Future look of Greenwich Millennium Village revealed
Detailed design for hundreds of homes on undeveloped land at Greenwich Millennium Village have been revealed.
A new planning application has just been submitted with lots of information to sift through.
After two decades lying vacant – during which time London’s population rose by almost two million people and house prices rocketed – plans are finally in to build 498 homes at the site.
The colour palette is much softer than previous stages of GMV. It’s very much a case of out with the bold.
This application covers Plots 401, 402, 403, 404 and 405 – which is outlined in red below and covers the south west corner of the overall GMV site.
It does not include the controversial block by the ecology park.
Affordable housing levels for this latest phase are 15 per cent and set apart from private sale in a specific block.
Car parking spaces are set at 223 across this phase.
There’s far more cycle spaces – though if heading south or east jumping on a bike isn’t a welcoming prospect.
The road network design is straight out of the 1970s and aimed squarely at ease of movement for motorised traffic.
The application’s Design and Access Statement makes no reference to poor walking and cycling links to east Greenwich and Southeastern services at Westcombe Park station.
East Greenwich business must be missing out on custom as a walk to Woolwich Road and Trafalgar Road is not enticing.
We’ve seen a huge number of developments – and subsequent injections of cash to Greenwich Council coffers totaling £87.2 million from 2013/14 to 2017/18 from S106 alone – and very little change to improve links between Peninsula new-builds and established shops, services and public transport links in east Greenwich.
£87.4 million doesn’t include additional millions via the New Homes Bonus and now the Community Infrastructure Levy.
It appears planners hope to separate this latest stage of Greenwich Millennium Village from adjacent dual carriageways and roundabouts. It’s as if lessons of the 1960s and 1970s havn’t been learned.
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People will generally take the quickest route from A to B. Expecting them to traverse detours and go out of their way to cross at poorly located crossings – if they exist – does NOT work.
It’s ironic that in parts of the borough (or surrounding the borough boundary as at Thamesmead) changes to street layouts are being made in recognition of that fact, whilst elsewhere the same mistakes are proposed.
Continuing car-primacy along major roads still seems the aspiration rather than creating pedestrian-friendly public spaces.
There are some decent looking public spaces within the site itself – but as soon as leaving it all falls apart.
Money coming into the borough should be improving the surrounding area with an expected increase in footfall – or at least a hoped for increase. The way things are it’s get in a car or a cab – or even a bus for short trips which isn’t ideal with the bus network stretched.
Last week I looked at how developers are again planning a 13-floor block beside the ecological garden after rejection in 2018. Given a 20-floor block was previously approved in outline form in 2014, Greenwich Council have left themselves open to a successful appeal.
Back in June I covered another phase of the scheme which is directly north of phase 4. Click here to see details of that.
Click here to view the latest Phase 4 plans.
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How can they keep adding car parking spaces to all these developments? Most of the roads around here are already chaos at rush hour and all through the weekend. Truthfully, people moving in to these flats shouldn’t need cars.
You realise that some of the properties are 3-4 bedroom family homes right? Not just 1-2 bedroom flats aimed at “professionals”. How do you expect the people living in them to go on a trip in the weekend for example? Uber?
I agree that car isn’t needed for commute or trip to the store, but there are plenty of other uses for cars.
What do they mean by ‘affordable’? 250,000? 300,000? Not affordable! They should be building council housing on the sites as well!
I agree with you Eileen. For a singleton on an average wage also having to pay for normal household bills, it’s impossible. It seems nowadays you have to find yourself a partner to help spread the costs and forget about starting a family. Not only do you need a large deposit and a mortgage you also have to pay rent on the percentage that doesn’t belong to you.
The devil looks after his own!
I agree with you Eileen. But Greenwich Council are not really interested in building council housing. Even if they did and your single and working they do not want to know.
Greenwich Council have has received 87.4 million from section 106 money which has largely gone on huge loss making GLLAB and GS Plus rather than spending this money on upgrading estates near new developments improving the public realm and open spaces and improving the public transport infrastructure around the Borough which urgently requires improving including the Greenwich Peninsula/ Millennium Village and North Greenwich Station.
Some areas still do not have direct bus links to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Woolwich Town Centre let alone the new Woolwich Crossrail Elizabeth Line Station when it finally opens. Greenwich Peninsula and North Greenwich Station. Despite the Queen Elizabeth Hospital opening in 2001.
“The colour palette is much softer than previous stages of GMV. It’s very much a case of out with the bold.”
I suspect it’s mostly because the colour panels are cladding and they are trying to eliminate the need of certification that it’s not flammable etc. Given the fact that requirements and guidelines are changing constantly and it causes no end of issues with mortgages etc.
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I have recently moved to Millennium Village from the Isle of Dogs and I am just trying to plan to move back in one year maximum. It is like living by a motorway, the slogans of moving closer to nature are as misleading as they can be!