Greenwich town centre Post Office rebuild recommended for approval
Plans to demolish the existing Post Office in Greenwich town centre and construct a replacement with nine flats looks set to be approved tomorrow.
Council planners have advised councillors to give the green light.
The pharmacy next door is also due to move into the new build upon completion.
The current building has little design merit and sits below the street’s roof line.
When this plan was submitted, applicants spoke of possibly moving the Post Office to a nearby car park.
This no longer appears the case, with the council’s reports highlighting: “Throughout the construction activity it is proposed for the post office to remain in operation. The applicant has submitted a 4-stage phasing plan which outlines that the post office would remain at the front of the site whilst the rear building is constructed.
The post office would then be transferred temporarily to the ground floor of the rear building before occupying the ground floor of the front building upon completion.”
Plans will do before the council’s local Planning Board as Greenwich West Cllr Maureen O’Mara objected as did 10 people. Her concern was over the Post Office remaining open, which now appears to be confirmed.
Transport
TfL requested the Post Box and bin be moved. Oddly Greenwich Council state the bin cannot be moved as outside the applicants land. I think they were talking to you Greenwich. It’s your bin. Presumably they seek relocation for additional pedestrian space.
The new building does eat into paving space at the front, which isn’t great given very high levels of pedestrian footfall in this area. Another way to remove pavement clutter would be attaching the lamp post to the building:
TfL also raised concerns over “the number of doors cyclists would need to navigate to access bike parks”. Greenwich reply there’s an entrance to the rear though it is down a secluded alley.
The Greenwich Society have called the design “pedestrian” and sought “ambitious contemporary design would create something which would enhance the surroundings, use of glass and lighter frames should be considered.”
Developer income
Greenwich appear to have made yet another mistake with the Community Infrastructure Levy charging rate in the accompanying report.
It states the mayoral rate of CIL is £35 per square metre and Greenwich are in charging zone 2:
The Mayoral rate in Greenwich changed nearly three years ago to £25 psm and they are in zone 3
A report published over three years out lays out the rates for London boroughs. Greenwich do not appear to have noticed.
The reduction in the Mayoral CIL enacted in April 2019 and announced months before gave Greenwich a chance to increase the borough CIL rates to aid residents. They never took it.
Last week another plan went before Greenwich’s Planning Board for Plumstead homes. The Planning Department got the borough rate incorrect in that instance. It’s little surprise the council have lagged so badly on this key source of funding with basic mistakes seen again and again, extremely low rates levied to developers in 2015 and a failure to review and revise by 2018 costing many millions in lost income for improved services.
A decision on the post office plan will be made tomorrow night.
I wonder if the pharmacy will actually come back, I noticed a sign on Meridian’s pharmacy thanking all customers for their business over the years and they had now closed due to a merger with Duncan’s pharmacy down the road
Balconies over the front road are crazy, just box ticking that a flat has an outside space, ignore that they are dumpimg stations, who in their right mind would sit out there. They look so unattractive. Are they supposed to be a distraction that the sites aren’t being over developed up to edge of the fpavement.
We need more Post office branches to provide a face to face service for customers who are unable to use post office or bank services on line. I am pleased that during the redevelopment the post office will remain open to serve the local community.
Why do all these damn new builds all look the same? I wouldn’t mind but they’re thrown up with cardboard walls and in a decade or so they will all need replacing.