Residents ‘outraged’ at council plans to fell 86 trees for 500 new flats

By Joe Coughlan, Local Democracy Reporter

Residents have hit out at council plans to fell 86 mature trees to build more than 500 new flats as part of a regeneration scheme.

Plans for 526 new flats across a series of tower blocks up to 15-storeys tall in Kidbrooke have been approved by Greenwich council.

The project will bring five tower blocks between 11 and 15-storeys tall to the site in Kidbrooke Village, along with improvements to the local park.

The development, led by Berkeley Homes, comes as part of a wider scheme to regenerate the former Ferrier Estate on the site, which was knocked down in 2012. The topic was discussed at a planning meeting for Greenwich council on Tuesday.

At the meeting resident Michael Saville said he objected to the plans to remove 86 mature trees from the site, adding that he was worried that the air quality in the area would be affected by the felling.

Mr Saville said: “There is no logical reason why most if not all of the existing trees could not be saved and the buildings moved further back from the road.”

Permission for five buildings of up to 12-storeys tall to be built on the site was previously given by the council in 2015.

The updated proposal would see a new nature pavilion being added to Cator Park as well as a stage area for performing and a wetland walk for people to see swans and frogs.

James Baker, a teacher at the nearby Thomas Tallis School, claimed no staff members or pupils of the secondary school were contacted by Berkeley Homes over the project.

He said members of the school community were “outraged” by the plans to build on the area, and felt the project went against the council’s environmental policies.

He said at the meeting: “As far as we’re aware, there’ve been no studies which specifically measure any key pollutants along Kidbrooke Park Road or Thomas Tallis School in itself.

“There is a lot of concern that any large-scale felling of mature trees will only add to emissions and the dangers that emissions pose on health and the health of children.”

Paul Prichard, development director at Berkeley Homes, said the trees on the site had been assessed as being in poor or ailing condition. He said the 260 replacement trees planned for the area would be semi-mature and carefully selected to suit their location.

Mr Prichard said at the meeting: “With Thomas Tallis, we’re obviously very close neighbours. I’m surprised at what the speaker said this evening because the school is very much within the catchment of the consultation that we had covered.”

He added that 9,000 letters notifying neighbours of the development, including the school, had been distributed and the developer intended on maintaining good relations with the school.

He said that two open consultation events on the application were also held on the site.

Labour councillor David Gardner said at the meeting: “This area was always destined to be built upon. But also overall the amount of public green space has been increased from the Ferrier [Estate] to the new Kidbrooke Village and the quality of that green space is much greater than it was on the old Ferrier.”

Pictured top: A CGI of the buildings proposed for Kidbrooke Village (Picture: Jo Cowen Architects/Berkeley Homes)