maintain a dedicated and direct site telephone number for residents to respond to noise, light and smell nuisance.
The southern boundary of the site is a stone’s throw from the rear of the wooded piece of land (known as the Plantation) that backs on to the rear of the properties in Sidney Road. The Plantation is not part of Wanstead Flats, and is not owned by the Corporation of London. It sits just inside the boundary of the London Borough of Newham.
The prison-like fencing that surrounds the muster site encloses a bridle path that is used by people crossing the flats from Dames Road to Centre Road. We are concerned that more people will be diverted into the Plantation and will cause nuisance, and disturb the wildlife that lives in this relatively untouched and wild parcel of land.
There is already a considerable problem with rough sleepers, drinkers, drug takers, taggers and those indulging in al fresco sex. We are concerned that the funnelling caused by the proposed site boundary will make this problem worse by encouraging people to use the Plantation wood. Even if the site boundary was to be moved back from the bridle path, we remain concerned that people will move away from the boundary fencing and into the Plantation wood.
The residents of Sidney Road request Redbridge Council, if it will not do the sensible thing and refuse this application, to require the Metropolitan Police, as part of the planning conditions it can attach to the application, to erect, at their own cost, a secure and permanent fence 2m high around the piece of land known as the Plantation, to the north of Sidney Road behind the even houses numbered 6 - 30. The design and exact location of the fence to be agreed with those residents whose houses back on to the Plantation.
Such a fence will be a permanent improvement for those residents who will suffer the greatest nuisance from the muster village, and could be seen as a reasonable legacy from this unwanted piece of Olympic infrastructure.
In conclusion, the nuisance and disruption this ugly enclosure of a loved open space will cause will ruin my enjoyment throughout the Olympic period. When I first moved to Sidney Road the annual visit of 3 fairs and a late autumn circus added to the pleasure of living here. Though it meant that bank holidays could not be altogether relaxing, the events were short lived and shut down early for the night. Since then the vastly disruptive Newham Fireworks blasts out in November, and now this noisy, smelly and brightly lit compound will blight the whole summer.
This document was translated from LATEX by HEVEA.