Deptford Creek development back before planning
Plans to construct 220 homes in Deptford at Sun Creek are back before Lewisham’s Planning Committee next week after a previous error rendered approval void.
The long-term occupier of the site on Deptford Creek, Jones, has already left. In May they vacated and are now based in Barking.
Bellway Homes and Peabody are behind the proposal which will sit beside a rather dull Bellway box.
Approval is very likely but embarrassing for Lewisham. Plans were approved on 13th July 2022. A report states it “is being brought back to Committee following an administrative clerking error at the July 13th meeting.”
A major benefit will be opening up a creekside path, though hopefully it’s more successful than another built on the Greenwich side of the creek and has never opened to the public:
Space beside the railway arches is also set to be opened up for public use.
The site joins an ever growing number of plots recently developed or set to be built upon.
The other end of Creekside sees this development nearing completion:
There are plans for housing to the rear of the Bird’s Nest pub opposite:
Saxon Wharf on the Greenwich side of the Creek has been approved:
Ravernsbourne Wharf was approved in 2020:
These plans follow a number of completed developments changing the face of the area including Union Wharf:
Sun Wharf would be largely car-free, with the exception of parking spaces for disabled residents.
The area is well located with two railway stations within a short walk (Greenwich and Deptford) plus DLR stations at Cutty Sark, Greenwich and Deptford bridge plus the new cycleway 4 which will eventually run to central London.
I know we ‘need housing’, as u remind us John, but does it have to be ‘all’ here? Prices won’t drop and both my sons have already moved away from London, to get anything decent you have to. So these will all be places for those who have substantial incomes or the minority with petite shares in the equity etc. But what it does is expose the inadequacies of communal/community/street infrastructure to cope, and minimises chance of clean air (and sunlight) from all locals. Shading the creek will never bring water quality up to that in the artists impressions. I wonder how many are second homes and will simply be on Airbnb soon? What controls are there if any other than higher tax. Buildings from scratch are the biggest source of carbon, higher than vehicle emissions. Yet we are surrounded by both in ever increasing amounts. These high towers will not be fed by heat pumps from ground level or solar. They aren’t designed for it. There is no Green element to this housing strategy it appears, simply trying to meet ever increasing targets, certainly not attempting regional levelling up! I despair.
Future Sun Wharf leaseholders should beware that Bellway plan for them to pay for maintenance and eventual replacement of the Creek river wall/flood defences through their service charges – flood defences that benefit everyone in the area. An inspection of that stretch of the river wall in 2017 found it had a residual design life of less than 40 years, so it’s really bad news. The Council won’t intervene on this point as it isn’t a “material planning consideration” – Bellway will get away with it.
On top of that, Bellway will destroy the sandmartin/kingfisher bank in the Creek (the only habitat of its kind in the Borough), very likely cause contamination of the underlying chalk aquifer (used for public drinking water), cause excessive wind levels on the Ha’Penny Hatch bridge which will make it “unsuitable for standing” according to the assessments, and cause “unsafe” wind levels on Creekside. The plans also include ‘poor doors’, which Peabody seem to quite like because they can’t get their heads round the sums on service charge budgets without segregating people…