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After the controversial eviction of traders operating along the arches in Atlantic Road and Brixton Station Road by Network Rail, Brixton has been left with a ‘dead zone’ in its heart, with a local resident insisting that Lambeth Council and Network Rail are flouting planning and highways regulations:
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“After four months of intensive internal and external works by various contractors on the long-delayed and poorly managed refurbishment project at Brixton Arches, Lambeth Council and Network Rail continue to work closely together in order to navigate around the existing planning and highways regulations.
The catalogue of contraventions that contractors working for Network Rail have committed, without fear of punishment or sanction include:
- The commencement of development work prior to the discharge of planning conditions and in particular Condition 4, Construction and Environment Management Plan, (CEMP).
- Internal demolitions and the removal of concrete floors within the arches, which are subject to planning conditions.
- Works to public areas outside of the site hoardings as well as to the faces of the original shop fronts, which are subject to planning conditions.
- Movement of vehicles and heavy machinery to and from the site that are in contravention to Highways Regulations and a danger to the community.
- The use of the loading bays on Atlantic Road for the purpose of servicing a building site, with contractor vehicles being observed but unpunished by local traffic wardens and CCTV operators, who were apparently instructed by Lambeth to not issue parking tickets.
Throughout this period, the Chief Executive and Strategic Director of the Council along with the various unelected and well paid officers at Lambeth’s Planning, Highways and now the Planning Enforcement Departments, have singularly failed to discharge their contracted responsibilities and in doing so have acted in direct contravention to the written Constitution of Lambeth Council.
To inform readers further, it is stated within the opening few pages of Lambeth’s Constitution, that the main principle of the Council is a desire to “work with community groups to encourage and support a vibrant and strong civil society.”
This is closely followed by the stated aims of the council, which include:
- To provide strong community leadership in cooperation with local residents, businesses and other organisations.
- To support the active involvement and empowerment of citizens in the process of local authority decision-making.
- To ensure that those responsible for decision-making are clearly identifiable to local people and that they explain the reasons for decisions.
However, when pressed for the type of community leadership, cooperation, support and accountability, as outlined in the Constitution, Lambeth Council and various of its officers have employed a level of obfuscation and disinformation that is barely credible to assist Network Rail to commence the main development works, without discharging the necessary planning conditions or complying with Building Control and Highways Regulations.
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For example, on 2nd February 2017, Mr Doug Black, Assistant Director for Planning and Development stated “Network Rail has exemptions from the Building Regulations for the stripping out of the shops and the repair of viaducts. However, the subsequent reinstatement of new shop fit outs and shopfronts etc. would be subject to Building Regulation controls”
This looks to be a legitimate statement giving a green light to Network Rail for the works to commence some works within the arches without reference to Building Control Regulations.
But this is contradicted by Network Rail’s own 2016 guide to works being carried out on their commercial premises, where they state: “Planning Permission – As a Statutory Undertaker, Network Rail benefits from deemed consent (“Permitted Development”) for certain types of work to our rail infrastructure.” which is closely followed by, “Network Rail, is exempt under the Buildings Act 1984 from having to seek building regulations approval for certain works, limited to the operational estate and including most works at stations. Where works are proposed to commercial premises for non-operational purposes, then Building Regulations apply.”
Network Rail are therefore conducting the current series of enabling works and site clearance building operations on the arches as if the work was necessary to protect and repair the structure and safety of their infrastructure and the station above. But in reality these cosmetic refurbishment works are simply occurring to the non-operational commercial premises within the arches below Brixton Station.
Of course if a major structural and safety issue would have arisen in the last 4 months of pre-development enabling works at the arches, including structural surveys, then it is extremely doubtful that the current works would still be continuing.
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An example of the type of assistance being provided to Network Rail can be seen in the bizarre volte face by the Planning Officer, Magdalena Kotyza on 21st December 2016 and the attempt to re-interpret the reading of Planning Condition 4, Construction and Environment Management Plan, (CEMP), by stating, “My email dated 21/12 stated that “according to the wording of this condition, no development shall commence before this condition is discharged and this includes site preparation and clearance.”
I have not stated that ‘no works’ shall take place. Planning control, in the usual sense, only exercises control over “development”. Accordingly, the condition prohibits “development” before a CEMP is in place. Internal works that don’t affect external appearance are not “development”, and therefore not under planning control.
If the enabling work (such as site preparation and clearance) constitutes “development”, then the condition is engaged because it is under planning control. But if the enabling work does not constitute “development”, they can be undertaken without engaging the condition (or planning controls).”
If you are able to understand that, then here are some further examples of the kind of excuses employed by another officer of the Council, Mr Andrew Burton, Head of Lambeth Highways, over the failure of Network Rail to re-configure the hoarding lines closer to the arches, (as agreed at a meeting on 25th January 2017), or for Lambeth to sanction or issue penalties for the multiple highways infractions committed by Network Rail contractors on Atlantic Road and Brixton Station Road.
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On February 22nd Mr Burton tried to allay fears over the failure of Network Rail to carry out agreed amendments to the hoarding lines on Brixton Station Road and Atlantic Road by stating, “Rest assured, working 100m from these hoardings means I am well aware of this contractor’s lack of progress.”
On March 25th Mr Burton started to blame other people within his department, “A couple of weeks ago the member of staff who had been dealing with the hoardings unexpectedly stopped working for the Council. This means the issues we have discussed have not been resolved as quickly as I expected. Specifically, the hoarding realignment that Network Rail’s contractors carried out in Atlantic Road at the end of February was not as extensive as I understood had been agreed.”
On 27th March Mr Burton tried to explain why the contractor use of the Atlantic Road loading bays and access to Brixton Station Road during restricted hours was going unpunished by Lambeth Parking Wardens or the CCTV cameras, (on one of the top 5 streets in the borough for penalty notices), “Our enforcement officers operate according to the Civil Enforcement Officers Handbook; if they did not issue a fixed penalty notice then they were satisfied that the driver was complying with the restrictions”, in addition he stated, “I have forwarded your report to our Parking Enforcement team, asking that they consider enhancing enforcement of the 0800-1800 no vehicles restriction in Brixton Station Road”
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On March 28th another member of Mr Burton’s staff was blamed for providing incorrect information when he stated, “I have just been advised that the photo, (of a hoarding licence), I forwarded to you yesterday related to Brixton Station Road. You were correct in saying that none was displayed on Atlantic Road; I have notified the relevant member of staff to take appropriate action.”
Lambeth’s Constitution also outlines the rights of the public within Lambeth “to create and sign petitions on any matter within the Council’s purview” and to “petition the Council on any matters of concern to local people”.
In an attempt to access the council and provide the community with a voice on this project, a petition proposal was made to Lambeth in February 2017. However on 14th February a Democratic Services Officer, Mr David Rose, stated “I am afraid that we cannot accept this petition as it relates to a planning decision which is not dealt with under our normal petition scheme.”
Like many of the other communications made by various officers at Lambeth in response to queries on the Network Rail scheme, this advice was confusing and inaccurate as the proposed petition was not simply related to the actual planning decision, but made a request for Lambeth Council and Network Rail to work together in order to support the local businesses, (many of which Lambeth Council themselves act as landlords), that were suffering terribly as a result of the lack of help and lengthy delays over this stalled project.
With the Brixton Arches project now in full swing, often with JCB’s, caterpillar-track vehicles and other heavy equipment using the pavements to access and work within the arches, the failure to engage the Planning Condition 4, CEMP, is now placing the local community at risk.
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When asked about the failure of Lambeth Council to employ the use of planning conditions associated with the original planning permission, the Planning Enforcement Officer, Wade Sowman, advised on May 4th that he had agreed an 8 week schedule of enabling works with Network Rail that “involved decommission and removal of electrical fixture and fittings, demolition/removal of internal partitions, vegetation removal and asbestos removal.”
Mr Sowman then added an explanation for what constitutes the current enabling works within the arches by stating , “One way of looking at it is, that at any time in the past, an arch lessee could have undertaken these works and the Council could not have required that they apply for planning permission for them”
However, these enabling works have now continued into a fourth month and have included extensive works outside of the hoardings, to the face of the arches including the original shopfronts. Also, the concrete floors to the arches have been broken out by the use of heavy construction machinery and equipment. These are clearly development works that obviously couldn’t and wouldn’t have been undertaken by any arch lessee without planning permission and the close attentions of Planning Enforcement.
Within the Constitution it is stated that the entire community have a voice and a line of communication to their Council along with an expectation that officers and elected members of the Council work in the interests of the citizens of the borough. Perhaps this was just wishful thinking on their part …..
(* NB: All quotes shown in this article are extracts from emails exchanged between this correspondent and various officers and officials at Lambeth Council.)”
[This article by a local resident who has elected to remain anonymous]
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Brixton Arches background & resources:
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The vote to redevelop Brixton Arches: smear campaigns, doublethink and foregone decisions
Brixton’s A&C Deli: the inside story of a small business destroyed by gentrification, Network Rail & Lambeth Council.
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