Plan submitted for 333 new homes at former Thamesmead care home site

Fairview Homes have submitted plans for 333 homes in Thamesmead after consultations earlier this year.

I covered those back in April when 341 homes were on the drawing board.

The site was formerly Gallions View care home located alongside the Royal Arsenal canal or Broadwater Dock.

Before that it was Ministry of Defence land as part of the sprawling Arsenal site until the 1970s. Most surrounding housing dates from the 1970s and 1980s.

Fairview feature the old canal which served the Arsenal prominently, though Peabody and Greenwich Council are looking to fully drain it and fill it in.

Blocks range from 2-13 storeys and 141 car parking spaces are apparent in the new submission.

TfL and the GLA criticised the number of parking spaces during pre-app discussion as too high due to nearby transport links.

However, links to Plumstead station are poor. A recent application for 1,750 homes nearby at West Thamesmead Gateway from Peabody and Berkeley Homes saw plans scrapped to remove a gyratory around Plumstead bus garage.

Far more limited road changes are now proposed, with vehicle dominance set to remain.

No money from that project was allocated for substantial road changes nor the proposed Bus Rapid transit. A cohesive plan for both developments could have utilised income from substantial changes.

Peabody also own a large patch of land to the north. Hundreds more homes are expected there, though Peabody are very slow to get starting. If they did – or another developer had the land – that too could be used to pool income for wider road, public realm and public transport changes. Yet no plan has been drawn up.

Public transport accessibility score for this location ranges between 1b (very poor) and 2 (poor).

There’s are only four disabled spaces out of 141 and two car club bays.

Say what?

The document seems a little confused about geographic location and town names. It states it’s in Woolwich (its not) and near some places called Plumbstead and Abbeywood. Getting both incorrect is certainly impressive.

In terms of “affordable” housing, 41.7% will be proposed as “affordable housing” calculated by habitable room with total of 117 London Affordable Rented units.

Fairview give reasons for the removal of the now-vacant care home:

• Gallions View Care Home is an obsolete first generation purpose built care home. Despite
  being a large facility, the accommodation arranged in poorly specified individual buildings
  that need to be staffed individually, and is therefore not attractive to current
  commissioning contracts.
• It is not commercially viable for the home to continue in its current operation as the
  business is loss making after head office costs and capex.
• Upgrading the accommodation would not be financially viable or economic as bedroom
  space will be lost, making the individual living units even more inefficient to operate.
• The review of demand/supply dynamics within the Greenwich Borough do not
  substantiate a need for additional care home provision.
• The limited affluence profile in the area relative to the positioning of the Property.

A planning statement within the application notes: “RBG has a total requirement of 7,147 homes and has only delivered a total of 6,446 since 2017-18, a shortfall of 701 units or 90% of its target”.

Click here to view and comment on plans.