There would be an 8 storey building twice the height of the Sports Centre Building. It would contain 55 flats (36 private and 19 affordable) and a doctors’ surgery.
This is the artist's impression looking east on Prince of Wales Road of a previous scheme which was abandoned. The new scheme is similar in shape and size. The Sports Centre building is just visible to its left. No artist's impression was provided for the planning application for the later ie current scheme. The building for the current scheme differs in a number of important ways. The pedestrian walkway which contained outdoor tables for a restaurant now has columns above it hold up the floors that extend over the walkway.
The development would be built on top
of Dalby Street which is the existing road that leads from Prince of
Wales Road to the entrance of the Sports Centre. These two pictures show Dalby Street as it is now, from its junction with Prince of Wales Road.
The Sports Centre building is at the far end. The new building would
be, more or less, where the road is and twice the height of the Sports Centre building
On
the right of this picture is what is now the empty travellers site The new 4.8m wide vehicle road
"New Dalby Street" which would have no pavements for pedestrians would mainly
be on that land. Further to the right is the North London Overground line. The junction of the planned New Dalby Street and Prince of Wales Road is about two metres from the bridge which is just out of shot.
New Dalby Street would have a bollard near the Prince of Wales Road end which will have to be lowered by marshals when vans, lorries or coaches arrive or leave. Several bollards have to be lowered for large vehicles when they reach the Sports Centre end of the road, so that they can turn around the turning circle
We estimate that the nearest flat to the railway platform will be just 7 metres away. Windows may have to be sealed as the noise from Prince of Wales Road is apparently so great. The flats will also experience the regular announcements from the railway providing information on arrivals, security and litter.
Roughly where the left hand pavement of the existing road is shown, there would be a new 2.5m footpath overhung by the top six stories of the flats. This is the main route to the Sports Centre and after dark (4pm in the winter) when the park is closed, it is the only pedestrian route
Marshals would be employed to control cars, coaches, lorries and people. They would also be responsible for organising deliveries to the Sports Centre and doctors’ surgery which is to be on the ground floor of the new building. These deliveries have to be scheduled at half hourly intervals between 8am and 2pm on weekdays - “thus allowing for a total of 12 deliveries during this time period” (extract from Service and Management Plan in Sup S106 agreement (P63), a copy of which is attached to the page "the Planning Agreement). These routes would be owned first by the developer and then by the new owners of the private flats. They would employ the marshal(s) and will be the main influence on what happens to Talacre including Treetops FOREVER
The development consists of 55 flats of which 19 are "affordable" and 36 are private. These flats would be built on the first to sixth floors. On the ground and mezzanine floors there is a commercial area which is currently planned for use as a medical practice. There would be a car park for 10 cars. Apart from those parking places, the development is "car-capped" which means that no one living in the flats can obtain a Camden parking permit. Cars enter and exit the basement from/to a point in New Dalby Street where it is controlled by lights.
;)
At
present there are three disabled parking bays (shown here), but also about six spaces for residents parking that can be used by those with disabled
badges on Dalby Street. There is no provision for more parking bays in
the plans for the new development and the availability of parking on
Dalby Street will disappear. It can be assumed that these three bays
will be taken up by disabled residents, visitors and workers from the
flats and the medical practice. We have not heard from the Council
that a solution has been found to ensure that disabled people are not
disadvantaged by the development. From our dialogue with the Council in December 2008, it was apparent that they and the Developer had never realised that no adequate provision had been made for disabled parking.
The
junction of New Dalby Street and Prince of Wales Road would be about 2.7
metres from the bridge with a build out to the kerb line. The house (52 Prince of Wales Road) has been demolished. This picture shows where this junction will be. A double decker bus was the second such bus in a year to hit the bridge at this dangerous point in February 2008.
A loading bay, large enough for some lorries but not for full size buses or coaches would be built on Prince of Wales Road. It will be available for any vehicles and not just those from the development, medical practice and Sports Centre.
The uniqueness of this scheme is acknowledged by all. When large developments are built it is usual for special provisions to be put in place to reduce danger to the public. Typically, this means marshals to control construction traffic. However that is only needed during the building period. In this case, the special provisions, for example, the use of marshals, is FOR ALL TIME.
This need for special provisions is due to the fact that the development covers such a large proportion of the available area. This results in insufficient space being left for vehicles and pedestrians. A decision was taken to give planning permission subject to there being an access plan to ensure that the Sports Centre, commercial area (eg medical practice) and flats could be reached and serviced. The only way that could be found is what is described here. The Council never looked at the scheme in its entirety after the access plans were discussed.
