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| Electric House |
The report states:
Council officers are of the opinion that the building does make a contribution towards the local streetscape although its design and appearance make it distinct from the surrounding built environment.
The Council's Urban Design Officer states: The building was Locally listed principally for its stylisticcontribution to local street scape character; in terms of plan form the building has difficult proportions with a very large open ground floor and relatively small floor plates higher up. This makes the reuse of the building very difficult and it is difficult to see what alternative contemporary use could be found that would be able to use the difficult spaces with and success or viability. It is always regrettable to lose a building in a conservation area but as Electric House would be very difficult to viably convert to other uses the Council needs to balance the Community benefits that a new multi-unit residential development may bring. Unfortunately buildings that are difficult to convert lie unused for many years and subsequently suffer from lack of maintenance.The officers argue that to compensate for the loss any replacement building will have to be of ' the highest quality of design to ensure that it makes a positive contribution to the character of the conservation area'. This should be made a condition of planning approval.
The consultation on the plans received 20 objections among which were:
·
Loss
of an existing local landmark building which contributes to the
character of the Willesden Green
Conservation
Area.
·
The
proposed building in conjunction with other developments within the
town centre will destroy the
character
of Willesden Green
·
The
proposed building reflects nothing of the architectural
characteristics of the area.
·
The
height of the proposed building would create a terracing effect on an
important intersection resulting in
a
more dense and darker streetscape.
·
The
building is too large and imposing and out of scale with neighbouring
buildings.
·
Broken
roof lines are a feature of the area and will not be replicated with
the proposed development.
·
Loss
of light to habitable room windows on the neighbouring Sheil Court
·
Over-parking
on surrounding streets and in car park at Sheil Court
·
Proposed
development will exacerbate existing congestion problems.
·
The
space could be better used as a public park.
·
If
housing is to be built it should be terraced housing or a maximum of
four storeys as people are happier
in
such buildings.
·
Having
balconies on the road side is misguided as the road is too noisy and
dirty for prospective
residents
to use and will instead be used as additional storage space which is
unsightly.
·
The
Planning and Conservation Areas Act 1990 requires that areas should
retain their essential
character,
whereas the planned development represents a radical change to the
area and will annihilate
the
current Conservation Area streetscape.
·
It
fails the challenge to preserve areas of character whilst at the same
time enabling higher density
development.
·
The
existing building could be suitably converted for residential.
·
The
proposed development will overshadow a wide number of neighbouring
properties
Documentation going before the Committee:
Documentation going before the Committee:
I would like to suggest that before demolishing or constructing any new building take the guidance from the green building and sustainability experts.
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