The utterly ludicrous and totally avoidable shambles that Network Rail have instigated within the viaduct at Brixton’s town centre may well be coming towards its denouement as these low budget and opportunistic property developers edge towards a possible start date for the main project works and their building contractors, Spence Limited, prepare to commence their delivery of the associated chaos in and around the arches and local streets at the heart of our community.
There are, however, some trifling bits of administration that stand in the way of the huge financial returns, (in the form of tripled rents and the associated hike in Business Rates), for the main protagonists in this circus.
These include the discharge of Planning Condition 4, CEMP, (Construction Environmental Management Plan), along with Planning Condition 5, (submission
and approval of detailed plans), Planning Condition 6, (submission and approval of sample panels and materials), and Planning Condition 10, (submission and approval of a hard landscaping plan), all of which need to be approved in writing by Lambeth before the main development can commence.
As at 25th September 2017, the planning officer has confirmed that no submissions to discharge Planning Conditions 5, 6 and 10 have been made by Network Rail.
All of these planning conditions have been known about in the 15 months since approval for the scheme was provided by Lambeth, so why have Network Rail not made any attempts to discharge them?
Is it because of the meticulous care and attention they are taking to get this project right or perhaps the in-depth consultation and communication they are carrying out in
order to keep the community onside?
Errr … no. The reason this cut and paste, accounts based, project has been delayed so long is nothing more than penny-pinching intransigence on Network
Rail’s part and a fear that their abject failure to bully their tenants out of the viaduct, (in order to achieve full and vacant possession of the arches), may set costly precedents that other communities, where identical arch developments are occurring, might copy and exploit.
Even Network Rail’s initial attempt to discharge Planning Condition 4, CEMP, had the appearance of being compiled on the cheap, possibly by a work experience student during a cigarette break.
This sad little document was correctly rejected by Lambeth Planning due to the stark absence of any detail and the failure to provide any sort of coherent plan to safely operate the building works and to keep the centre of Brixton clear of traffic and disruption.
Network Rail’s second stab at this fairly standard but important planning obligation contained many more words and colourful diagrams in an attempt to impress the planning officer, Ms. Magdalena Kotyza.
Sadly, it still fails on every level to address the basic and fundamental issues that are involved with trying to run a complex and splintered building site in the middle of a busy town with all the nearby streets already filled to capacity and with other tenants and members of the general public sharing the same premises, streets and pavements as the contractors.
Any interested locals and readers of this article should be advised that if the current attempt to discharge Condition 4, CEMP, is approved by Lambeth, it will inflict a great deal of pain within the local community and have a far reaching and negative impact on the area.
Just a few of the issues associated with these half-baked plans include:
- There will be a combination of major construction work, deliveries, waste collections and concrete pouring happening for 7 days and up to 77 hours a week, between the hours of 05.00 – 17.00 Monday to Friday, between 05.00 – 13.00 on Saturdays and between 07.00 – 16.00 on a significant number of Sundays during the course of the project.
- There will be regular total or partial closures of the public footpaths around and through the viaduct in order to facilitate the more major building operations. These closures will significantly reduce access around and within the viaduct to the general public and all of the remaining tenants and traders who are still operating within the viaduct will experience further reductions in footfall and significant restrictions in their trading abilities.
- The proposals to manage the hundreds of construction vehicle movements around the site will depend almost entirely upon the unofficial and ad hoc relationship between Network Rail’s contractors, Spence Limited, and Brixton’s external Market Manager, Mr John Gordon. Mr Gordon will apparently be consulted over the (advance) scheduling of all major vehicle movements that will need to access restricted areas around the viaduct and impact on the normal operation of the external market and the businesses that remain within the viaduct. Mr Gordon has no official authority from Lambeth to undertake this role nor any training in the scheduling, negotiation or management of such vehicle movements and certainly no authority to lift, amend or change current road regulations, but Network Rail feel that the compliance and full cooperation of Mr Gordon represents their best way to manage the hundreds of deliveries and collections to and from their building site(s).
- Network Rail and their contractors have proposed a number of methods to manage the negative impact of the building operations on the health and safety of their workforce operating within the arches, however there are no meaningful suggestions to adequately manage and restrict the impact of these works, (worsening air quality, dust, vibration and noise), on the immediate local community, including tenants who share party walls with the arches where these works are occurring.
- There are no proposals or details contained within the CEMP that outline how fire safety will be managed and maintained within this mixed occupancy site. The various building site(s) in the arches will have 8 separate access/egress points within the hoardings and a further 17 separate entrances to the arches that are being worked on. However, these proposals, if approved, will allow major demolition and construction operations, hot works and other difficult building processes to be undertaken without any temporary arrangements for fire alarms, fire procedures, escapes and drills to be agreed and installed throughout the viaduct and specifically within the premises of the other tenants and traders who are operating in arches immediately adjacent to these works. On the back of the disaster at Grenfell, it is shocking to learn what Network Rail and their contractors are proposing.
Whilst the current manoeuvrings of Network Rail look extremely dodgy, it has been clear since 2015 and into early 2016, (when the vast majority of tenants and traders who worked within the arches were gifted their eviction notices), that Network Rail staff have attempted to deceive the council and the community with fake facts, unfulfilled promises and general obfuscation, presumably in the vain hope that the remaining businesses and traders in the arches would simply give up and leave.
But things are different here in Brixton and the community, businesses and traders have have taken on and dealt with far bigger crooks than Network Rail in the past.
Here are just a few of the fake facts that Network Rail have openly peddled since 2016:
● Are Network Rail really spending £8 Million developing Brixton Viaduct, as displayed all around the viaduct on the hopeless Brixton Pillars panels fixed to the hoardings. Of
course not. This is a lie, or more realistically spin and deceit on a vast scale. £8 Million may well be spent over a number of years and to many sections of the viaducts that
criss-cross this part of the borough, but the published figure of £8 Million to basically strip out and clean 26 standard arches and 13 small kiosks in Brixton is a ridiculously
inflated sum that should be ignored and exposed for the lie that it is.
● Are 75% of the original tenants and traders returning to the refurbished arches as stated on the Brixton Pillars panels. Of course not. Once again this is spin and deceit. Especially as it has previously been admitted by Network Rail that only a maximum of 9 original tenants may now be returning from the 40 or so premises that comprise this section of the viaduct. To make this bit of spin work none of the tenants currently remaining in the arches or long established sub tenants and other traders, that were legitimately working and paying rent to Network Rail over many years, have been included within their calculations. However, what is abundantly clear from these figures is that at least 75% and probably a lot more of the refurbished arches will immediately be occupied by box fresh and well heeled tenants of the type that Network Rail favour who will all be paying the revised sky high rents from day one.
● Did Network Rail really expect to get full and vacant possession of the arches prior to commencing this project, as stated in their original planning application to Lambeth. Of course not and especially after William Hill and H&T Pawnbrokers had already advised Network Rail before the original planning application was submitted that they had no intention of leaving the arches until their long term leases expired. Why then did Network Rail continue with the unnecessary evictions at that time and why have Network Rail consistently and publicly blamed the four independent traders, (who are staying put and fighting their corner), for the delays, especially when it is clear from the proposals contained within their latest CEMP submission that they intend to progress this development with half of the arches still occupied.
Unfortunately, there are a number of Network Rail staff who are prepared to deceive and spin their way to the promised land, (where the pavements smell of Epoisses de Bourgogne and are littered with boutique burger wrappings), as they look for their end of year bonuses from Network Rail’s top brass, Mark Carne, (Chief Executive) and Peter Hendy, (Chairman), who themselves are dancing to a tune played by the Secretary of State for Transport, ordering them to pay off their debts and actually maintain our railway infrastructure.
Quite amazingly, Network Rail have now successfully emulated and surpassed the catastrophic and historical failures that led to the demise of both Railtrack and British Rail.
The current parlous financial situation and regular operational mishaps and failures that Network Rail oversee may explain their deceptive and exploitative behaviour within Brixton and many other well established communities, but it certainly doesn’t excuse it.
[This article by a local resident who has elected to remain anonymous]
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