Woolwich Brookhill estate redevelopment proposal submitted
A proposal to demolish homes on the Brookhill estate in Woolwich and replace with 263 new units has been submitted.
80 homes will be demolished that were built for military use. Hyde Group purchased the homes twenty years ago from Annington – which was rebranded from Ministry of Defence housing.
The site will include 77 car parking spaces.
I took a look at plans in the latter half of April this year and not much has changed. Click here to read that.
Hyde Housing are behind the plan, and claim: “The properties are built using Wimpey-no fines concrete construction and significant improvements are required to windows, heating and cladding.
Hyde have looked at the nature and the amount of work required to bring the individual homes, as well as the external environment of the estate, up to a standard appropriate for twenty first century living.
These works would improve the homes but not in line with 2030 carbon neutral targets.”
They will save on heating costs: “Savings associated with lower energy bills could save at least £414pa and further costs to Hyde to improve the existing estate of £12m”.
A ballot was held which saw 87% of the Estate residents casting a vote, of which 86% supported the redevelopment proposals.
Many of these votes exclude private renters, and I couldn’t see whether or not that was the case again.
In terms of “affordable” housing, the total is 34 per cent affordable. The rest is shared ownership (mortgage, rent and services charges) and entirely private.
I’m only here for the spiel
Given that a brook once ran in the area there’s ample opportunities for contextual wankery:
“The landscape draws inspiration from the theme of water throughout the design; in the form and alignment of streams, the deposit of sediment made by water and the characteristics of water courses in different
contexts – a hill side, a plateau, an embankment.
The green spine mimics the main brook to celebrate the integral east to west access route as the central axis and core public realm to the scheme.”
Will anyone be able to tell that? Almost certainly not.
It’s hard to muster much enthusiasm one way or the other about this plan. Increased density makes perfect sense given close proximity to major transport links and a town centre.
Unlike some other recent plans in dire areas for people on foot, there’s not much to really highlight or critique here.
Click here
Sadly a lot of social housing homes are still going to be replaced with part buy part rent homes which many previous residents of the estate will not be able to afford. At least the new homes will be more energy efficient to help reduce heating cost.
Other older council homes around the Borough also need to be made more energy efficient not all of which are on larger housing estate.
More affordable social housing to be lost in the Borough and replaced largely with more expensive part buy part rent properties at a time the housing waiting list continues to grow. Makes no sense at all.
Local Authorities and Social Housing Associations be made by law to replace social housing with social housing where it is necessary to rebuild older social housing estates.
I’ll be sad to see the area, spacious with a lot of lovely glades, go the way of urban crowded concrete.
Walking through, and by the area, there’s a peacefulnesses that just isn’t found in many areas these days.